China’s electricity use jumps to 1-1/2-year high

Rose 13.7% on-year in August.

Power consumption grew to 510.3 billion kWh in August, better than the 8.8% increase in July. It rose 3.6% in August 2012. In the first eight months of this year, power consumption increased 6.8% on-year to 3.5 trillion kWh. During the same period, electricity use by primary industries totaled 69.2 billion kWh, down 0.5% on-year. Power consumption by the secondary industry hit almost 2.57 trillion kWh, up 6.3% while consumption by the tertiary industry grew the highest at 10.7% to 416.1 billion kWh. China added 47.1 GW of power capacity from January to August, including 16.1 GW of hydropower and 20.9 GW of thermal power. The China Electricity Council said economic improvement drove power consumption for August. It also noted that weather was also an important factor in power use as continuous high temperatures led to a power demand upsurge in south China this summer. The National Energy Administration data showed that residential power consumption jumped 21.4% on-year to hit 75.7 billion kWh last month, up 9.1 percentage points compared to July. The rise in China's electricity consumption also marked the fourth straight month of recovery in power use, said the NEA.