China's Power Consumption Up 6.3% in First Two Months of 2017

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In February 2017, China's overall social power consumption reached 448.8 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), a jump of 17.2% from the same month last year. From January to February 2017, China's accumulative social power consumption reached 935.6 billion kWh, an increase of 6.3% from the same period last year, which was 4.3 percentage points higher than the previous year, according to China's National Energy Administration (NEA).

The growth mainly comes from the services industry and household consumption. In February 2017, the power consumption in the first industry (agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and oil & gas production) reached 6.5 billion kWh, an increase of 16.4% from the same month last year; that of the second industry (manufacturing) reached 295.7 billion kWh, an increase of 21.4%; that of the tertiary (services) industry reached 70 billion kWh, an increase of 12.5%; and that of the household of urban and township residents reached 76.6 billion kWh, an increase of 7.2%.

In February 2017, China's power consumption in industry reached 290.6 billion kWh, a jump of 21.9% from February 2016; of which, the consumption in light industry reached 45.3 billion kWh, an increase of 14.9%, while consumption in heavy industry reached 245.3 billion kWh, a jump of 23.3%.

In the first two months of 2017, China's investment in power-generation construction largely declined. From January to February 2017, China's total investment in power-generation construction reached $3.43 billion, a drop of 26.3% from the same period in 2016; of which, hydropower investment reached $839 million, a drop of 32.1%; thermal-power investment reached $1.15 billion, a drop of 9.3%; and nuclear-power investment reached $662 million, a drop of 15.1%. Also, China's investment in grid construction reached $6.57 billion, a slight drop of 0.4%.

Despite the decline in power-generation investments, the total installed capacity of power plants newly commissioned in China reached 16.14 gigawatts (GW) in January and February. The installed capacity of hydropower increased by 1.92 GW, and the installed capacity of thermal power increased by 7.87 GW.

As of the end of February, China's installed capacity of power equipment in plants with capacities of more than 6 megawatts (MW) reached 1,603.41 GW, an increase of 7.9% from the same period in 2016. The installed capacity of hydropower reached 289.87 GW, an increase of 4.2%; that of thermal power reached 1,057.33 GW, an increase of 5.3%; that of nuclear power reached 33.64 GW, an increase of 19.6%; and that of wind power reached 150.88 GW, an increase of 13.2%.

As a result, China's average accumulated utilization of energy reached 578 hours, a slight increase of three hours from the first two months of 2016. The average utilization of hydropower reached 397 hours, a drop of 49 hours, while that of thermal power reached 678 hours, an increase of 21 hours.

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