China's Power Output, Consumption Drop Substantially in March, an Industrial Info Market Brief

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China reported substantial reductions in power generation and consumption in March.

Power generation output was 552.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in March, down 4.6% year over year, the National Bureau of Statistics of China said. For the first quarter of this year, power output was 1,582.2 billion kWh, a drop of 6.8%.

March's thermal power and hydropower were down 7.5% and 5.9% year over year, respectively. However, nuclear power, wind power and solar power were up 6.9%, 18.1% and 8.6%, respectively.

Meanwhile, China's power consumption was 549.3 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in March, down 4.2% year over year. For the first quarter of this year, power consumption was 1,569.8 billion kWh, down of 6.5%.

In March, China's power consumption by the primary industries (agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, and oil & gas production) reached 5.2 billion kWh, an increase of 4% year over year, while secondary industries' (manufacturing) consumption was 375.0 billion kWh, a drop of 3.1%. Consumption by tertiary industries was 70.2 billion kWh, a drop of 19.8%; but consumption by residential households in urban and township settings reached 98.8 billion kWh, an increase of 5.3% year over year.

In the first quarter of 2020, accumulative power consumption by the primary industries reached 16.7 billion kWh, an increase of 4% year over year; that of the secondary industries was 997.1 billion kWh, a drop of 8.8%; that of the tertiary industries was 262.8 billion kWh, a drop of 8.3%; consumption by residential households in urban and township settings reached 293.2 billion kWh, an increase of 3.5% year over year.