China's power consumption rises 5.5% in 2012

China's national electricity consumption was 4.9 trillion kilowatt hours in 2012, up 5.5 percent year-on-year, the National Energy Administration said on Monday on its website.

Industrial power use increased 3.9 percent year-on-year to 3.7 trillion kWh, while the services sector consumed 569 billion kWh, up 11.5 percent year-on-year.

Residential electricity use was 622 billion kWh, an increase of 10.7 percent year-on-year.

The newly added power generation capacity was 87 million kilowatts, with coal-fired power generation reaching 51 million kW, accounting for 58.6 percent of the total newly added capacity.

The newly added hydropower capacity was about 19 million kW in 2012, and newly added wind power capacity was about 15 million kW.

Due to the economic slowdown, the power consumption growth rate declined last year from the 11.7 percent year-on-year increase seen in 2011.

dujuan@chinadaily.com.cn