BEIJING, July 31 (Xinhua) -- China's power consumption growth slumped significantly in the first half of the year amid an economic slowdown, the China Electricity Council (CEC) said Tuesday.
In the first six months, total power consumption grew just 5.5 percent from a year earlier to 2.38 trillion kilowatt-hours, dragged down by a sharp decline in power use by industrial and high energy-consuming industries, the CEC said in a report.
The rise was 6.7 percentage points lower than that of the same period of last year, the CEC said.
But the third-tier industry and residential power consumption expanded fast during the period, the CEC noted.
However, a greater chance of economic growth picking up over the second half means power demand is likely to rebound in subsequent months, the CEC said.
The CEC projected total power consumption to grow between 6 and 8 percent year on year to hit between 2.6 trillion and 2.65 trillion kilowatt-hours in the second half.
Meanwhile, the full year power consumption is expected to fall between 4.98 trillion and 5.03 trillion kilowatt-hours, an increase of 6 to 7 percent year on year, it said.
The CEC said the country will see a general surplus in power supply during the summer peak season for electricity, and power shortages will be less stressful in energy-strapped regions.
Due to decreasing thermal power generation, the country saw new power generation capacity decrease by 8.92 million kilowatts from a year earlier to 25.85 million kilowatts in the first half, the CEC said,
However, the country's installed power-generating capacity continued to expand, with facilities with a power output of over 6,000 kilowatts supporting a total of 1.05 billion kilowatts in power generation as of the end of June, up 8.7 percent from a year earlier, the CEC said.
Affected by the ongoing economic slowdown, investment growth in the power sector slowed to 2.3 percent in the first six months, as investment in developing wind, thermal and nuclear power dropped, the CEC said.
