China's 2020 power consumption grows 3.1% despite COVID-19 disruption

BEIJING: China's power consumption in 2020 rose 3.1% from the previous year, the country's state planner said on Tuesday, despite several months of disruptions to industrial activity caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said at a press briefing that electricity consumption from primary industry grew 10.2% from 2019, while consumption from secondary and tertiary industry increased 2.5% and 1.9%, respectively.

The NDRC did not give the absolute figures for power consumption last year.

In 2019, China consumed a total of 7.23 trillion kilowatt hours (kWh).

China has been leading the global economic recovery since emerging from the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 2.3% in 2020, making China the only major economy in the world to avoid a contraction last year as many nations struggled to contain the coronavirus.

A manufacturing recovery in the fourth quarter, when GDP expanded by an unexpected 6.5% from a year earlier, caused a power crunch across industrial belts in the country.

China produced a total of 7.42 trillion kWh of electric power in 2020, up 2.7% from a year ago, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday.