Xinhua News Agency reporter Dai Xiaohe

The National Energy Administration released the first quarter electricity consumption data on April 18, with the total electricity consumption of the whole society totaling 238.46 billion kilowatt-hours, an increase of 2.5% year-on-year. By industry, the electricity consumption of the primary industry was 31.4 billion kWh, an increase of 8.7% year-on-year; the electricity consumption of the secondary industry was 152.14 billion kWh, an increase of 1.9% year-on-year; the electricity consumption of the tertiary industry was 446.5 billion kWh, an increase of 5.2% year-on-year. The electricity consumption of urban and rural residents was 385.3 billion kilowatt-hours, an increase of 1.5% year-on-year.

From the data, the growth rate of electricity consumption in the first quarter was relatively low. The China Electric Power Enterprise Federation analyzed that the main reason is that the temperature is relatively warm. Some electricity loads in the secondary and tertiary industries are more sensitive to temperatures. For example, heating electricity is relatively high in the accommodation and catering industry. Affected by factors such as warm temperatures, the electricity consumption of the accommodation and catering industry increased by 3.7% year-on-year, significantly lower than the growth rate of electricity consumption in 2024. In terms of household electricity consumption, central areas such as Hubei, Hunan, Henan, and Anhui, where the proportion of household electricity consumption in winter is relatively high, the heating electricity consumption has decreased year-on-year, which has also lowered the growth rate of household electricity consumption to a certain extent.

Jiang Debin, deputy director of the Statistics and Data Center of the China Electric Power Enterprise Federation, said that although the overall growth rate is relatively low, power consumption in some industries has maintained rapid growth. The national electricity consumption of information transmission/software and information technology services increased by 13.7% year-on-year. Among them, driven by industries such as AI, big data, cloud computing, and 5G, the national electricity consumption of Internet and related services increased by 25.7% year-on-year, demonstrating the vigorous development trend in the digital economy field. Driven by electric vehicles, the national charging and swapping service industry's electricity consumption increased by 42.3% year-on-year. This data reflects the booming new energy vehicle industry and the rapid development of supporting facilities.

From the regional perspective, among the areas with relatively large electricity consumption in the automobile manufacturing industry, the average daily electricity consumption in Anhui, Shaanxi, Hunan, Zhejiang and Henan increased by 31%, 20%, 18.9%, 16.9%, and 15.6% respectively, showing the strong production demand of the automobile industry in these regions. Among the provinces with relatively large electricity consumption in computer/communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industries, the average daily electricity consumption in Beijing, Shandong, Hubei and Anhui increased by 29.8%, 25.2%, 20.1%, and 19.6% respectively, further confirming my country's strong development momentum in the field of high-tech industries.

Green manufacturing is becoming a new engine of economic growth. The new momentum of the Southern Power Grid business area is developing rapidly. The electricity consumption of the "three new" industries such as new industries, new business formats, and new commerce in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou increased by 32.9%, 40.4%, 33.7% and 40% year-on-year respectively. Related industries represented by new energy continue to grow, with electricity consumption in photovoltaic equipment and component manufacturing, new energy vehicle manufacturing, and wind energy prime equipment manufacturing increased by 9.6%, 6.9% and 55% year-on-year respectively.

Overall, the electricity consumption data in the first quarter not only reflects the stable trend under the influence of factors such as temperature, but also shows the rapid development of some industries and regions in emerging industries, high-tech industries and other fields, and the structural optimization trend is obvious.