Power supply and demand tension eased

According to August 14th, the National Energy Administration released July data show that in July the country's entire society used 444.9 billion kWh of electricity, an increase of 11.8% year-on-year, 1.2% lower than in June. In response to this, the China CEC report recently pointed out that after mid-June, tension in power supply and demand eased somewhat. From June to mid-July, China’s power supply situation was generally stable, but overall, the supply and demand of electricity remained tight in the second half of the country.

According to data from the National Energy Administration, from January to July, the electricity consumption of the whole society was 2,286.9 billion kwh, which represented a year-on-year increase of 12.2%. Among them, the primary industry used electricity was 51.9 billion kWh, an increase of 5.1%; the second industry used electricity was 20253 Billion kilowatt-hours, an increase of 11.9%; the tertiary industry used electricity of 285.3 billion kwh, an increase of 15.5%; urban and rural residents' electricity consumption was 317.2 billion kwh, an increase of 12%.

From January to July, the cumulative average utilization of power generation equipment nationwide was 2,778 hours, an increase of 56 hours compared to the same period of last year. Among them, the average utilization hours of hydropower equipment was 1,774 hours, down 83 hours; the average utilization hours of thermal power equipment was 3,085 hours, an increase of 119 hours.

From January to July, the country's new power production capacity (formally put into production) was 41.23 million kilowatts, of which 7.69 million kilowatts of hydropower and 27.74 million kilowatts of thermal power.

The data released by the Energy Administration also showed that the total electricity consumption of the entire society from January to July increased by 12.2 percentage points year-on-year. This figure was basically the same as the growth rate of the previous three months, but in the month-on-month comparison, this month has been the number since May. Three times this year, the cumulative growth in the total amount of electricity used has decreased, and the total electricity consumption in January-July decreased by 16.2%, a decrease of 1.8 percentage points. Analysts believe that this shows that the contradiction between supply and demand in the general direction has improved and it is expected that there will not be a large area of ​​electricity shortage.

However, there may be periods of power shortage in some regions in the second half of the year. The CEC report predicts that during the summer peak season, the nation’s highest electricity load will increase by about 14%, and the grid power supply and demand gaps in East China, North China, Central China and South China will total 30-40 million kilowatts.