BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua Silk Road) -- China's gross electricity consumption surpassed the historic milestone of 10 trillion kWh in 2025, reaching 10.4 trillion kWh which marked a year-on-year increase of 5 percent, showed latest data with National Energy Administration.
As a barometer of economic performance, the figure reflects the robust resilience and vitality of the Chinese economy, shedding light on the new dynamics of industrial upgrading and green transition, and the comprehensive improvement in energy support capability as well, said Yang Kun, executive vice chairman of China Electricity Council (CEC).
-- New logic behind growth in electricity consumption
In the past, soaring electricity usage was often synonymous with the roar of cement kilns and the glow of steel plants, but nowadays, the old logic that equates electricity growth with the expansion of energy-intensive industries has completely been overturned.
Nowadays, it is the rise of new manufacturing, new infrastructure, and new scenarios that are driving increased electricity consumption in China.
In 2025, the secondary industry continued to be the bedrock of electricity demand, constituting roughly 64 percent of the national aggregate.
By sub-sectors, electricity usage growth in top four energy-intensive industries was relatively modest, up merely 1.8 percent on year while high-tech and equipment manufacturing sector saw a much stronger 6.4 percent rise in annual electricity usage. Leading the latter's growth were automotive, general equipment and instrumentation manufacturing industries.
Jiang Debin, deputy head of Center of Statistics and Data under CEC, said that new manufacturing is further solidifying its role as the primary driver of industrial electricity use, with high-value, tech-intensive industries accounting for an ever-larger share of the growth.
In consumption sector, there were also multiple fresh growth drivers. Last year, burgeoning digital economy and emerging technologies and accelerated development of new infrastructure such as charging stations and 5G base stations fueled a more than 30 percent surge in annual electricity use in the Internet and related services sector. Meanwhile, power consumption in the charging and battery-swapping industry skyrocketed by nearly 50 percent as compared with the comparable data of 2024.
-- Clean and efficient electricity system helps enhance growth fundamentals
Faced with power load challenges from rising overall demand and structural upgrading, China's clean, low-carbon and efficient power system has become the cornerstone of the eye-catching annual electricity consumption.
By the end of November 2025, installed capacity of wind and solar power reached 1,760 GW in China, up 34 percent year on year. Such growth drove the share of non-fossil energy installed capacity to exceed 60 percent last year. For every 3 kWh of electricity consumed nationwide, 1 kWh now comes from green energy.
In 2025, cross-regional and inter-provincial power transmission capacity reached 370 GW. Across China, 46 ultra-high voltage (UHV) transmission lines now serve as "energy expressways", which further strengthen power transmission from resource-rich regions in the west and north to high-demand centers in the east and south.
Moreover, energy storage and other power supply adjustment capacity and market dispatch systems are also rapidly expanding in China. By the end of 2025, installed capacity of pumped-storage hydropower exceeded 66 GW, ranking the first in the world for 10 consecutive years.
Meanwhile, installed capacity of new energy storage surpassed 100 GW, a more than thirtyfold increase since the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period and accounting for over 40 percent of the global total.
In Yang Kun's view, accelerated development of a unified national electricity market, coupled with tailored policies such as time-of-use pricing and peak-valley pricing, effectively guides users to adjust their electricity consumption patterns, plan usage timing rationally, and dynamically balance demand with power supply conditions.
In the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's electricity consumption, as institutions widely predict, may grow at an average annual rate of 4.2 percent to 5.6 percent and exceed 13 trillion kWh by 2030.
What's more, China's end-use electrification rate is expected to reach 35 percent by 2030, with electricity to claim a significantly larger share of end-use energy consumption.
Under such circumstances, more green electricity will cross mountains and seas to light up millions of homes in China, especially after the 15th Five-Year Plan proposal explicitly calls for accelerating construction of a new energy system.
To accommodate the large-scale integration of renewables and meet rising demand for higher power quality from digital economy and new-tech development, power grid investment is poised for a major increase in China.
Recently, State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), the main grid operator in China, announced that its fixed-asset investment during the 15th Five-Year Plan period is expected to hit 4 trillion yuan, which represents a 40 percent rise from the 14th Five-Year Plan period and will mainly go to technological innovation and new power system building.
Such large fixed-asset investments by SGCC will have a broad pull-forward effect across the entire industry chain, held analysts with Guosen Securities, adding that five key sectors are set to benefit directly, include UHV technologies, main grid equipment, and distribution network upgrades.
(Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)
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