China’s Electricity Consumption Exceeds 10 Trillion kWh for the First Time in 2025

Electricity consumption serves as a barometer of economic operations On January 17, the National Energy Administration released the 2025 national social electricity consumption data, showing that the total annual electricity consumption reached 10,368.2 billion kWh, a year-on-year increase of 5.0%.

In horizontal terms, this scale is an unprecedented record globally, equivalent to more than twice the annual electricity consumption of the United States. In vertical terms, the figure has doubled compared with China's total annual electricity consumption in 2015, demonstrating the strong resilience and development vitality of China’s super-large economy.

Average Annual Electricity Consumption Growth Rate Hits 6.6% During the “14th Five-Year Plan”Period

According to estimates by the China Electricity Council (CEC), during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China’s average annual newly added electricity consumption stood at 563.6 billion kWh, with an average annual growth rate of approximately 6.6%—0.9 percentage points higher than that of the “13th Five-Year Plan”period.

“Over the past decade, China’s electricity consumption has surged from 5 trillion kWh to 10 trillion kWh, a growth rate unparalleled among major global economies,” noted Yang Kun, Executive Vice Chairman of the CEC.

Globally, China’s electricity consumption in 2025 exceeded the combined total of multiple economies, surpassing the annual power consumption of the four economies of the European Union, Russia, India and Japan. This reflects the development foundation of China as a major manufacturing and populous country, and also embodies the comprehensive improvement of its energy security capability.

In 2025, against the backdrop of a sluggish global economic recovery with a projected global GDP growth rate of around 3.2%, China’s economy maintained a steady and positive growth momentum. In the first three quarters, the total GDP reached 101.5 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%. According to forecasts by relevant institutions, the annual GDP is expected to reach about 140 trillion yuan, firmly maintaining China’s position as the world’s second-largest economy.

Economic growth has driven the increase in electricity demand. In 2025, multiple rounds of high-temperature weather coupled with the rising level of residential electrification have also significantly boosted the demand for domestic electricity consumption.

“From the urban-rural perspective, the average annual growth rates of residential electricity consumption in urban and rural areas were 6.4% and 6.2% respectively. The narrowing urban-rural electricity consumption gap reflects the continuous improvement of the equalization level of urban and rural public services,” analyzed Jiang Debin, Deputy Director of the Statistics and Data Center of the CEC.

In July and August last year, China's national social electricity consumption exceeded 1 trillion kWh for two consecutive months, an unprecedented record in the history of global electricity consumption. Faced with the test of huge power loads, under the guidance of relevant national departments, enterprises, governments and users worked together to successfully ensure power supply during the peak summer period.

On the power supply side, coal-fired power continued to play a cornerstone role in ensuring energy security, while hydropower, nuclear power and other diversified power sources worked in synergy, laying a solid foundation for power supply. As the core source of incremental power, wind and solar new energy participated in rapid peak regulation by relying on the accelerated construction of pumped storage and new-type energy storage, with continuous improvements in output stability and utilization efficiency.

On the power grid side, the capacity for optimal resource allocation has been continuously enhanced. Inter-regional and inter-provincial power transmission channels have been efficiently utilized, and the power transmission and distribution capacity has been steadily improved. The pivotal role of the large power grid platform has been fully demonstrated, and the spatial mutual assistance and temporal regulation functions of various power sources and energy storage facilities have been effectively released.

On the demand side, with the accelerated construction of the national unified power market, policy measures such as time-of-use electricity prices and peak-valley electricity prices have been implemented in accordance with local conditions. Market entities have taken the initiative to participate in electricity demand regulation, effectively stabilizing peak loads, alleviating pressure on power supply, and reducing the risk of supply-demand imbalance.

High-End Manufacturing Emerges as a New Driver of Electricity Consumption Growth

By sector, in 2025, the electricity consumption of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries increased by 9.9%, 3.7% and 8.2% year-on-year respectively, with the primary and tertiary industries leading the growth in power consumption. The electricity consumption of the secondary industry reached 6.63 trillion kWh, accounting for approximately 64% of the total social electricity consumption, remaining the mainstay of national electricity consumption.

“The leading growth rate of electricity consumption in the primary and tertiary industries demonstrates the continuous improvement of agricultural electrification under the rural revitalization strategy and the accelerated development of production and living service industries. The electricity consumption characteristics of the secondary industry indicate that the growth of electricity consumption in traditional industries is slowing down, and the reshaping of electricity elasticity driven by industrial upgrading is underway,” pointed out Jiang Debin.

By major manufacturing categories, in 2025, the electricity consumption of high-tech and equipment manufacturing industries increased by 6.4% year-on-year, with all sub-sectors achieving positive growth. Among them, the top three sectors in terms of growth rate were the automobile manufacturing industry, general equipment manufacturing industry, and instrument and meter manufacturing industry, with year-on-year increases of 10.9%, 8.7% and 7.6% respectively.

In contrast, the four major high-energy-consuming industries saw relatively low electricity consumption growth, with a year-on-year increase of only 1.8%. “The leading role of ‘new manufacturing’ in industrial electricity consumption has been continuously strengthened, and the incremental electricity consumption is increasingly contributed by high-value-added and technology-intensive industries,” said Jiang Debin.

For the tertiary industry, the electricity consumption in 2025 reached 2.0 trillion kWh, accounting for about 19.2% of the total social electricity consumption, emerging as an important engine driving power consumption growth.

Among sub-sectors, electricity consumption in new infrastructure and emerging business formats registered remarkable growth. In particular, charging and swapping services, information transmission, software and information technology service industries maintained high growth rates, with year-on-year increases of 48.8% and 17.0% respectively, which are important drivers behind the growth of electricity consumption in the tertiary industry.

Yang Kun stated, “In 2025, with the accelerated implementation of new productive forces, electricity demand in high-end manufacturing, digital economy and emerging technologies has grown rapidly, forming new growth points for electricity consumption.”

Relevant statistics show that electricity consumption in new energy vehicles and wind power equipment manufacturing increased by more than 20% and 30% respectively year-on-year, sending a strong signal that incremental electricity consumption is flowing more towards new scenarios and new services.

In addition, the rapid development of the digital economy and emerging technologies has driven a strong rise in electricity demand. The accelerated construction of new infrastructure such as charging piles and 5G base stations has boosted the electricity consumption of the internet and related service industries by over 30% year-on-year, and that of the charging and swapping industry by nearly 50% year-on-year.

“China’s industrial structure is accelerating its transformation towards high-tech and high-value-added sectors. The release of vitality in emerging industries has injected strong momentum into economic growth,” Yang Kun emphasized. The new changes in the electricity consumption structure and the new scenarios of power consumption reflect the continuous optimization of China’s economic structure and the accelerated upgrading of traditional industries, further confirming China's economic development trend towards stability, green transition and innovation.