BEIJING (Reuters) -Thermal power generation in China, fuelled mainly by coal, fell at the beginning of the year, down in both January and February, official data showed, one of only a handful of times it has declined during that period in more than two decades.
China’s power generation dipped by 1.3% to 1.49 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in the first two months of the year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday.
Outside of 2020, at the start of COVID-19, and 2009 – following the global financial crisis – this was the first time power demand has fallen since at least 1998.
An unseasonably warm winter has weighed on demand. Last year was China’s warmest since comparable records began more than six decades ago, according to meteorological data.
China’s mostly coal-powered thermal power generation led the decline, falling 5.8% in January and February, to 1.02 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh). Natural gas-fired power plants also contribute a small portion to thermal power generation.
The data is combined for both months to smooth out the effects of the Lunar New Year.
Hydropower, China’s second-largest power source, rose 4.5% to 146.1 billion kWh, while solar and wind power generation grew 27% and 10%, respectively, during the period.
Renewable generation may have increased by more than the data suggests, however, as the NBS reports omit a portion of generation from China’s small-scale renewables, such as distributed solar.
The NBS data showed power generation grew 6.4% in the first half of 2024, for example, but London-based think tank Ember, using data from the National Energy Administration, said that electricity output rose 7.3% in the same period.
China’s thermal power generation rose 1.5% for 2024 as a whole, although that was the slowest growth rate in nine years outside of the COVID pandemic. Coal consumption rose in line with the increase in thermal power generation, up 1.7% on the year according to an industry association.
While most of China’s coal is consumed in the power sector, it is also used in industrial applications and for heating.
(Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Tom Hogue and Rachna Uppal)
