BEIJING (Reuters) – Thermal power generation in China, fuelled mainly by coal, fell 2.3% in March and 4.7% in the first quarter as hydropower and other renewable generation increased, official data showed.
China’s thermal power generation was 509.9 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in March and 1.53 trillion kWh in the first quarter, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday. Natural gas-fired power plants also contribute a small portion to thermal power generation.
Hydropower, China’s second-largest power source, meanwhile rose 9.5% to 78.1 billion kWh in March.
Total power generation growth rebounded to 1.8% in March after dipping by 1.3% in the first two months of the year as an unseasonably warm winter weighed on demand.
The January-February NBS data marked the first time China’s power demand fell since at least 1998, outside of the pandemic and following the 2008 financial crisis. The data was combined for both months to smooth out the effects of the Lunar New Year.
Data released by the National Energy Administration (NEA), however, showed that power demand rose 1.3% during those two months. The NEA reports include generation from China’s small-scale renewables, such as distributed solar, that is omitted by the NBS reports.
NBS surveys industrial firms with at least 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) of annual revenue from their main operations.
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.
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)
