21 Sep 2009 13:38

China

Shanghai. September 21. INTERFAX-CHINA - A State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC) researcher said that China's electricity consumption in 2009 is expected to grow by around 4 percent year-on-year to 3.56 trillion kWh, state media reported on Sept. 21.

The projection is based on the assumption that China's economy has already entered a "V-shaped" recovery, following the global financial crisis, Hu Zhaoguang, vice director of SGCC's Energy Research Institute was quoted as saying by China Securities Journal.

The country's power consumption is likely to grow by more than 10 percent year-on-year in October, partly because power consumption was at a low level in October 2008 as the financial crisis took its toll on China. Power consumption in December could grow by 14 percent to 15 percent year-on-year, Hu said.

Hu projected that China's electricity consumption will grow to 3.85 trillion kilowatt (kWh) in 2010, 5.60 trillion kWh in 2015 and will top 7.5 trillion kWh in 2020.

Meanwhile, Hu said China will continue to have a surplus in electricity generation capacity until 2015.

-WV