An Overview of the Operation of the Electric Power Industry in April 2010

In April, the country’s electricity generation amounted to 331.6 billion kWh, an increase of 21.4% year-on-year, and a decrease of 3.5% in the same period last year. Among them, thermal power increased by 25.6%, which was a decrease of 6.2% in the same period of last year; hydropower decreased by 1.1%, compared with an increase of 10.8% in the same period of last year. In January-April, the national power generation amounted to 1,282.4 billion kwh, which was a year-on-year increase of 21.5%, down from the same period last year by 3.2%. Among them, thermal power grew by 25.4%, which was a decrease of 6.3% in the same period of last year; hydropower decreased by 3.1%, and the growth rate was 18.9% in the same period of last year.

According to industry statistics, the electricity consumption of the entire society rose by 23.9% from January to April, down from the same period last year by 4%. Among them, the primary industry's electricity consumption increased by 8.8%, and the growth rate increased by 4.1% year-on-year; the secondary industry's electricity consumption increased by 27%, which was a decrease of 8.1% over the same period of last year; the electricity consumption of the tertiary industry and residents' life increased by 17.5% and 15.3%, an increase of 8.5 and 6.2% year-on-year.

Industrial electricity consumption increased 27% year-on-year, down 8.3% year-on-year. Among them, steel, non-ferrous metal smelting and processing, building materials, and chemical industries saw their electricity use increase by 32.5%, 50%, 19.8%, and 25.2%, respectively, down 10.9%, 17.7%, 0.9%, and 10.5% over the same period last year, which together accounted for 45.1% of the electricity consumption, the proportion increased by 1.8 percentage points year-on-year.

The average utilization hours of power generation equipment in the country was 1,515 hours, an increase of 157 hours year-on-year; of these, thermal power equipment was 1,716 hours, an increase of 243 hours.