China's power use up 6.6 pct in 2017

BEIJING, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, rose 6.6 percent to 6.31 trillion kilowatt hours in 2017, official data showed Monday.

The rate was faster than a 5-percent increase for 2016, according to the data released by the National Energy Administration (NEA).

Electricity used by service sector rose 10.7 percent last year, followed by a 7.3-percent increase for the agricultural sector and 5.5 percent for the industrial sector. Residential power use rose 7.8 percent, the NEA said.

Last year, China added 133.72 gigawatts of new power generation capacity, with 34.2 percent being thermal power capacity and 9.6 percent being hydropower. Enditem