Electricity consumption is one of the important indicators reflecting economic activity. Recently, data released by the National Energy Administration showed that in the first three quarters of this year, the total electricity consumption of the whole society reached 7.41 trillion kilowatt-hours, a year-on-year increase of 7.9%; during the same period, GDP grew by 4.8% year-on-year, and the growth rate of electricity consumption was significantly higher than that of GDP.

Why was the growth rate of electricity consumption higher than that of GDP in the first three quarters?

"Electric power is an important supportive industry for the national economy. The total electricity consumption of the whole society is strongly positively correlated with the scale of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the changes in total electricity consumption and GDP growth rates are generally synchronous," said Wang Shu Xiang, the full-time vice chairman of the China Electricity Council. However, due to the significant structural differences between total electricity consumption and GDP, there is a deviation between the growth rate of total electricity consumption and GDP growth rate. Economic and temperature factors can cause structural changes and fluctuations in electricity consumption and GDP, which also lead to fluctuations in the electricity consumption elasticity coefficient (electricity consumption growth rate/GDP growth rate).

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In recent years, China's electricity substitution has been deeply promoted in agriculture, service industry, industry, and residential life, and the level of electrification has continued to improve. At the same time, the electricity consumption of emerging industries such as 5G, big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and electric vehicles has been growing rapidly, jointly driving the overall growth rate of electricity consumption in recent years to be higher than that of GDP. This trend continued in the first three quarters of this year.

In addition to the continuous improvement of the level of electrification, temperature factors at the beginning of this year and in summer had a significant impact on the changes in electricity consumption. In February of this year, the average temperature across the country was significantly lower than the same period last year, driving the rapid growth of heating electricity, and the electricity consumption for residential life increased by 24% year-on-year. In August and September of this year, the average temperature in China was the highest in history since 1961, with temperatures in the Southwest, East, and Central regions significantly higher than the same period last year. The rapid growth of electricity consumption in these regions drove the total electricity consumption growth rate of the whole society in these two months to exceed 8%, and also drove the total electricity consumption growth rate of the whole society in the third quarter of this year to be higher than that in the second quarter.

The reporter also noticed that the electricity consumption of the tertiary industry continued to grow rapidly, and the electricity consumption of the Internet and charging and swapping service industry grew rapidly. In the first three quarters, the electricity consumption of the tertiary industry increased by 11.2% year-on-year, and the growth rate increased by 1.1 percentage points compared to the same period last year, contributing 25.9% to the growth of the total electricity consumption of the whole society. In the first, second, and third quarters, the electricity consumption of the tertiary industry increased by 14.3%, 9.2%, and 10.5% year-on-year, respectively, and all quarters maintained a rapid growth momentum. In the first three quarters, the electricity consumption growth rate of each sub-industry in the tertiary industry exceeded 5%, among which, the electricity consumption growth rate of the wholesale and retail industry, and the leasing and business service industry exceeded 12%. Driven by the rapid development of mobile Internet, big data, and cloud computing, the electricity consumption of the Internet and related services increased by 24.4% year-on-year; electric vehicles maintained rapid development, and the electricity consumption of the charging and swapping service industry in the first three quarters increased by 56.7% year-on-year.

Looking at the regions, the electricity consumption of all provinces in the country increased positively, and the growth rate of electricity consumption in the central and western regions exceeded the national average growth level. In the first three quarters, the total electricity consumption of the whole society in the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions increased by 7.8%, 8.3%, 8.7%, and 3.2% year-on-year, respectively.

Hou Wen Jie, the director of the Statistics and Data Center of the China Electricity Council, believes that in the first three quarters, the growth rate of total electricity consumption in the central region exceeded the national average level, mainly driven by the growth of electricity consumption in the service industry and residential life. In the first three quarters, the electricity consumption of the service industry and residential life in the central region increased by 14.4% and 14.3% year-on-year, respectively, ranking first among the four major regions.

The reasons for the growth rate of total electricity consumption in the western region exceeding the national average level are more complex. In the first three quarters, the electricity consumption of the secondary industry in the western region increased by 7.7% year-on-year, ranking first among all regions, and the contribution rate to the growth of total electricity consumption in the region reached 63.9%. In the secondary industry, due to the price advantage of energy and other resources in the western region, the electricity consumption growth rate of the four major high-energy-consuming industries in the western region reached 6.2%, significantly leading other regions and the national average level. In addition to the four major high-energy-consuming industries, the electricity consumption of high-tech and equipment manufacturing, and consumer goods manufacturing in the western region are also higher than the national average level.