China's power use growth to slow in 2014

BEIJING - China's power consumption growth is expected to slow this year, according to the China Electricity Council (CEC) on Monday.

The growth rate of power consumption is expected to be 7 percent this year, lower than 7.5 percent registered in 2013, said a CEC report.

In efforts to fight against smog, power consumption efficiencies will be promoted through eliminating backward production capacity, the report said.

The country's installed power capacity will top 1.34 billion kilowatts (kw) by the end of 2014, said Wang Zhixuan, secretary-general of the CEC.

The country's total installed power capacity topped 1.25 billion kw at the end of 2013, up 9.3 percent year on year, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA) earlier this month.

China's electricity consumption, a key indicator of economic activity, rose 7.5 percent year on year to 5.32 trillion kilowatt hours in 2013, according to the NEA.

The growth rate exceeded the 5.5-percent rise in 2012, but was lower than the 11.7-percent increase in 2011.