{"id":415493,"date":"2026-01-17T14:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/415493\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T14:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:39:09","slug":"chinas-ai-and-ev-boom-drives-record-power-demand-widening-energy-gap-with-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/415493\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s AI and EV boom drives record power demand, widening energy gap with US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">China\u2019s total electricity consumption hit a record high of 10.4 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2025, more than double that of the US, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The 5 per cent jump from the previous year marked the first time in China\u2019s history that annual electricity consumption had surpassed 10 trillion kWh \u2013 the highest in the world and more than the combined total of the European Union, Russia, India and Japan, state broadcaster CCTV said, citing NEA data.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The main drivers of the growth were the tertiary sector \u2013 covering services including artificial intelligence cloud services \u2013 and residential use.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Tertiary sector consumption increased 8.2 per cent to 1.99 trillion kWh, primarily driven by increases of 48.8 per cent for electric vehicle charging and battery swapping and a 17 per cent jump for information technology services amid booming demand for data centres and AI services, according to the NEA.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A charging cable is connected to an electric vehicle at a charging station in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, July 31, 2017. Photo: Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/12986b6c-0d64-49ad-aaba-422ff7b2b7ca_fc9527e7.jpg\" title=\"A charging cable is connected to an electric vehicle at a charging station in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, July 31, 2017. Photo: Reuters\"\/>A charging cable is connected to an electric vehicle at a charging station in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, July 31, 2017. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Meanwhile, electricity consumption in primary industries \u2013 which includes agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries \u2013 grew 9.9 per cent year on year to 149.4 billion kWh, while consumption in secondary industries \u2013 including manufacturing, construction and mining \u2013 increased 3.7 per cent to 6.64 trillion kWh.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Residential consumption, the other major driver, reached 1.59 trillion kWh, a year-on-year increase of 6.3 per cent, as heatwaves last year led to record levels of electricity use in several regions including Henan, Shaanxi and Hubei.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China\u2019s total electricity consumption hit a record high of 10.4 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) in 2025, more than double&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[62,19089,18341,174571,32732,45,49,48,55977,95,17110,174569,46,250,6816,8051,1799,2454,163728,174570],"class_list":["post-415493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-ai","tag-ai-models","tag-ai-race","tag-ai-services","tag-alibaba-group-holding","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cctv","tag-china","tag-data-centres","tag-eastern-data","tag-economy","tag-elon-musk","tag-european-union","tag-huawei","tag-india","tag-japan","tag-national-energy-administration","tag-western-computing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}