A senior Chinese official said on Monday that controlling the nation's total energy consumption is the fundamental solution to easing a looming power shortage during the summer peak.

Speaking over video to local officials outside Beijing, Liu Tienan, head of the National Energy Administration (NEA), singled out economic restructuring and upgrading, which would lead to energy saving and a reduction in total energy consumption, as the fundamental solution.

"The fact that China's industrial production is still growing fast while the share of the service sector in the total economy and the service sector's growth rate are both declining, and the excessive growth of energy-intensive sectors in particular, would definitely result in a rapid increase in energy demand," said Liu.

Liu, also deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the top economic planning agency, said that priority should be given to residential electricity use while "unreasonable" energy consumption should be controlled.

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