The China Electricity Council said China's total power consumption during the first half of this year is expected to increase 11.5 percent.

Wang Yongping, secretary-general of the council, told a meeting late last week that the demand for power will moderate in the last three quarters of this year.

Wang said the shortage of power will total about 8 million kilowatt at peak hours of this summer in east and north China.

Total electricity consumption for the first quarter of this year stood at 642.987 billion kwh, up 11.81 percent year on year.

The figure included 459.461 billion kwh by industrial sectors, and petrochemical, building materials and metallurgic sectors contributed to 56.3 percent of the increased power consumption, said Wang. That indicates that China has a long way to go to curb the expansion of energy-intensive sectors, said Wang. Wang said newly installed capacity totaling 30 million kw will be released during the first half of this year and an additional 45 million kw will be generated in the second half of this year, which will enable most of the country to meet demand at peak hours of this summer.

(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2006)