China's August power consumption tops 1 trillion kWh, driven by high-tech manufacturing and data centers

In August this year, China's total electricity consumption exceeded the 1 trillion kWh mark, reaching 1,033.2 billion kWh — a significant milestone. One trillion kWh is close to the total electricity consumption of the first half of 2005.

Shifting Economic Landscape

As total electricity consumption continues to climb, the economic heatmap is also undergoing transformation. High-tech and equipment manufacturing, as well as computing data centers, have emerged as the most active sub-sectors in electricity consumption.

Manufacturing Dominates Electricity Use

Breaking down the electricity consumption structure, manufacturing remains the largest consumer of electricity.

Since the start of the "14th Five-Year Plan" period (2021–2025), the growth rates of electricity consumption between the four major energy-intensive industries and high-tech and equipment manufacturing have shown a divergence pattern of "low versus high." The latest electricity consumption index for high-tech and equipment manufacturing has grown by 70.2% compared to the 2020 baseline, with an average annual growth rate 2.5 times that of the four major energy-intensive industries.

Divergence Reflects Industrial Transformation

The divergence in electricity consumption between high-tech and equipment manufacturing and the four major energy-intensive industries reveals the results of internal transformation and upgrading within the manufacturing sector. The shift in electricity flow essentially reflects the concentration of production factors and industrial resources toward new quality productive forces — a trend most prominently illustrated by the surging electricity consumption of computing data centers.

In 2025, the total electricity consumption of computing data centers nationwide reached 170 billion kWh, with an average annual growth rate of approximately 39.5% over the past three years, making them a major driver of electricity consumption growth.

Distinctive Power Usage Patterns

As a new type of infrastructure, computing data centers require electricity to maintain basic power consumption for servers and cooling systems, even when business is not fully utilized or computing capacity is idle. In contrast, traditional manufacturing industries have a closer correlation between electricity consumption and physical output — the relationship between the volume of products manufactured and electricity consumed is more stable.

Of course, once computing infrastructure is built and business gradually ramps up, greater output will also lead to higher electricity consumption. This is cross-validated by electricity consumption data in the service sector: in the first eight months of this year, electricity consumption for internet data services grew by 42.5%, which is 35.4 percentage points faster than the growth rate of the tertiary sector and 38.2 percentage points faster than the growth rate of total social electricity consumption.

A Reflection of Economic Transformation

The changing structure of electricity consumption serves as a real-world indicator of China's industrial upgrading and the vigorous development of the digital economy. Every kilowatt-hour of electricity flowing into chips and computing power will yield higher unit output and stronger technological barriers. As the digital economy and high-end manufacturing continue to expand in the future, the "new" characteristics of the electricity consumption structure will become even more pronounced, further highlighting the high-quality development of China's economy.