On January 17, 2026, China’s National Energy Administration(NEA) clarified that China’s annual electricity consumption had surpassed 10 trillion kilowatt-hours for the first time in history! This depicts that China is the world’s largest consumer of energy.

The country has marked a 5% increase from 2024 levels. This landmark achievement makes it the first country ever to exceed 10 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of annual electricity consumption. For context, China’s usage in 2025 was more than twice that of the United States (around 4.3 trillion kWh in recent years) and surpassed the combined total electricity consumption of the European Union, Russia, India, and Japan.

National Energy Administration’s (NEA) Announcement:

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has described this milestone as clear proof of the country’s accelerating shift towards a more electrified economy. The trend is being driven by rapid industrial growth, expanding cities, the booming use of electric vehicles (EVs), the rise of data centres, and the spread of advanced manufacturing technologies. In 2025, industry accounted for around 60 per cent of China’s total electricity consumption, with particularly strong demand coming from steelmaking, chemicals, and electronics. Power use also rose steadily in homes and businesses, as improving living standards led to greater use of air conditioning, heating systems, and everyday household appliances. At the same time, the growing share of renewable energy and continued gains in energy efficiency have helped meet this rising demand without a matching increase in reliance on fossil fuels, underlining China’s ongoing transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy use.

A Brief History of China’s Rising Electricity Consumption:

China’s electricity consumption has surged since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, closely tracking its rise from an agrarian economy to the world’s second largest. In the 1950s, limited infrastructure kept usage below 10 billion kWh, largely supplied by small hydropower and coal plants built with Soviet support. Growth was uneven during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, with demand stagnating at roughly 100–200 billion kWh a year. A decisive shift came after 1978, when Deng Xiaoping’s Reform and Opening policies prioritised power infrastructure to support export-led industrialisation. Electricity demand then grew by 8–10 per cent annually through the 1980s and 1990s, driven by foreign investment and mass rural electrification. WTO entry in 2001 further accelerated consumption, which tripled by 2010 as heavy industry and urbanisation expanded.

Although growth briefly slowed after the 2008 financial crisis and during the COVID-19 pandemic, demand rebounded quickly. Since 2021, renewed electrification, technology-led growth and grid upgrades have pushed consumption higher, alongside a longer-term shift towards renewables and greater energy efficiency.

TOPICS: European Union National Energy Administration Xi Jinping