Electricity usage surpasses 10 trillion kWh in '25

A new report by the National Energy Administration shows that China's power supply infrastructure has scaled to become the largest in the world, matching premier international benchmarks in grid capacity as the country continues to expand its energy network.

In a historic milestone that underscores an accelerated shift toward a greener energy structure, the nation's total electricity consumption crossed the 10 trillion kilowatt-hour threshold in 2025, reaching 10.37 trillion kWh, according to the China Power Supply Development Report 2026.

Yang Kun, executive vice-chairman of the China Electricity Council, noted that the world's second-largest economy has firmly cemented its position as the leading global power consumer.

He highlighted that China's annual electricity usage now roughly exceeds the combined power consumption of the United States, Russia, India, Japan, Brazil and Canada, an unprecedented scale that underscores the robust vitality and deep resilience of the national economy.

"The power industry achieved historic breakthroughs in reinforcing energy security and infrastructure reliability over the past year," Yang said.

To sustain this massive demand, China has aggressively stepped up its power grid investments while systematically optimizing its structural network.

In 2025, total national investment in power grids reached 639.5 billion yuan ($94.2 billion). Notably, more than half of this funding was channeled directly into reinforcing and upgrading distribution networks at or below 110 kilovolts, effectively patching up weak links in rural and isolated border regions.

According to the report, a string of landmark backbone transmission projects were successfully completed last year, underpinning a modern power network anchored by robust ultra-high-voltage backbones, agile local distribution grids and flexible smart microgrids.

The structural layout of the national grid has reached a new level of sophistication, with the total length of transmission lines rating at 220 kV and above surpassing 1 million kilometers. An extensive cross-regional network of 24 DC and 21 AC UHV channels also span across the country, it said.

According to the NEA, the robust physical grid is serving as the primary driver for an accelerated green transformation in China's energy consumption structure. Electricity now constitutes roughly 30 percent of the nation's total terminal energy consumption, exceeding the global average.

Backed by the world's largest renewable energy generation capacity, green power accounted for 38.5 percent of total social electricity consumption in 2025 — an increase of nearly 9 percentage points compared to the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period.

Today, nearly four out of every 10 kWh consumed in China are generated from clean, renewable sources.

Ye Xiaoning, a senior engineer at the new energy department of the State Grid Energy Research Institute, pointed out that China's sustained capital allocation toward transmission infrastructure is yielding significant dividends in optimizing renewable resource distribution.

He noted that the expansive UHV grid allows clean electricity generated in northern and western regions to be channeled efficiently across thousands of miles to economic hubs, structurally altering the nation's energy landscape and advancing its carbon peak and neutrality targets.

This green pivot is highly visible in public consumption patterns, particularly in the rapid expansion of the green mobility network. The total number of electric vehicle charging facilities in China has topped 20 million units.

zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn