China Energy Big Data Report (2022) - Power Industry Development

Electric power production

1. The national electricity generation increased by 9.7% year-on-year, and the full-caliber non-fossil energy generation increased by 12.0% year-on-year

In 2021, the national power production and supply capacity will be further improved, supply and demand will be generally balanced, and the structure will be further optimized. According to the Statistical communique on National Economic and Social Development released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2021, China's power generation will reach 8,534.25 billion KWH, up 9.7 percent year on year and 6 percentage points higher than the previous year. Among them, the thermal power generation was 5.805.87 billion KWH, up 8.9% year on year; Hydropower generation was 1.339 billion KWH, down 1.2% year on year. Nuclear power generated 407.52 billion KWH, up 11.3 percent year on year. According to the statistics of the full caliber of the China Electricity Union, wind power and solar power generation were 655.6 billion KWH and 327 billion KWH, respectively, an increase of 40.5% and 25.2%. Biomass power generation was 163.7 billion KWH, up 23.6% year on year.

The power generation structure has been continuously optimized. In 2021, non-fossil energy power generation will reach 2.9 trillion KWH, up 12.0 percent year on year. It accounted for 34.6% of the total power generation of the whole caliber, an increase of 0.7 percentage points. The contribution of wind and solar power generation to the country's electricity supply continues to increase. Full-caliber coal power generation was 5.03 trillion KWH, up 8.6% year-on-year, accounting for 60.0% of the total power generation, down 0.7 percentage points year-on-year.

2. China's total installed power capacity reached 2.4 billion kilowatts, up 7.9% year-on-year

By the end of 2021, China's newly installed power generation capacity will be 176.29 million kW, down 7.9 percent year on year. China's installed power generation capacity was about 2.38 billion kilowatts, an increase of 7.9%, or a contraction of 1.7 percentage points.

In the past decade, China's installed power generation capacity has continued to grow, and the total scale of new power generation capacity has exceeded 100 million kilowatts for nine consecutive years. The growth rate of total installed capacity showed a fluctuating trend, declining continuously from 2017 to 2019, especially in 2018 and 2019, affected by factors such as changes in power supply and demand, the installed capacity of new hydropower, nuclear power and solar power generation was almost halved, resulting in a continuous decline in the scale of new installed capacity in two years. In 2020, driven by the rapid growth of hydropower, wind power and solar power installed capacity, the new installed capacity has increased significantly, driving the annual installed capacity growth rate to rebound sharply. In 2021, the new installed capacity of thermal power and wind power decreased by 18% and 34%, and the overall new scale decreased by 7.9% year-on-year.

3. The proportion of new non-fossil energy power generation capacity was nearly 80%, and the total installed capacity of non-fossil energy exceeded that of coal power for the first time

In 2021, the installed capacity of thermal power will increase by 46.28 million kilowatts, grid-connected hydropower and wind power will reach 23.49 million kilowatts and 47.57 million kilowatts respectively, solar power will reach 54.93 million kilowatts, nuclear power will reach 3.4 million kilowatts and biomass power will reach 8.08 million kilowatts. The installed capacity of non-fossil energy power generation increased by 138.09 million kW, accounting for 78.3% of the total installed capacity of new power generation, an increase of 5.2 percentage points year-on-year.

By the end of 2021, the installed capacity of full-caliber thermal power in the country was 1.30 billion kilowatts, up 4.1% year-on-year, of which coal power was 1.11 billion kilowatts, up 2.8% year-on-year, accounting for 46.7% of the total installed power generation capacity, down 2.3 percentage points year-on-year. In 2021, the installed capacity of full-caliber non-fossil energy reached 1.12 billion kilowatts, an increase of 13.4%, accounting for 47% of the total installed power generation capacity, surpassing the installed capacity of coal power for the first time. The installed capacity of hydropower, wind power and solar power exceeded 300 million kilowatts. Among them, the installed capacity of hydropower is 390 million kW (conventional hydropower is 350 million kW, pumped storage is 36.39 million kW); Wind power 330 million kilowatts (onshore 300 million kilowatts, offshore 26.39 million kilowatts); Installed solar power capacity of 310 million kilowatts (centralized 200 million kilowatts, distributed 110 million kilowatts, solar thermal 570,000 kilowatts). The installed capacity of wind power connected to the grid has ranked first in the world for 12 consecutive years, the installed capacity of solar power connected to the grid has ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years, and the installed capacity of offshore wind power has ranked first in the world. Nuclear power 53.26 million kilowatts. Biomass power generation was 37.98 million kilowatts.

From the perspective of installed capacity growth, in 2021, wind power and solar power installed capacity increased significantly at a rate of more than 15%, solar power increased by 20.9%, and wind power increased by 16.6%. Nuclear power grew by 6.8% year-on-year. Hydropower grew 5.6 per cent year on year. Thermal power increased by 4.1% year-on-year, of which, coal power increased by 2.8% year-on-year, accounting for the proportion of total installed power generation capacity decreased by 2.3 percentage points year-on-year.

4. The utilization hours of power generation equipment increased by 60 hours year-on-year

In 2021, the utilization hours of power generation equipment in the country will be 3,817 hours, an increase of 60 hours year-on-year. The utilization hours of thermal power equipment were 4,448 hours, an increase of 237 hours year-on-year; Among them, 4,586 hours of coal power, an increase of 263 hours; Gas and electricity 2,814 hours, an increase of 204 hours year-on-year. Water and electricity 3,622 hours, a decrease of 203 hours. Nuclear power 7,802 hours, an increase of 352 hours year-on-year. Grid-connected wind power for 2,232 hours, an increase of 154 hours year-on-year. Grid-connected solar power generation for 1,281 hours, the same as the previous year.

Secondary power consumption

1. Electricity consumption in the whole society increased by 10.3% year-on-year, with the growth rate falling quarter by quarter

According to the data released by the National Energy Administration, in 2021, the whole society consumed 8312.8 billion KWH of electricity, an increase of 10.3% over the same period in 2019, an increase of 14.7% over the same period in 2019, and a two-year average increase of 7.1%. Influenced by factors such as the overall economic recovery, foreign trade and export, and the low base effect of power consumption growth caused by the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, electricity consumption has rebounded sharply. In 2021, the growth rate of electricity consumption in the whole society reached a new high in the past decade, slightly lower than the 14.8% in 2010 and 12.0% in 2011.

In the first, second, third and fourth quarters, the electricity consumption of the whole society increased by 21.2%, 11.8%, 7.6% and 3.3% respectively, and the year-on-year growth rate fell significantly quarter by quarter.

In the first quarter, the electricity consumption of the whole society drove the annual electricity consumption to increase by 4.5 percentage points year-on-year, an increase of 14.4% over the same period in 2019. Among them, secondary power consumption became the main driving force for the growth of electricity consumption in the whole society, with a year-on-year increase of 24.1%, an increase of 15.4% over the same period in 2019, and a contribution rate of 72.8% to the growth of electricity consumption in the whole society. In the second quarter, the growth rate of electricity consumption in various industries declined compared with the first quarter, but the power consumption in primary industry still maintained a steady and substantial growth, and the growth rate of power consumption in tertiary industry recovered to the same period in 2019. Although the growth rate of electricity consumption in the high-tech and equipment manufacturing industry was significantly higher than the average level of the manufacturing industry in the same period, due to the gradual implementation of the blind development policy of the state to resolutely curb the "two high" projects, the growth rate of the four major high-load energy industries gradually fell, the growth rate of the second industry in the third and fourth quarters was directly affected, and some areas were affected by the epidemic. In 2021, the two-year average growth rate of electricity consumption in the whole society is 7.1%, and the two-year average growth rate in each quarter is 7.0%, 8.2%, 7.1% and 6.4%, maintaining steady growth overall.