China’s electricity output in the first four months of the year rose 12.6 percent year on year to 730 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), said Wang Yonggan, secretary general of China Electricity Council.
    During the same period, electricity consumption rose 13.46 percent year on year to 743.2 billion kWh, he said.Wang said he expected China’s total electricity consumption this year to increase 13.5 percent year on year to 2,456 billion kWh.
    He said the country was expected to add 70 million kilowatts of newly installed generation capacity this year, of which 30 million kilowatts would be added during the first half.China has been expanding its power generation capacity at an annual rate of 15 percent over the past three years, in a bid to meet growing demand for power to fuel its fast-growing economy.
    Due to expected improvements in water levels from increased rainfall this year, hydropower output was expected to increase, which would help ease the country’s power shortage.In the fourth quarter, the gap between electricity supply and demand would shrink to 7.5 million kilowatts, he said.
    ［輔助閱讀］：中國電力企業(yè)聯(lián)合會秘書長王永干日前在中國能源戰(zhàn)略高層論壇上說，預(yù)計2005年全國電力供需形勢依然緊張，但較2004年有所緩解。在一些地區(qū)，一些時段仍然會出現(xiàn)非常嚴峻的缺電局面，目前在江蘇、浙江、廣東、包括山西等地用電均非常緊張。
    2004年全國共有24個省級電網(wǎng)出現(xiàn)拉閘限電，全國電力缺口在4000萬千瓦。今年1至4月份，全國發(fā)電量7300億千瓦時，比去年同比增長了12.6%。全社會用電量7432億千瓦時，比去年增長13.5%。