China Power Supply Is OK to 2020, Report Says

China's power supply will remain sufficient for the next three years, according to a forecast from an industrial think tank released July 5.

China's power consumption is likely to reach between 6.65 trillion and 6.93 trillion kilowatt-hours in 2019, says the Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute, a research group under the state-owned China Energy Engineering Group.

The prediction is based on the country's power development goals, the level of power exchange between regions and controlling plans on coal-fired power.

The report anticipates a "significant rebound" in power use in high energy consumption industries this year, driven by an uptick in industrial profits and improved conditions among traditional manufacturers.

But for 2018 and 2019, power use in high energy consumption industries is expected to drop from the 2017 level.

China's electricity consumption, an indicator of economic activity, rose 6.4% year-over-year to 2.43 trillion kilowatt-hours in the first five months of 2017.

The EPPEI report expects China to build new hydroelectric pumped storage plants with installed capacity of 8.7 million kilowatts in the next three years. The role of the coal power sector is expected to shift from a "key electricity provider" to a "basic source" of power supply.

Meanwhile, most of new conventional hydropower projects will be built in the southwestern Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, and new nuclear power plants will mostly be built in the eastern Shandong Province and other southeastern coastal regions.

The report also suggested that wind and solar power should be promoted in regions with higher power-consuming abilities, such as the central, eastern and southern areas, and that measures be taken to keep abandoned wind and solar power at an "appropriate level."