China has reported a new energy record: for the first time, the country consumed more than one petawatt-hour of electricity in a single month. According to the National Energy Administration (NEA), cited by heise online, August consumption reached 1.0332 petawatt-hours — up 1.7 percent from August 2025. Peak grid load also set a record, hitting 1.56 terawatts and exceeding the previous year's high on seven separate days.
The drivers are industry and services. In the secondary sector — manufacturing, processing and industry — consumption rose 2.4 percent to 612.4 terawatt-hours. The tertiary sector (services) grew 5.1 percent to 215.5 terawatt-hours. "The secondary and tertiary sectors are the main drivers of the increase," Wu Liqiang of the China Electricity Council told the state news agency Xinhua, pointing to rapid growth in high-tech and machinery manufacturing.
Household consumption, by contrast, fell 4 percent year on year. Wu attributed that to the weather: more rain and more typhoons in August meant air conditioners ran less than a year earlier.
For the year to date, China consumed 7.17 petawatt-hours through the end of August, 4.3 percent more than in the same period of 2025. The China Electricity Council expects growth of 5 to 6 percent for the full year, with roughly 400 gigawatts of new generation capacity installed in 2026 alone. Coal still holds the largest share of China's power mix but is in retreat: at the end of July, installed photovoltaic capacity stood at 1.286 terawatts, just ahead of coal's 1.285 terawatts. China remains the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide.
