BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s power generation from fossil fuels inched up 1.9% year-on-year during the first 11 months of the year, official data showed on Monday, pointing to a slight increase for the full year despite a rapid build-out of renewable power plants in recent years.
Thermal power generation, which comes mostly from coal while natural gas-fired power plants contribute a small portion, was 5.74 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) from January to November, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
For the month of November, thermal power output ticked up 1.4% year-on-year to 517.5 billion kWh.
Hydropower output fell 1.9% year-on-year to 82.3 billion kWh in November.
However, hydropower still registered an 11.2% increase for the year to date, due to a surge in hydro output during the summer following heavy rainfall in many parts of the country.
The NBS data reflects power generation from industrial enterprises that have annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($2.8 million).
Power generation from all types of power plants ticked up 0.9% in November to 749.5 billion kWh.
However, the monthly NBS updates understate wind and solar generation because of the minimum annual revenue threshold which leaves out some small-scale renewable generation.
For the first 11 months of the year, overall power generation rose 5% to 8.57 trillion kWh, NBS data showed.
(Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Nicholas Yong)
