NEA Explains Electricity Demand Surge Under Heatwave in Southern China

Recently, electricity loads in southern China have repeatedly hit record highs, with new peaks occurring 45 days earlier than in the same period last year. Overall, the region’s power supply and demand situation remains stable.

On the demand side, electricity consumption in southern China has maintained strong growth so far this year. Between May 25 and May 28, the region set new record highs for four consecutive days. Peak load rose rapidly by about 39 GW within four days, reaching 275 GW, up 18.58 GW or 7.24% from the previous record. Regionally, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hainan each surpassed key thresholds of 40 GW, 30 GW, and 9 GW respectively for the first time this year.

In terms of electricity consumption, total power use in southern China increased by 8.1% year-on-year from January to April, outpacing the national average growth rate of 5.38%.

Key Drivers of Growth

First, electricity demand from the manufacturing sector has continued to recover steadily. From January to April, manufacturing electricity consumption across the five southern provinces increased by 8.9% year-on-year, 5.3 percentage points higher than the same period last year. Key industries—including ferrous metal smelting, chemical raw materials and products, agricultural food processing, automobile manufacturing, and specialized equipment manufacturing—recorded double-digit growth.

Second, electricity consumption in the services sector has seen a notable breakthrough. Driven by the rapid development of AI computing power, downstream industries have experienced strong growth in electricity demand. From January to April, electricity consumption in internet services and in software and IT services increased by 59.0% and 24.3%, respectively.

Third, persistent high temperatures have led to a significant release of air-conditioning load. This year, hot weather in southern China arrived much earlier than usual, with many regions entering summer more than 20 days ahead of the long-term average. The concentrated cooling demand has pushed evening peak loads in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan to repeated historical highs.

Outlook

Looking ahead, southern China is expected to experience intermittent high temperatures from late May to early June, and the country will gradually enter the peak summer electricity consumption season.

The National Energy Administration stated that it will continue to provide province-by-province guidance to ensure reliable energy and power supply, strengthen monitoring and early warning for heatwaves, coal inventories at power plants, gas supply for power generation, power grid security, and electricity market operations. These measures aim to ensure early risk identification and response and to firmly safeguard national energy security.