China’s National Energy Administration is urging people to conserve energy, as the explosive growth of artificial intelligence is causing power demand to skyrocket, with just five seconds of high-definition video produced by AI consuming the equivalent of charging 10 mobile phones.
NEA said China’s total electricity consumption and peak load will reach record highs by the end of 2025. Looking ahead to the 15th Five Year Plan period, the country’s annual electricity consumption growth alone is expected to reach approximately 600 billion kilowatt-hours, an increase comparable to the annual electricity consumption of a medium-sized economy.
Most of China’s oil and gas comes from global markets, and officials say the Chinese government will maintain a diversified energy import strategy to ensure supply chain resilience.
The authorities called for energy conservation and said they would urgently improve policy mechanisms to stimulate energy conservation and carbon reduction capacity in production and daily life.
China’s energy production is concentrated in the western region, and consumption is mainly concentrated in the eastern region.
“The western region will not only transmit electricity, coal and gas to other regions, but also token transmission in the future,” said Wang Jingson, deputy director of China’s National Energy Administration.
