China's power generation rises 7.2% in first 10 months

BEIJING - China's power generation rose 7.2 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of 2018, official data showed Wednesday.

In October alone, China generated 533 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power, up 4.8 percent year-on-year, faster than the 4.6-percent growth in September, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The average daily power generation reached 17.2 billion kWh, edging down from 18.3 billion kWh in September.

China saw a faster growth rate of hydroelectricity, nuclear power, and solar power generation in October.

Hydroelectricity climbed 6.2 percent year-on-year, 2.1 percentage points higher than that in the previous month, as more water came from the provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou.

Nuclear power saw a faster growth rate in October, surging 25.1 percent year-on-year, with new units in operation.

Due to better sunlight, solar power generation jumped 18.8 percent year-on-year, 15.9 percentage points higher than that in September.

Thermal and wind power generation rose 3 percent and 4.2 percent from a year earlier, respectively.

In the January-October period, new energy power generation accounted for 10.2 percent of the total power generation.