Likely Economic Power of Tomorrow is seen in Power Infrastructure Today

The US is again generating about 4100 Terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2013 as it did in 2012. The entire OECD (US, Europe, Japan, Australia and South Korea) is generating about 10300 TWh in 2013. The US and the developing economies are getting more economically energy efficient and can get about 1-2% more GDP off of the same power.

China generated about 5300 TWh in 2013. Total power generation was up 7.5% from 2012. This is 30% more power than the USA. China had 14% power growth in 2010 and 11.6% in 2011. So this is a slowdown from that growth.

85% of China's power is non-residential.
75% was primary or secondary industry.
Any new China power generation needs to match up to its industrial demand profile.

China's Electricity Council has a projection of its energy needs and construction plans.

The CEC estimates that electricity consumption in 2015 will be between 6,020 TWh and 6,610 TWh, based on lower and upper annual average growth projections of 7.5% and 9.5%, respectively. By 2020, consumption is estimated to range from 8,000 TWh to 8,810 TWh, based on annual average growth rates of 4.6% to 6.6% from 2016.

China's power generation is at 1180 GW at the end of 2013 and appears on track to about 1300-1400 GW in 2015

Read more »