Xinhua reported that electricity output in China's major power plants jumped 13.7% YoY in the first five months to meet greater demand.

The China Electricity Council said power generators with installed capacities of at least 6,000 kilowatts produced 1.39 trillion kilowatt hours. Of the total, coal fired power plants produced 1.19 trillion kilowatt hours up by 12.3% annually, hydropower stations produced 159.8 billion kilowatt hours up by 19.5%, nuclear power stations produced 27.9billion kilowatt hours up by 34.2%.

The industry association said power consumption rose 12.4% to 1.4 trillion kilowatt hours from January to May. It said during the period, China invested CNY 100.5 billion in expanding power generation capacity adding 23.4 million kilowatt hours of installed capacity.

According to the report, power companies continued to improve energy efficiency as they produced 1 kilowatt hours of electricity out of 347 grams of coal on average, 7 grams less than a year ago.

Many power companies started reporting huge losses this year as the government refrained from raising electricity prices to offset coal cost increases, fearing such hikes might add further upward pressures to the already high inflation.