Zhejiang's power consumption in 2022 had increased considerably compared with the previous year, according to the annual report recently published by the State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power Co Ltd.

In 2022, residential electricity consumption in Zhejiang rose 16.642 billion kWh, a year-on-year increase of 22.46 percent. The secondary industry accounted for 67.24 percent of the total power consumption, a year-on-year increase of 0.81 percent. Meanwhile, the agricultural and tertiary industries accounted for 0.5 percent and 16.61 percent of power consumption respectively.

In 2022, Zhejiang's green digital industry, which combines environmental sustainability with digital technology, experienced a substantial growth in power consumption. Key contributors to this growth included the photovoltaic equipment and components industry, new-energy vehicle manufacturing industry, data and internet services industry, and charging and battery swap services.

In the data and internet service industry, the power consumption in Hangzhou and Huzhou saw a year-on-year increase of 74.18 percent and 23.69 percent respectively. These two cities accounted for 93.28 percent of the total power consumption for this industry in the entire province.

In the new-energy vehicle manufacturing industry, the cities of Hangzhou, Huzhou and Ningbo saw the most significant growth in power consumption, with year-on-year increases of 78.23 percent, 23.70 percent and 78.52 percent respectively.

The production and sales of the new-energy vehicles witnessed a significant increase in Zhejiang, with 534,600 new-energy vehicles produced and 504,600 sold from January to November last year, a growth of 210.2 percent and 192.2 percent respectively. This led to a spike in power consumption for charging and battery swap services, which expanded by 60.57 percent in 2022. The largest amount of power consumed in a month was 174 million kWh.

Power consumption also grew in the comprehensive utilization of waste resources, with 1.285 billion kWh of electricity used in the industry, a 6.25 percent year-on-year increase. This was the third straight year that power consumption in this sector had risen.