The National Energy Board of China said total electricity consumption in the country reached 2.6276 trillion kilowatts in the first six months of this year.

The figure represents a 5.3 percent increase from the same period of last year, data from the National Energy Board released on Tuesday showed.

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In the month of June alone, total electricity consumption increased 5.9 percent to 463.9 billion kilowatts from May.

Experts said an increase in electrical consumption supports the claim that China's economy is picking up as more factories are operating and more businesses are using electricity.

"When power consumption is up, that means more factories are operating and more businesses are open," said one analyst.

Industrial power registered the highest power consumption from January to June of this year with 1.9325 trillion killowatts, an increase of 5.1 percent from a year ago.

Urban and rural residents power consumption also increased 6.6 percent to 337.8 billion while tertiary industry registered 313.8 billion kilowatts, a 6.9 percent increase.

Primary industry consumption, however, dropped 4.6% to 43.5 billion kilowatts, the National Energy Board said.

The same report released by the board showed that the average operational time of power plants across the country dropped by 79 hours to 2,087 hours in the first six months.

Hydropower plants operated for an average of 1,430 hours while thermal power plants registered 2,375 hours average operation.

A report earlier released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) showed that by 2050, China can transition to up to 80 percent renewable electric power system, instead of fully relying on coal, if appropriate policies and measures are taken.

TagsChina Power, China Power Consumption