BEIJING - China's electricity consumption grew 9.8 percent in the first quarter of the year, the fastest quarterly growth since 2012.

The pace of increase accelerated from 5.7 percent in the previous quarter and 6.9 percent during the same period last year, according to data released by the National Energy Administration (NEA) Tuesday.

NEA official Li Fulong attributed the faster growth to sound economic development and low temperatures during the first two months.

Growth of power use in industries such as information transmission, software and auto manufacturing all exceeded 16 percent, meaning emerging industries surpassed broad power use rise for the 35th month.

Electricity consumption in high energy-consuming industries such as chemicals, steel and nonferrous metals grew at a slower pace.

Apparent consumption of natural gas rose 9.8 percent to 71.2 billion cubic meters in the first quarter. Apparent consumption of oil was up 5.5 percent to 154 million tons while refined oil consumption climbed 2.2 percent to 76.8 million tons.