China's total electricity consumption grew 4.5 percent year on year to 455.6 billion kWh in July, the National Energy Administration said in a statement on its website on Aug 14.

Accumulated electricity consumption in the first seven months was 2.83 trillion kWh, up 5.4 percent year on year, compared to the 5.5 percent seen in the first half of the year, the NEA said.

Power consumed by the agricultural sector decreased 0.4 percent year on year, while electricity consumed by the industrial and manufacturing sector increased 3.6 percent year on year to 2.1 trillion kWh.

The services industry had the fastest growing power consumption, expanding 11.9 percent year on year to reach 319.3 billion kWh. Residential power consumption also picked up quickly to 356.9 billion kWh, up 12.5 percent from a year earlier.

In the first seven months of the year, China added 28.92 million kilowatts of new power-generating capacity nationwide, among which 6 million kilowatts were created by hydropower projects and 17.9 million kilowatts by thermal power plants.