In the first nine months of this year, China consumed 1,823.879 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity with a year-on-year growth of 13.95 percent, the China Electricity Council (CEC) announced on Thursday.

The acute tension between electricity supply and demand was obviously relieved during the nine months, said Wang Yonggan, secretary-general of the CEC.

The overall power supply situation worsened in certain periods of time for such reasons as seasons, said Wang.

The primary industry saw electricity consumption of 56.394 billion kw-hours with a year-on-year growth of 8.09 percent.

The second industry consumed 1364.526 billion kw-hours, 14.19 percent more than a year ago.

The tertiary industry consumed 191.242 billion kw-hours, an 11.07 percent increase year on year, according to the CEC.

Electricity used in urban and rural daily life reached 211.716 billion kw-hours, 16.74 percent more than a year ago, the CEC said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2005)