Overview of China's Energy Consumption

China is the world's largest energy producer. Although China's per capita possession of energy resources is still at a relatively low level in the world, with the per capita possession of coal, oil and natural gas only 67%, 5.4% and 7.5% of the world's average, the self-sufficiency rate has always been maintained at about 90%. since the end of the 1970s, China's energy industry has ensured the long-term stable and rapid development of the national economy and the continuous improvement of people's living standards. in 2011, China's total primary energy production reached 31.8×108t standard coal, ranking the first in the world. In 2011, China's total primary energy production reached 31.8×108t of standard coal, ranking first in the world. Among them, the output of raw coal was 35.2×108t. Compared with 2010, the output of crude oil was stable, and the output of natural gas grew rapidly, reaching 1,031×108m3. The installed capacity of electric power was 10.6×108kW, with an annual generation capacity of 4.7×1012kW-h. During the period of 1981-2011, China's energy consumption grew at an average annual rate of 5.82%, supporting the national economy's annual average growth of 5.82%. Between 1981 and 2011, China's energy consumption grew at an average annual rate of 5.82%, supporting an average annual growth rate of 10% for the national economy. 2006-2011, energy consumption of 10,000 yuan of GDP fell by a cumulative total of 20.7%, realizing an energy saving of 7.1×108t of standard coal. Compared with 2006, China's per capita primary energy consumption in 2011 reached 2.6t of standard coal, an increase of 31%; per capita natural gas consumption of 89.6m3, an increase of 110%; and per capita electricity consumption of 3493kW-h, an increase of 60%[8].

According to the data published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, between 1990 and 2012, the value of China's total energy production has been lower than the value of total energy consumption since 1992. This means that China's energy needs to be imported to maintain the balance between supply and demand. And as can be seen from Figure 1-2, the gap between the total production and consumption values is gradually increasing, and the reliance on imports to meet the domestic demand for energy consumption is becoming more and more obvious. Imported energy varieties are mainly oil, followed by liquefied natural gas. Therefore, the security of oil supply will become the primary issue of energy supply security.

Figure 1-2 Trends in China's total energy production and consumption in recent years (Source: China Statistical Yearbook 2012; People's Republic of China 2012 Statistical Bulletin on National Economic and Social Development)

Calculated from the total annual energy consumption and GDP value, it can be seen that in the past 23 years, China's technological development has prompted economic development and brought about a reduction in energy consumption per unit of GDP. The amount of energy consumption per unit of GDP has decreased from 5.2873 standard coal/million yuan GDP in 1990 to 0.6970t standard coal/million yuan GDP in 2012, a decrease of nearly 6.5 times (Figure 1-3). An economizing society has begun to emerge. However, as seen in Figure 1-4, China's energy consumption is still dominated by coal (Figure 1-4), and petrochemical energy consumption accounts for nearly 90% of the total energy consumption. in 2012, in China's energy consumption, natural gas, hydroelectricity, wind power, nuclear power, four types of energy modes together, accounted for the proportion of all energy consumption is 14.5%, which is an increase of 1.5% over 2011 [4].

According to data released by China's national statistics department for the first quarter of 2013, the country's power generation was 11,822.8×108kW-h, of which nuclear power's 15 nuclear power units generated 228.18kW-h. The proportion of thermal power generation powered by coal, oil, or natural gas is larger (Figure 1-5).

Of course, the development and use of shale gas has become a concern for countries around the world. As it stands, the development and utilization of shale gas is changing the landscape of the world energy market. The United States is already importing less oil and may soon become an exporter; China will develop its own resources, and its future oil imports may be much less than currently projected; and Russia is losing its oil market share, especially in Europe. Shale gas is also having a cascading impact, as this cheap natural gas has begun to displace coal in the U.S. power generation market, thus allowing coal to be exported to Europe at a much lower price [9].

Figure 1-3 Statistics on changes in China's unit energy consumption in recent years

Figure 1-4 Statistics on the structure of the proportion of China's energy use in recent years (Source: China Statistical Yearbook 2012)

Figure 1-5 Proportion of forms of power generation in the first quarter of 2013 (Source: website of the National Bureau of Statistics of China)

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China information released on February 22, 2013, China's six major high-energy-consuming industries are chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing, non-metallic mineral articles industry, ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry, non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry, petroleum processing, coking and nuclear fuel processing industry, and electric power and heat production and supply industry. Their annual energy consumption changes are shown in Figure 1-6. The information also shows that the number of their listed companies is increasing while their size is also expanding (Table 1-2).

Figure 1-6 Statistics on the change of energy consumption in China's high-energy-consuming industries (Source: China Energy Statistical Yearbook 2009, 2012)

Table 1-2 Overview of China's high-energy-consuming industries in 2012

Source: Sina stock/stock; Finance.

According to the 2013 Energy Summit information, China's primary energy consumption in 2012 was 36.2×108t standard coal, which actually consumed 20% of the global energy consumption in that year [10]. Therefore, China is not only consuming a large amount of energy at present, but also the amount of energy consumption will increase rapidly in a certain period of time, and the demand for energy will be more and more urgent. At the same time, it can be seen that in a certain period of time, the position of coal in China's energy consumption structure is still very important.