CHINA'S power consumption rose 6.7 percent year on year to 749.7 billion kilowatt-hours in the first two months of 2012, the National Energy Administration said yesterday.

Data from NEA showed the figure was lower than the 11.7 percent growth for last year, as the Lunar New Year, which fell in January this year, cut working days from the month.

In February, the country consumed 386.3 billion kwh in power, up 22.9 percent, the NEA noted.

In the first two months, residential electricity use gained 14.9 percent from a year earlier to 111.7 billion kwh.

The power consumption of the tertiary industries rose the most, up 10.3 percent over January and February, with total use hitting 94 billion kwh.

Meanwhile, primary industries saw power consumption fall by 4.7 percent year on year to 12.3 billion kwh, and that of secondary industries increase only 4.8 percent to 531.6 billion kwh.

New power generation increased by 3.85 million kilowatts in the January-February period, including 410,000KW in hydropower, 2.73 million KW in thermal power, 680,000KW in wind power.