China's Data Center Electricity Usage Surpasses 60 Billion kWh Driven by AI Growth

Electricity consumption in China's internet data services sector exceeded 60 billion kWh this year, reflecting a year-over-year increase of over 40% and surpassing the total power consumed during the entire year of 2024. This surge is primarily propelled by the rapid scaling and deployment of artificial intelligence applications across the country. The exponential rise in AI workloads, highlighted by a 1,000-fold surge in daily token calls over two years, is converting computing infrastructure into a major driver of overall national power grid demand. This places immense pressure on energy infrastructure and accelerates policy initiatives toward compute-power and power grid coordination to ensure sustainable energy growth. By July 2026, China's total intelligent computing capacity reached 245 million PFLOPS, with over 85% concentrated in national computing hubs and specialized coordination zones. Industry projections indicate compute electricity usage will increase by over 100 billion kWh annually during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, reaching approximately 800 billion kWh (around 6% of total national electricity demand) by 2030.