World Energy Outlook 2007

Figure 8.2: Per-Capita Primary Energy Demand in China, India and Other
Selected Countries, 2005
8
7
6
toe per capita
5
4
3
2
1
0
United
States
Russia Japan European
Union
Mexico China Brazil Indonesia India
The speed of demand growth has led to some temporary mismatches
between supply and demand. Higher than expected industrial growth in
2003 and 2004, combined with a surge in the numbers of air conditioners,
led to shortfalls in power supply in large parts of the country,
mainly in summer. In the short term, much of this gap was filled by new
diesel generators, leading to an unexpected jump in oil use in 2004 – and
subsequent sluggish growth as new coal-fired power stations eventually
came on line, making up the shortages. The magnitude of the spurt in the
construction of power plants – amounting to 105 GW in 2006 alone – was
without precedent anywhere. While overall power supply and demand are
evening out, some areas continue to suffer periodic imbalances and
associated power cuts. Regional differences are pronounced, both in energy
production and consumption (Figure 8.3). Most of China’s coal is
concentrated in a few inland provinces, while the largest centres of demand
for coal, and for the electricity that is overwhelmingly generated by coal,
are in the coastal provinces. Coal-fired power stations are increasingly built
close to mines or waterways and some new rail capacity continues to be
built to handle the large additional volumes of coal that need to be moved.
Still, trucks and ships have met much of the incremental need for coal
transport. In this way, rising coal demand has contributed to growing oil
demand.
266 World Energy Outlook 2007 - CHINA’S ENERGY PROSPECTS