Analysis and Prospect of Gap Between Electricity Consumption and Economic Growth in China in Recent Years

From 2020 to 2023, electricity consumption in China was higher than the economic growth, causing widespread concern and doubts in society. By building an analytical model for the gap between electricity consumption and economic growth that reflected the statistical difference between industries and residents' lives, the reasons why electricity consumption was higher than economic growth were analyzed comprehensively. It was found that from 2020 to 2023, electricity consumption continued to be higher than economic growth, mainly due to the impact of electrification, digitalization, and intelligence. In addition, electricity consumption in the secondary industry was higher than the growth rate of its added value. High energy consumption sectors in the manufacturing industry had the greatest impact, while the impact of equipment manufacturing, such as electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing, computer/communications, and other electronic equipment manufacturing, was intensifying. The influence of temperature in 2022 was more prominent. It was generally expected that China's electricity consumption would still be higher than economic growth before 2030, or in other words, the elasticity coefficient of electricity consumption would still be greater than 1.