The China Electricity Council (CEC) released a report Wednesday, predicting the country's growth in electricity consumption will slow to 12 percent in 2011.

Total electricity consumption is expected to top 4.7 trillion kWh this year, said the CEC in its annual report on situation analysis and prediction regarding national power supply and economic operations in China.

Electricity consumption in China grew 14.56 percent last year, according to the CEC.

Investment in the electricity generation sector would increase by around 6 percent to 750 billion yuan ($114 billion) this year. Approximately 400 billion yuan of the investment would go to power generation while 350 billion yuan would be spent for power grid construction.

The rise in investment will mostly be driven by new energy generation, trans-regional power projects and rural power network upgrades, said the report.

The CEC also expects China's installed power generation capacity to reach 1.04 billion kilowatts by the end of this year, up from 960 million kilowatts last year.

The CEC said that this year's power demand and supply would generally remain balanced. However, some parts of China would face strained power supplies due to uncertainties in coal supplies, water inflows and weather conditions. The areas affected include north, east and south China.

(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2011)