BEIJING-- China's National Energy Administration (NEA) announced Sunday that the country's total electric power consumption rose 12.2 percent from a year earlier to 2.69 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) during the first seven months of this year.

In July alone, power consumption was up 11.8 percent year-on-year to 434.9 billion kWh, according to the NEA.

During the first seven months, power consumption in the country's primary industries rose 5.1 percent year-on-year to reach 59.1 billion kWh; power use in secondary industries totaled 2.0253 trillion kWh, up 11.9 percent; consumption in tertiary industries surged 15.5 percent to reach 285.3 billion kWh.

Meanwhile, consumption by residents in both urban and rural areas rose 12 percent to 317.2 billion kWh.

Power generated by China's newly-built power plants reached 41.23 million kilowatts during the January-July period, of which 7.69 million kilowatts was hydro-generated and 27.74 million was coal-fire generated.