The mainland is forecast to see the fastest growth in natural gas consumption in Asia, as Beijing rushes to ease infrastructure bottlenecks, but a study out today says electricity consumption is expected to drop sharply and operating costs will escalate as domestic tariffs rise.
Standard & Poor's DRI, the economic consulting and information services group, predicts natural gas consumption will shoot up on the mainland by more than 420 per cent, from 30 million tonnes in 2000, to 156 million tonnes in 2020.
But electricity consumption is likely to slump by about 14 per cent.
From a forecast 1,036 gigawatts of installed capacity by 2020 predicted last year, DRI expects installed capacity in China to reach only 892 GW.
The decline comes as the region as a whole experiences an increase in electricity prices, while consumption drops by 11 per cent by 2020.
'The recent changes in economic conditions in Asia will have a major impact on the energy industry.
