CITIC Securities: Marginal weakening in electricity consumption growth, thermal power output continues to face pressure.

CITIC Securities research report states that in July, nationwide electricity consumption growth slowed to 1.7%. The slowdown in secondary industry growth, combined with a high base in the same period last year, led to a 5.1% year-on-year decline in residential electricity consumption, which was the core reason dragging down overall electricity consumption growth. On the power generation side, the year-on-year decline in investment continued to widen, but among the power generation segments, thermal power still maintained a dense commissioning pace, with 11.94 million kilowatts of newly added installed capacity in a single month; on the grid side, investment growth slowed to 0.7%. Overall weak electricity demand combined with improved clean energy output led to an 8.5% year-on-year decline in thermal power utilization hours in July, the largest single-month decline of the year. Jiangsu's September monthly electricity price, after rising for six consecutive months, fell back to near the annual long-term contract electricity price.