BEIJING, March 16 -- Electricity consumption fell 6.3 percent year on year in February, reaching 359.5 billion kilowatt hours (kwh), the National Energy Administration announced on Monday.

This brings the total power consumption of the first 2 months of the year to 845.4 billion kwh, up 2.5 percent year on year.

During the period, power use in primary industries fell 2.5 percent while secondary industries saw an increase of 1.5 percent; and usage by the tertiary industry surged 8.1 percent.

Meanwhile, residential power consumption grew 2.6 percent year on year.

During the first 2 months, newly installed power generation capacity hit 13.42 million kilowatts, mostly thermal (7.87 million kw). Newly installed hydro-power capacity was 1.39 million kw during the period.