China’s power demand surged to an unprecedented 1.02 trillion kilowatt-hours in July, marking the first time any country has exceeded the one-trillion threshold within a single month. Data released by the National Energy Administration show consumption rose 8.6 percent from a year earlier, setting a global record and doubling the nation’s monthly electricity use of a decade ago. The agency attributed the jump to successive heatwaves that lifted air-conditioning loads and to steady gains in industrial output. Household electricity usage climbed 18 percent year-on-year to roughly 203.9 billion kWh, while the grid also registered three new peak-load records, topping 1.5 terawatts on 16 July. Over the first seven months of 2025, national electricity consumption reached 5.8633 trillion kWh, up 4.5 percent from the same period last year. The July total alone is comparable to the annual power demand of the ten-member ASEAN bloc, underscoring both the scale of China’s energy system and the challenges the country faces in balancing rapid demand growth with its longer-term decarbonisation goals.