THE country’s March power generation rose 4 percent versus a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday, largely because of a surge in hydropower generation, but even coal-fired output gained for the first time in 17 months.

    The country produced 477.9 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in March, the bureau said. Hydropower output rose 9.2 percent to 74.7 billion kWh, amounting to 20.5 percent of the total. Thermal power, which consists almost entirely of coal-fired capacity, rose by a slower rate of 1.2 percent to 364.2 billion kWh, or 76.2 percent of the total.

    Environment group Greenpeace said the numbers indicated the Chinese economy was “breaking free” of coal. Coal output fell 4.5 percent in March and 5.3 percent over the first quarter as a whole as miners cut production to shore up prices.

    However, the rise in thermal power output in March was the first monthly year-on-year increase since October 2014, and there are signs that the coal market is improving.

    Power plants are expected to replenish their stockpiles of fuel ahead of the summer power consumption peak after letting them dwindle in the first two months of the year, and coal miners expect demand and prices to improve in the second quarter.

    (SD-Agencies)