BEIJING - China's power consumption rose 13.41 percent year on year in March to 388.8 billion kilowatt hours (kwh), the National Energy Administration (NEA) said Thursday.

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Combined electricity use in the first quarter totalled 1.09 trillion kwh, up 12.72 percent from a year earlier, the administration said.

In the first quarter, power use by the primary, or agricultural, industry rose 3.16 percent to 19.5 billion kwh year on year. The use of power by the secondary, or industrial, industry rose 12.31 percent to 802.5 billion kwh. The tertiary, or service, sector consumed 123.6 billion kwh of electricity, up 15.51 percent.

China's power demand could increase by 12 percent to 4.7 trillion kwh this year, said the research institute of the State Grid Corp. of China on Wednesday. The forecast is higher than the NEA's January estimate which said demand could rise 9 percent to 4.5 trillion kwh this year.