China’s thermal power generation rose 1.8% in October from a year earlier as hydropower output continued to slump, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Friday.

Hydropower output fell 14.9% year-on-year, the second year-on-year decline in as many months.

Hydropower generation had surged over the summer due to heavy rains, temporarily putting China’s thermal power output on a downtrend, but thermal power returned to growth in August.

Thermal power generation comes mostly from coal in China with a small portion from natural gas-fired power plants.

The NBS data reflects power generation from industrial enterprises that have annual revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($2.8 million).

Power generation from all kinds of power plants rose 2.1% to 731 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh). However, the NBS’ monthly updates understate wind and solar generation because of the minimum annual revenue methodology.

For the first 10 months of the year, power generation rose 5.2% to 7.8 trillion kWh, according to NBS.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Sonali Paul)