BEIJING, May 14 -- China's electricity consumption rose 23.1 percent year on year to 339.4 billion kilowatt-hours (KWhs) in April, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said in a statement on its website Friday.

The growth rate was two percentage points higher than March, indicating the country's power consumption remained high.

Consumption in the primary industry grew 6.2 percent from a year earlier to 8.2 billion KWhs.

Industrial use of electricity rose 25.6 percent from a year earlier to 254.4 billion KWhs in April, 0.8 percent lower than the previous month.

In breakdown, heavy industry, a major consumer of China's electricity, used 211.3 billion KWhs in April, up 28.7 percent year on year, while light industry's power use increased 12.3 percent to 43.1 billion KWhs.

Tertiary industry power consumption increased 17.65 percent to 33.7 billion KWhs.

China's electricity generation rose 21.4 percent year on year to 331.64 billion kilowatt-hours (KWhs) in April, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday.