Electricity demand and conservation potential in the Chinese nonmetallic mineral products industry

As the high energy-consuming manufacturing industry, electricity consumption of nonmetallic mineral products in China accounted for 7.93% of industrial, 5.84% of national and 1.33% of global electricity consumption in 2010. This study attempts to specify the determinants of sectoral electricity demand, forecast future electricity consumption by creating a model using the Johansen cointegration methodology and estimate the sectoral electricity conservation potential. Results indicate that GDP per capita is the leading force explaining the sectoral electricity consumption increase, while value-added per worker, R&D intensity and electricity price are the main factors contributing to the sectoral electricity consumption decrease. Results demonstrate that sectoral electricity consumption in 2020 will be 369.79-464.83 billion kWh under the low-growth scenario and 530.14-666.39 billion kWh under the high-growth scenario. Moreover, under the low-growth scenario, the sectoral electricity conservation potential in 2020 will be 33.72-95.03 billion kWh, accounting for 0.45-1.26% of China's total electricity demand in 2020; under the high-growth scenario, the sectoral electricity conservation potential in 2020 will be 48.34-136.24 billion kWh, accounting for 0.26-0.74% of world's total electricity consumption in 2010 respectively. Finally, we provide some policy recommendations for encouraging energy conservation in China's nonmetallic mineral products industry.