This statistic represents worldwide electricity consumption between 1980 and 2015. In 2015, the world's electricity consumption amounted to approximately 21.15 trillion kilowatt hours. One quadrillion watts is approximately equal to one petawatt.
Global consumption of electricity
Global consumption of electricity has increased over the last decades from 7,323 terawatt hours in 1980 to 21.2 terawatt hours in 2015. In a similar pattern, power consumption in China has quickly risen, reaching 5,920 terawatt hours in 2016. China is the highest consumer of electricity in the world with the United States following close behind, consuming 4,129 terawatt hours in 2015. Generally, countries with larger populations consume more energy. However, Canada was one of the highest consumers of electricity at 545 terawatt hours, despite having a population of about 36 million inhabitants. Per capita consumption of electricity can vary widely due to electricity rates, appliances penetration, market saturation, and heating and cooling.
Electricity consumption tends to be smaller than the amount of electricity generated due to several factors, such as grid and storage losses and self-consumption from power plants. However, cogeneration power plants are able to use energy that is often wasted in forms of heat or energy for industrial processes. In Alberta, Canada, electric cogeneration energy production accounted for 25 terawatt hours . Currently it is estimated that over 20 percent of the world’s electricity generation is derived from renewable sources. In the United States, about almost 254 billion kilowatt hours of electricity was generated from wind power in 2017.
