The rapid business growth of tech sectors, including cloud computing, big data and AI, has driven up power consumption in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the first two months of the year.

The State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd. said it sold over 21 billion kWh during the January-February period, up 15.7 percent year on year. Power consumption of the services sector soared 52 percent year on year to 6.67 billion kWh, it said.

The software and information technology services sectors, including cloud computing, big data and AI, saw power consumption rise by 1.68 billion kWh, pushing up the growth of the region's total power consumption by 9.26 percentage points.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has hit many traditional businesses in China, but created business opportunities for sectors such as cloud computing, big data and AI with many people across the country switching to play, study and work online.

Over recent years, Xinjiang has been speeding up the development of new-generation information technology in a bid to power its economy with strategic emerging sectors.

Due to the epidemic, its secondary sector saw power consumption fall 1.29 percent year on year to 11.77 billion kWh in the first two months of the year, according to the local power grid.