China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planning agency, announced Thursday to raise the price of electricity for non-residential use by 2.8 cents (0.4 U.S. cent) per kilowatt hour on average nationwide, as of Friday. Residential electricity prices would not be raised this time. However, they would be charged on a progressive basis in the future, which means prices increase with consumption, according to the NDRC. The price increase would promote energy conservation awareness and the building of a resource efficient and environment-friendly society, said Cao Changqing, director of the Department of Price under the NDRC. China increased the price of coal-fired electricity at which power grid operators bought from power plants by 2 cents last August, in a bid to ease cost pressure for power plants from rising coal prices. However, the retail prices of electricity had not been raised since then, which resulted in losses for electricity grid operators, he said. Official figures showed that China's power consumption in October rose 15.87 percent year on year to 313.42 billion kilowatt hours, up for the fifth consecutive month since June. The progressive pricing mechanism for residential users would be carried out in line with actual situations in different areas and after deliberate discussions and research, Cao added. 