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China’s Electricity Imports From Russia Collapse by 60% in 2025 Amid Energy Shortages
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Russia’s electricity exports to China fell to a historic low in the first half of 2025, plunging 60% year-on-year to just 200 million kWh, according to data released on August 14 by Inter RAO, Russia’s state-controlled electricity trade operator, according to The Moscow Times. In the same period of 2024, exports stood at 465 million kWh, marking a 76% drop from earlier years.
From 2010 to 2020, Russia supplied China with an average of 3 billion kWh annually. The sharp drop is linked to a capacity shortage in Russia’s Unified Energy System of the East, which has prevented Moscow from restoring deliveries to China to planned levels, Inter RAO noted.
Chinese customs data show that in June 2025, imports from Russia totaled just 14.4 million kWh.
Overall, Russia’s electricity exports dropped 12.6% in the first half of 2025 to 3.07 billion kWh, while imports rose 14.8% to 1.27 billion kWh, driven mainly by cross-border flows from Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan remains Russia’s largest customer, purchasing 1.4 billion kWh, though that figure was down 12.5% year-on-year.
Russian electricity supplied just over 2.3% of Kazakhstan’s demand of 60 billion kWh in the first half of 2025, according to Reksoft Energy Department Director Sergey Cherepov. Mongolia ranked second, importing 500 million kWh, or 16% of Russia’s export volume.
Cherepov estimates that Russia’s electricity exports will decline by about 8% for this year, double Inter RAO’s forecast from June.
He warned that Moscow has little room to increase supplies due to energy shortages in the Far East, grid bottlenecks in Kazakhstan, and natural factors such as snowpack and river flows in Siberia, which affect hydropower generation. “Exports will grow only if there is plenty of water,” he said.
Cherepov also noted that a slowdown in Russia’s economy could paradoxically free up more electricity for export, as domestic demand would fall.
Earlier, the European Union outlined plans to gradually phase out Russian energy imports as part of its broader strategy to reduce dependence on Moscow. The bloc is now preparing for negotiations on a plan to ban imports of Russian natural gas starting January 1, 2028. However, top lawmakers in the European Parliament have proposed bringing the deadline forward by a year—to January 1, 2027.
