Electricity consumption in the industrial sector experienced a dramatic increase between 1998 and 2007, accounting for approximately 75% of China's total electricity consumption. This study analyzes the potential factors influencing the growth of electricity consumption in China's industrial sector over the past decade using a logarithmic mean Divisia index I decomposition method. Results show that activity effect and shift effect (caused by the change in the electricity's share of industrial energy use) are the major factors responsible for the rise in electricity consumption between 1998 and 2007. It is found that structural change also contributed to the increase in electricity consumption, it had only a small effect. In contrast, the technological effect is responsible for a decrease in electricity consumption during this period. The influences of technological effects and shift effects followed approximately an inverse-U-shaped and U-shaped curve, respectively. Furthermore, the results show that the main contributors to incremental electricity consumption among industrial subsectors were manufacturing of raw chemical material and products, manufacturing of non-metal mineral products, smelting and pressing of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, and production and supply of electric power and heat power. These sectors should take priority for industrial restructuring in order to implement policies for energy and electricity savings. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.