China's installed power generating capacity is likely to increase to a record 860 gigawatts by the end of the year, forecasts from the China Electricity Council showed.

This would be 9 percent higher than the level at the end of 2008.

Installed capacity gained 10.3 percent to 790 GW at the end of 2008 after rising 14.6 percent in 2007.

Growth in China's power consumption sank to an 8-year low of 5.23 percent last year as factories scaled back production or shut down operations due to diminishing orders.

The growth rate is expected to remain more or less the same in 2009, according to the council, an industry group regulated by the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

However, the government should continue to arrange sizable power investment to meet future power demand, the council was quoted as saying in the report.

Zhang Guobao, China's energy chief, said on Tuesday that the country would invest 580 billion yuan on power projects this year.

The amount would be roughly the same as the 576.3 billion yuan in 2008, which was up 1.52 percent from the level in 2007, according to data from the electricity council.