Huaneng Power says H1 output down 5.8 pct on year

HONG KONG, July 9 (Reuters) - Power output by Huaneng Power (0902.HK) (HNP.N), China's biggest power provider, fell 5.84 percent in the first half of 2009 from a year earlier, on the back of weakening power demand amid the global economic downturn, the company said on Thursday.

Huaneng Power (600011.SS) produced 86.107 billion kilowatt hours in the first half of the year, it said in a statement.

New generating units put into operation continuously led to the decline in the average utilisation hours of power generation in most of the regions where it operates, the firm said.

But the declines in China's power generation have been narrowing in the past several months after near double-digit falls late last year, as consumption gradually picked up, thanks to Beijing's economic stimulus policies.

Yangtze Electric Power Co (600900.SS), operator of the country's largest hydropower project, the Three Gorges Dam, said on Wednesday its power output in the first half of the year edged up 0.7 percent from a year earlier. [ID:nSHA86473]. (Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)