Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the electricity industry has received significant attention as a national priority.
As a part of that national effort, China’s power industry, primarily based on coal, has embarked on an arduous journey and has grown steadily. The dedication of the workers at CHN Energy Investment Group (CHN Energy) can be seen in every step of this challenging yet rewarding path.
On April 20, 1954, the first 12-megawatt unit at the Chongqing Power Plant was inaugurated. This unit was the first automated thermal power plant in Southwest China when it was connected to the grid. On August 21, 1957, the Qingshan Power Plant in Hubei province was connected to the grid, becoming the first high-temperature and high-pressure thermal power plant in the Chinese mainland outside of Northeast China.
Over the past 70 years, the workers at CHN Energy have continuously pursued innovation, making breakthroughs that have propelled the coal-fired power industry to new heights.
Solidifying the energy base
Throughout the 1950s, China vigorously developed its coal-fired power industry. Three thermal power projects, located in Chongqing, Qingshan, and Jilin, which provided crucial electricity during the initial stages of economic development and industrial construction, have operated by CHN Energy.
From the outset, Qingshan Power Plant undertook missions to support energy development of other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, contributing to energy construction along the Belt and Road. In 1981, it successfully bid for the Guddu Thermal Power Station in Pakistan, marking the beginning of completed export projects for China and opening the international market for Chinese electromechanical equipment.
On March 15, 1967, builders gathered deep in the mountains in Chaoyang city, Liaoning province, to install China’s first domestically produced 200-megawatt large unit, filling a gap in the country’s ability to design and manufacture large-capacity thermal power units. By September 1987, the fifth-phase expansion of the Jianbi Power Plant in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu province, reached a total installed capacity of nearly 1.63 million kilowatts, making it the largest thermal power plant in the country at the time.
Striving to go global
When the Suizhong Power Plant in Liaoning province, operational since 2000, installed two 800-megawatt supercritical coal-fired units imported from Russia, it filled the gap in China’s million-kilowatt thermal power units.
In 2009, its second-phase project added two 1,000-megawatt ultra-supercritical coal-fired units, increasing the total installed capacity to 3.6 million kilowatts, making it the largest thermal power plant in Northeast China. The third phase saw the simultaneous construction of flue gas desulfurization and denitrification units, with the total investment kept under 7 billion yuan ($990 million), achieving the top level domestically for million-kilowatt units at that time.
In 2001, the first project of the national “west-to-east power transmission” initiative was launched at the Xuanwei Power Plant in Yunnan province. Between 2007 and 2008, the Taizhou Power Plant in Jiangsu province successively put into operation two 1,000-megawatt ultra-supercritical coal-fired units, creating world records for power generation efficiency and coal consumption.
In December 2008, the Lingwu Power Plant in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region built the world’s first million-kilowatt ultra-supercritical air-cooled unit with independent intellectual property rights. The third unit of the Taizhou Power Plant, commissioned in September 2015, was recognized by the International Energy Agency as the coal-fired unit with the highest efficiency in the world.
The first project of the national “west-to-east power transmission” initiative is launched at the Xuanwei Power Plant in Yunnan province. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
As of the end of May 2024, the installed capacity of coal-fired units of CHN Energy reached 206.36 million kilowatts, including 53 units of million-kilowatt coal-fired generating units, accounting for about 27 percent of the national total, and playing a crucial role in maintaining energy security and power supply in China.
Leading development trends with clean efficiency
The ShenhuaJiujiang Power Plant in Jiangxi province, which commenced operations in 2018 with two 1,000-megawatt units, adopted new technology for million-kilowatt units independently designed, developed and manufactured by China.
The Yueyang Power Plant in Hunan province, with a 2×1,000-megawatt unit commissioned in October 2023, first applied technologies such as dual-unit reheat with balanced generators, three-stage waste heat recovery and high-level water cooling towers, reducing the designed coal consumption for power supply to 267 grams per kilowatt-hour, setting another domestic record for single reheat million-kilowatt coal-fired generating units.
CHN Energy is also committed to promoting the clean and low-carbon transformation of coal-fired generating units. On June 25, 2014, China’s first near-zero emission coal-fired unit was put into operation at the Zhoushan Power Plant in Zhejiang province.
The Sanhe Power Plant in Hebei province completed comprehensive energy-saving and environmentally friendly upgrades of four operating coal-fired units in 2015, becoming the first near-zero emission coal-fired power plant in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and providing a model for the environmentally friendly transformation of coal-fired units nationwide.
Zhoushan Power Plant in Zhejiang province [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The two 660-megawatt ultra-supercritical double-reheat coal-fired generating units put into operation in Jiangsu’s Suqian in 2019 featured key technologies such as flue gas recirculation for temperature adjustment and “dual-drive” efficient heating.
Currently, China’s coal-fired units adhere to the strictest global atmospheric pollutant emission standards, surpassing those of the US, EU and Japan, essentially reaching the emission levels of gas-fired units. By 2023, the group achieved ultra-low emissions for all operational conventional coal-fired units, completing the transformation two years ahead of national requirements.
For 70 years, the coal-fired power operations of CHN Energy have developed in tandem with national economic development, as generations of workers have forged ahead, contributing their expertise and making efforts for the benefit of the country and its people.
(Executive editor: Zhu Zeya)
