Three ministries issued coal and electricity reduction action plan

In order to implement the Air Pollution Action Plan of the State Council and accelerate the revolution in energy production and consumption, the three ministries and commissions of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the Action Plan for the Upgrade and Transformation of Coal-fired Energy Saving and Emission Reduction (2014-2020). Hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan").

The state department will comprehensively use administrative means and market means to accelerate the upgrading and transformation of coal-fired power generation in order to achieve “three reductions” in the ratio of coal consumed for power supply, pollution emissions, and the proportion of coal in energy consumption, as well as safe operating quality, technical equipment, and coal consumption in coal consumption. The proportion of "three increase."

The action plan proposes that the average coal consumption for newly-built coal-fired generating units is lower than 300 grams of standard coal per kilowatt-hour (hereinafter referred to as "g/kWh"); by 2020, the average coal consumption for coal-fired generating units after retrofitting in service will be lower than 310 g/kWh. Under the premise of implementing more stringent energy efficiency and environmental protection standards, by 2020, efforts will be made to reduce the share of coal in primary energy consumption to less than 62%, and the proportion of electric coal in coal consumption will increase to more than 60%.

Emissions from gas-fired power plants in the eastern and central regions and new gas-fired power plants in the eastern and central regions of China will face strict energy efficiency thresholds. On June 13 of this year, the sixth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Leadership Group proposed to improve the access standards for coal-fired power units, and to implement upgrades and upgrades for those units that do not meet energy-saving and emission-reduction standards.

The “Action Plan” proposes that the average coal consumption of newly-built coal-fired power generating units is lower than 300 g/kWh. The emission concentration of air pollutants in the new coal-fired generating units in the eastern region will basically reach the emission limit of gas turbine units, and the new units in the central region will be close in principle. Or meet the gas turbine unit emission limits, encourage new units in the western region to approach or meet gas turbine unit emission limits.

Newly built coal-fired power generation projects (including projects that have been incorporated into the national thermal power construction plan and have the conditions for changing the type of unit selection) use 600,000 kilowatts or more of ultra-supercritical units in principle, and 100 million kilowatts of wet-cooled, air-cooled units are designed to provide low coal consumption. At 282, 299 g/kWh, 600,000 kilowatts of wet-cooled, air-cooled units are no higher than 285,302 g/kWh.

By 2020, the average coal consumption of coal-fired power generation units after retrofitting will be lower than 310 g/kWh, and the average power coal consumption of the 600,000-kilowatt and above (except air-cooled units) will be lower than 300 g/kWh. In the eastern region, 300,000 kilowatts or more of public coal-fired generating units, 100,000 kilowatts or more self-contained coal-fired generating units, and other conditional coal-fired generating units are currently in operation, and the concentration of atmospheric pollutants after the renovation basically reaches the gas turbine unit emission limit.

According to CEC data, in 2013, the national standard for coal-fired power units with coal consumption of 321 g/kWh has reached the world's advanced level, and surpassed the United States in 2005. During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, the coal consumption for coal-fired power supply dropped from 370 g/kWh to 333 g/kWh. The distance of 11 grams from 321 g/kWh to 310 g/kWh needs to be overcome.

From July 1, thermal power companies began to implement new pollutant discharge standards, and the pressure for environmental protection technology reform was high. In addition to the task of reducing 11 grams of coal consumption, the state has imposed more and more regulations on thermal power.

According to sources of the five major power generation local power plants, there is a big gap between the goals set by the state and the actual implementation of the enterprises, and it is necessary to exert great efforts to achieve them. In particular, it is very difficult for coal-fired power plants with 300,000 kilowatts to reduce coal consumption. There are many factors that affect the emission of power plants, such as the type of unit, the number of years of production, the load rate, etc., as well as issues such as the equipment itself and the adjustment of the operation of the single unit.

Coal-fired energy-saving emission reduction is linked to new projects and hours of electricity generation. From the national strategy, the state strictly controls new coal-fired power projects. New projects in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta region are prohibited from supporting the construction of their own coal-fired power stations. The coal-consuming projects should be replaced by coal decrement. Except cogeneration, it is forbidden to approve new coal-fired power generation projects; if the total installed capacity of multiple coal-fired power generators reaches more than 300,000 kilowatts, it can be built as a large-capacity coal-fired unit in accordance with the principle of equal replacement of coal.

While coordinating factors such as resources and environment, and strictly implementing measures for energy saving, water saving, and environmental protection, the state tossed home to support the advancement of Ximeng, Erdos, Jinbei, Jinzhong, Jindong, Shanbei, Ningdong, Hami and Zhundong in the Western Region. The development of large-scale coal and electricity bases will continue to expand the scale of coal-to-electricity transmission to the west. In the central and other regions, appropriate construction of intersection power stations and load centers to support power.

The "Action Plan" proposes that the implementation of coal-fired energy-saving emission reductions is linked to new construction projects. The newly-built coal-fired power generation projects with advanced energy efficiency and environmental protection indicators will be prioritized into annual thermal power construction plans in all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). For enterprises with advanced coal-fired power generation energy efficiency and environmental protection indicators and active implementation of coal-fired energy-saving emission reduction upgrades and transformations, which have achieved remarkable results, provincial-level energy authorities should give priority to supporting the construction of new projects; the coal-fired power generation efficiency and environmental protection indicators are lagging behind. Enterprises with poor completion of coal-fired power-saving and emission-reduction upgrades and renovations may limit their new projects.

In power dispatch and transportation, in order to encourage energy-efficient and environmental protection units, the utilization hours of leading energy-efficient and environmental protection indicators will be appropriately increased in the distribution of grid-connected electricity. For a coal-fired generating unit whose atmospheric pollutant emission concentration is close to or reaches the gas turbine unit's emission limit, its power generation utilization hours may be increased within a certain period of time. Where it is necessary to implement energy-saving and environmental protection reforms as required, but it is not completed on schedule, the number of hours of power generation use may be appropriately reduced.

In addition, the Action Plan proposes to improve the price tax policy. Study the coal-fired generator set price support policy for atmospheric pollutant emission concentrations that approach or meet the gas turbine unit emission limits. Encourage local governments to formulate support policies for back pressure thermoelectric units according to local conditions and increase support.