Report Shows Steady Rise in China’s Thermal Power

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--According to the China Electricity Council’s report on the country’s electric power industry, a group composed of China’s power enterprises and institutions, including a nonprofit social and economic organization, has formed recently. Newly added installation capacity in China has been growing quickly in the past few years, reaching a record high of 104.2 million kilowatts in 2006. Newly added installation capacity of thermal power units accounted for 88.33% of the total.

The annual average growth in installed capacity of thermal power during the 10th five-year plan (2001-05) was 10.5%. The annual average growth in installed capacity of thermal power has stayed at 12.59% since 2005, and the growth rate in 2006 was 13.12 percentage points higher than the value in the 10th five-year plan. However, the percentage of hydropower has since decreased. The accelerated growth in thermal power has not only increased coal demand but also increased the pressure on environment protection, the report states.

There are 12 provinces and regions with percentages of hydropower accounting for more than 30%. Except Tibet, the percentage of hydropower in Jiangxi is the lowest with 3.3 million kilowatts of capacity, while Hubei has the largest capacity with 18.3 million kilowatts. Nuclear power is only available in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, but wind power is available in 15 provinces and regions.

In past years, investment in power sources maintained a large portion (over 60%) in the total investment of electric power, and the percentage in 2005 reached a record high of 67.9%.

Compared with 2005, the total investment in power sources maintained stable in 2006. The percentage of thermal power decreased 0.57 percentage points, and the percentage of investment in nuclear power and wind power recently increased 1.90 and 1.77 percentage points, respectively.

Provinces that are strong in power production, such as Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu and Shandong, maintained high investment in power sources in 2006. Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Shandong are top investors in thermal power, while Sichuan topped the growth rate for hydropower investment (46.26%), followed by Hubei and Yunnan.

Investment in grid construction maintained a fast growth rate of more than 20% in recent years, greatly improving the power transmission and supply capacity. Investment in grid construction accounted for 39.6% of the total investment in electric power in 2006, which is 7.47 percentage points higher year over year.

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