World's First Air-Cooled, Ultra-Supercritical, Coal-Fired Unit Begins Operations in Ningxia

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Unit 3 of Huadian Ningxia Lingwu Power Generation Company Limited's (Yinchuan, Ningxia) Lingwu Power Plant Phase II expansion project in Ningxia passed the 168-hour, full-load trial operation on December 28, 2010. This is the world's first 1,000-megawatt (MW), air-cooled, ultra-supercritical, coal-fired unit to be put into operation.

Construction of Unit 3 took just 21 months from the placing of the first bucket of concrete for the main powerhouse to the completion of the trial operation. Since the first concrete date in March 2009, the unit successfully passed the water pressure test, ignition test, steam turbine test and on-grid test, and all automations, instruments and protection devices are in operation. Presently, various operation indicators and parameters of the unit are rated at an excellent level.

As reported, the unit could save more than 80% in water consumption. Compared with a conventional wet-cooled unit, the unit could save about 13 million tons of water each year. This could greatly promote power development in places such as Ningxia, which is rich in coal resources but lacks water supply.

Huadian Lingwu Power Plant is a 5,000-MW, large-scale pithead power base planned to be built in three phases by China Huadian Corporation in Lingwu, a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Yinchuan City in northwest China's Ningxia autonomous region. Two 660-MW units for Phase I were commissioned in July and September 2007, respectively. The Phase II project will be furnished with two 1,060-MW, ultra-supercritical, air-cooled units, presently the largest of their kind in the world. Upon completion, the project will become an important power source support for the nation's program to transmit power to eastern areas.

View Project Report - 88000595

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. IIR's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.