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Coal consumption of China power industry to reach 60% by 2020

Coal consumption in China’s power industry is expected to account for 60% of the country’s total coal use by 2020, compared with the current 50%, according to the 13th Five-Year Plan.

This means that more coal would be used for power generation, as the government advocates use of the clean energy, said one official with China Electricity Council at the 3rd Global Thermal Coal Resource & Market Summit on November 13.

China’s consumption of primary energy was expected to be 4.8 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent by 2020, with coal consumption at 4.2 billion tonnes, the official said in the summit.

Total installed power capacity across the country would reach around 1.8 TW by 2020, according to the plan, with thermal, hydropower, wind, solar and nuclear power capacity at 1.1TW, 350GW, 200GW, 100GW and 58GW, respectively.

By 2020, coal consumed for per kWh of power output should be limited within 310g of standard coal equivalent; while that of 600MW-above thermal units and new thermal units should be within 300g.

Coal consumption of per kWh of power output averaged 318g of standard coal equivalent in 2014.

Power consumption has slowed in China this year, due to lackluster industrial activity. In the first three quarters, China’s power consumption saw a slight year-on-year rise of 0.8%, and the average growth of the whole year is expected to be 1% or so.

Over January-September, power consumption in industrial sector fell 4.6% on year; while service sector and residential sector rose 7.43% and 3.9%, respectively.

The utilization of power generating units saw a decline of over 200 hours from the previous year. The average utilization hour of thermal units over January-September stood at 3,245 hours, and that of the whole year was predicted to see a sharp decline from the previous year.

The newly-added installed capacity may reach 1.47 TW this year, compared with last year’s 1.36TW.

source: http://en.sxcoal.com