CR Power in Xuzhou: A New Sample of Green Transformation
15-10-2018 China Energy News

In the autumn, in the factory of Xuzhou / Tongshan CR Power Co., Ltd. ( hereinafter referred to as "Xuzhou CR Power") in "Pengcheng" Xuzhou City, white water vapor emerged lightly from the top of the cooling tower and melted away in the sky. The newly sown winter grass seeds are just inches long and exude grass fragrance. Xuzhou and Tongshan companies are two companies of CR Power. They are managed by two brands and one team, just like the "Pengcheng Power Plant" before that. As one of the country's super-large thermal power companies, the "Pengcheng Power Plant" with a total installed capacity of 3.28 million kilowatts is more like a green garden.

A model of fast speed in Pengcheng by independent development and operation

In 1992, the State Planning Commission approved the Pengcheng Power Plant project and released a new policy to allow foreign capital to enter the power system. The company has thus discovered a new direction of development. In 1994, Xuzhou CR Power Co., Ltd., established by a joint venture of Hong Kong China Resources (Group) Corporation, State Development Investment Corporation, Jiangsu Investment Corporation and Xuzhou Investment Corporation, was founded. "This is CR Power's first thermal power enterprise, which has also become the spark source of CR Power", Li Yi, general manager of Xuzhou CR Power, said.

As a new power company completely independent of the power system, Xuzhou CR Power has been strictly established in accordance with the requirements of the modern enterprise system, and has changed the traditional power-on mode of separation of builders and operators, construction management and management, and embarked on self-construction. The self-managed, self-operated road created the “Pengcheng Model” and opened up a test field for China's power reform.

In the context of the power industry's unregulated power grid, as a market-operated power company, Xuzhou CR Power, which is not in the power system, is difficult to recruit from schools in the East China Power System, not to mention approval from the grid for electricity. Xuzhou CR Power once faced the dilemma of unmarketable electricity.

Faced with difficulties, Xuzhou CR Power actively communicated with local governments and power grid companies to compete for power, and to develop new ways to recruit talents from Gansu and other places. Additionally, a series of innovative management measures, such as setting battle target nodes, signing military orders, and setting up engineering construction awards, combined with militarization management, ensured the smooth progress of engineering construction.

From 1996 to 1997, two 300,000-kilowatt units of Xuzhou CR Power Phase I project were completed and put into production. The construction period was 144 days ahead of the national fixed period, which became the only national key project in the country that did not exceed the estimated budget. Since 2004, the second and third phases of the project have also been completed, resulting in the birth of “Pengcheng Speed".

Clean transformation for sustainable development

In the Xuzhou CR Power plant, high chimneys emit white smoke. Chen Chaohu, deputy general manager of Xuzhou CR Power, said that from 2015 to 2017, Xuzhou CR Power spent RMB 300 million in three years to complete the ultra-low emission renovation of all units, and the emission targets of atmospheric pollutants such as smoke, SO2 and NOx all met the emission standards of gas turbine units and were superior to the national standards, with the total emission of pollutants reduced by 75% compared with that before the renovation.

In fact, when the construction of the first phase of 300,000 kW units was completed, Xuzhou CR Power’s environmental protection facilities were designed according to the advanced domestic technology at that time. Chen Chaohu said that over the years, the company has invested more than RMB 1 billion in environmental protection. In 2012, 2014 and 2015, about RMB 300 million was invested to complete the comprehensive energy-saving transformation of one million KW units. After the transformation, the coal consumption of power supply for the unit has been significantly reduced, and the indexes such as heat consumption of turbine, boiler efficiency and auxiliary power consumption rate are better than those before the transformation.

“Environmental investment will increase costs. Although the investment in the upgrade is more than RMB three billion, according to the annual power generation of 11 billion kWh, the coal consumption of the power supply will be reduced by about 10g/kWh after the transformation, saving 110,000 per year. The ton of standard coal is calculated according to the standard price of RMB 790 /ton of standard coal, and the annual energy saving income is about RMB 86.9 million. Whether from the perspective of enterprise development and management or from the perspective of social responsibility, we should pursue sustainable development", Li Yi said.

Solutions to environmental protection by best practices

In the new era, the survival of coal-fired power is uncertain. In this regard, Xuzhou CR Power guarantees the utilization hours of generator sets on one hand to meet the power demand of users. On the other hand, it strengthens the investment in environmental protection facilities and integrates innovation into urban development.

It is understood that after completing the comprehensive energy-saving renovation of one million KW units, Xuzhou CR Power will also invest RMB 300 million to carry out comprehensive upgrading of high-temperature subcritical units. "After the transformation, the coal consumption for power supply will be reduced to 287g / kWh, becoming the first enterprise in the world to reduce the coal consumption for power generation of pure condensate subcritical units to the level of ultra-supercritical units. At present, the preparatory work for the project transformation is progressing vigorously."

This year, Xuzhou CR Power invested RMB 120 million to carry out flue gas dehumidification, dust reduction and whitening transformation, which will basically eliminate the phenomenon of gypsum rain and colored plume. The local governments in parallel will jointly promote urban water consumption and urban sludge disposal. In addition, Xuzhou CR Power has used urban reclaimed water since April 2015 and currently uses 1.56 million tons of reclaimed water. During the 13th Five-Year Plan, it plans to use 6 million tons of reclaimed water.

In terms of sludge disposal, in 2017-2018, Xuzhou CR Power established a sludge blending project, which can eliminate 100 tons of municipal sludge per day, and was approved by the national coal-fired coupled biomass power generation technical transformation pilot project. The sludge is dried and blended with a capacity of 600 tons/day. "These projects can take urban sludge as available resources, realize harmless and resource-based treatment of urban sludge, improve urban ecological environment and promote circular economy", Li Yi said.