Xinhua Beijing, December 2 (Reporter Chen Weiwei) 2, the State Council executive meeting decided to comprehensively implement ultra-low emissions and energy-saving transformation of coal-fired power plants, and significantly reduce coal consumption and pollution emissions for power generation. 

This is an important measure for China to improve the clean and efficient utilization of coal power and reduce pollutant emissions from the source. 

Coal is the main energy source in China. 

As of 2014, coal still accounted for more than 60% of China's primary energy consumption. 

The impact of coal-based energy structure on the environment can not be underestimated. 

According to the Action Plan for Clean and efficient Utilization of Coal in the Industrial sector released at the beginning of this year, 70 percent of the country's smoke and dust emissions, 85 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions and 67 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions come from coal-based fossil energy combustion. 

Coal for power generation accounts for about half of China's coal consumption. 

According to the development plan, China will strive to increase the proportion of thermal coal in coal consumption to more than 60% by 2020. 

Under the background that the coal-based energy structure is difficult to change in the short term and the proportion of thermal coal continues to increase, it is of obvious significance to make coal-fired power plants cleaner and more efficient. 

The executive meeting of the State Council proposed the comprehensive implementation of ultra-low emission and energy-saving transformation of coal-fired units, and defined the "roadmap" of the transformation from the two aspects of "energy saving" and "emission reduction". 

In terms of energy conservation, the meeting made it clear that by 2020, the average coal consumption of all active power plants will be less than 310 grams per kilowatt-hour, and that the average coal consumption of new power plants will be less than 300 grams, and that the eastern and central regions will meet the standards ahead of 2017 and 2018 if they are resolutely eliminated and shut down if they do not meet the requirements of relevant mandatory standards. 

To reduce the coal consumption of power supply needs to break through multiple technical problems, and people in the thermal power industry often use "grinding one gram in ten years" to describe its difficulty. 

The standard coal consumption for power supply of power plants of 6000 kilowatts and above nationwide was 318g / kWh in 2014, according to the China Federation of Power and Power. 

In the future, there is still room for the reduction of power supply coal consumption by raising the threshold of unit access, reforming existing units, eliminating backward units, and continuing to promote technological research. 

In terms of emission reduction, the meeting put forward the transformation route of ultra-low emissions. 

According to industry experts, ultra-low emission is through technical means to make the atmospheric pollutant emission concentration of coal-fired power generation units meet the emission standards of natural gas turbine units. 

The Action Plan for Energy Saving, Emission reduction and Transformation of Coal Power (2014-2020) issued last year clearly defines the emission limits of gas turbine units: under the condition of 6% benchmark oxygen content, the emission concentrations of soot, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are no more than 10 mg / m3, 35 mg / m3 and 50 mg / m3, respectively. 

The economic benefit of ultra-low emission transformation of coal-fired power generation is obvious. 

Zhang Yuzhuo, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at the International Energy Reform Forum held a few days ago that at present, the online electricity price for coal-fired power generation is 0.3 yuan / kWh, which is far lower than the 0.8 yuan / kWh price for natural gas power generation. 

After the ultra-low emission transformation, power generation from coal can achieve the same emission or even lower, and the cost is only half of that of natural gas power generation. 

According to relevant estimates, after the completion of the transformation of coal-fired units, about 100 million tons of raw coal can be saved every year, carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced by 180 million tons, and the total emission of major pollutants in the power industry can be reduced by about 60 percent. 

At present, some places and power enterprises have carried out ultra-low emission transformation and exploration. 

The reporter learned that Shanxi Province proposed that by the end of 2017, the emission standards of major pollutants from conventional coal-fired generating units with a unit capacity of 300000 kilowatts or more should meet or be better than those of gas-fired generating units, and formulated a three-year promotion plan and an annual action plan. 

However, the early investment of ultra-low emission transformation is large, and enterprises are facing the cost pressure of transformation. 

The executive meeting of the State Council proposed that we should increase policy incentives for ultra-low emissions and energy-saving transformation, invest mainly in enterprises, give policy support to the central and local governments, and increase financing support such as preferential credit and bond issuance.