China Focus: Coal base ramps up energy supply for winter needs

HOHHOT, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China's leading coal production base, has kicked its production into high gear to meet heating needs as cold waves send temperatures plunging in the country.

"We have conducted comprehensive overhauls of production equipment to ensure that they would function well in low temperatures as we continue to boost production," said Wang Wei, a worker at an open-pit coal mine owned by Zhunneng Group, a subsidiary of China Energy Investment Corporation (China Energy).

Although the mine finished this year's projected production task as early as November, it is still actively producing to cope with the energy demand. Tuesday alone saw the mining of about 80,000 tonnes of coal from the pit.

Besides Zhunneng Group, the Shendong Coal Group Company under China Energy is also unleashing production capacity with all its 13 mines and 11 coal-washing plants running at full capacity.

Trains run daily from the coal production base in Erdos, Inner Mongolia, carrying raw coal across the country, fueling thermal power plants to warm millions of households.

According to data from the Inner Mongolia Energy Bureau, the region's coal output reached 970 million tonnes in the first 10 months of this year, up 13.6 percent year on year, of which 600 million tonnes were sent out of the region to meet the coal demands of 29 provincial-level regions across China.

In addition to raw coal supply, Inner Mongolia also sends out electricity, relying on the region's strong thermal power generation capacity.

The Inner Mongolia Datang International Togtoh Power Generation Co., Ltd., located in the regional capital Hohhot, is currently the world's largest thermal power plant in service. With a total installed capacity of 6.7 million kilowatts, the company generates more than 30 billion kWh of electricity annually, ensuring power supply for the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan area.

The company said that since the start of winter, it has ensured a stable supply to feed the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan power grid.

In the first 10 months of 2022, the cumulative power generation in Inner Mongolia amounted to 528.4 billion kWh, up 5.7 percent year on year. The region's power transmission volume during this period reached 214.2 billion kWh, up 4.8 percent year on year -- ranking first in China in terms of the power transmission volume of all provincial-level regions.

The East Inner Mongolia Electric Power Co., Ltd. of the State Grid Corporation of China has built the world's first ultra-high voltage hybrid power system, which can send electricity generated from both thermal and wind power plants in Inner Mongolia to the grid.

Inner Mongolia also logged 1.29 million tonnes of crude oil output and 25.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas output in the first 10 months, up 33.9 percent and 4.4 percent year on year, respectively.

Wang Jinbao, director of the Inner Mongolia Energy Bureau, said with its target of building into China's important national energy and strategic resource base, Inner Mongolia will further promote the energy revolution, and continue to upgrade the energy production, supply, storage and sales systems to help safeguard national energy security.