In 1967, the installed capacity of thermal power cogeneration sets (of above 6000kW, the following are the same) in China accounts for 20% of the total installed capacity of the thermal power sets of same capacity, in 1980 it was 11%, and in 1987 it fell to 9.6%. Since then it rose gradually, up to 1998 the installed capacity of thermal power cogeneration sets was 24,940,000kW, while the total installed capacity of the thermal power sets of same capacity was 203,810,000kW, the proportion between the installed capacity of thermal power cogeneration sets and the total of equal-capacity thermal power sets rose to 12.24%. Till the end of 2001, the annual heat supply was 1,287,430,000GJ, the total capacity of 1606 heat supply sets reached 32,240,000kW, which was 13.37% of the total installed capacity of equal-capacity thermal power sets. Till the end of 2001, central heat supply facilities have been established in 286 cities among the total of 668 in the country, which accounts for 42.8%. At the end of 2001, the central heat supply capacity in China was: steam: 72242t/h, hot water: 126249mW/h, and the heat supply quantity was: steam 376,550,000GJ/a, hot water: 1,001,920,000GJ/a. Among the total heat supply, steam generated from thermal power cogeneration accounts for 67.11%, and hot water accounts for 27.38%. It is estimated that up to 2020, the total power generation installed capacity in China will amount to around 900,000,000kW, the thermal power cogeneration will account for 22% of the total power generation installed capacity in the country, its proportion in the thermal power sets will be about 37%. Based on the above planning, between 2001 and 2020, an annual increase of about 9,000,000kW in installed capacity is needed for the country, and the annual increased energy conservation capacity is about 8,000,000t of standard coal.

According to the current policies of electrical power industry in our country, thermal power cogeneration sets shall follow the technical principles “electricity production decided by heat, thermal power cogeneration, energy conservation and environment improvement”. Since 1983, ECEC has completed dozens of projects for thermal power generating sets with the installed capacity of 3MW, 6MW, 12MW, 18MW and 25MW series, etc., including 1x75t/h sub-high pressure pulverized coal boiler and 1x12,000kW extraction and condensing turbine generating set in the thermal power station of Anhui Suzhou Huiyuan Power Generation Co., Ltd., 1x130t/h pulverized coal boiler and 2x12,000kW extraction and condensing turbine generating sets in thermal power station of Huainan Chemical Complex, 2x75t/h circulating fluidized bed boilers and 1x12,000kW extraction and condensing turbine generating set in the thermal power station for Hefei southern district, 40t/h low caloric value gas fired boiler and 7500kW extraction and condensing turbine generating set in the newly built thermal power plant (general contracting project) of Zhongxiang (Ma'anshan) Chemical Co., Ltd., 2x130t/h circulating fluidized bed boilers and 1x12,000kW back-pressure turbine generating set for the thermal power plant expansion of Zhongyuan Dahua Group Co., Ltd., and 130t/h pulverized coal boiler and 25,000kW extraction and condensing generating set of Ningbo Tianyangwang Thermal Co., Ltd., etc.

Sample project: Thermal Power Plant of Anhui Suzhou Huiyuan Power Generation Co., Ltd.,

The Thermal Power Plant of Anhui Suzhou Huiyuan Power Generation Co., Ltd. is a regional thermal power plant. The construction site is at Suzhou City of Anhui Province, and the mode of production is thermal power cogeneration and central heat supply. This is a project invested by China Energy Conservation Investment Co., who authorized Construction Bank to grant loan for energy conservation in Anhui province. The capacity of phase I project is a 75t/h sub-high pressure pulverized coal boiler and a 12,000kW extraction and condensing turbine set completed with a 15,000 kW power generation set. Besides, northern city heat supply network for a chemical complex and a pharmaceutical plant were constructed simultaneously.

After the phase I project was put into operation, small area regional heat supply can be realized to replace part of the low efficient and serious polluted small boilers, which played an evident role in improving the social and economic benefit of this city. Meanwhile compared with the existing set, the power generation costs of the newly built set is reduced, the coal consumption rate for power generation is lowered, so energy saving and efficiency improvement have been achieved.