Coal-fired power plants played a key role in Beijing’s energy supply back in the 2000s, but they were shut down or completely switched to gas in the 2010s. First among them was the Gaojing power plant, which consisted of six power units with a total capacity of 600 megawatts (MW).
Its first two power units were converted to gas to generate electricity, and the other four were shut down completely, including due to low efficiency: they were classified as so-called “subcritical” power units, which have the efficiency of converting thermal energy into electricity of 33% to 37% (versus 37–40% for “supercritical” power units and 44–46% for “ultra-supercritical” power plants that use solid fuel as feedstock).
In 2015, three more subcritical coal-fired power plants were closed: the Shijingshan TPP, consisting of four units with a total capacity of 800 MW, which were launched between 1988 and 1994; the 150 MW Beijing Jingneng TPP, whose two power units had provided the city with electricity since 1991 and 1995, respectively; and the Beijing Yire TPP, which had been generating electricity since 1999.
Last on the list was the Huaneng Beijing TPP, which consisted of five coal-fired power units with a total capacity of 845 MW: the first one was completely decommissioned in 2017, while the second and third ones were converted to gas in 2011 and 2017, respectively, and the fourth and fifth ones are currently mothballed for an indefinite period. As a result, Beijing has no coal-fired power units left in operation.
At the same time, more than ten new gas-fired power plants have been opened in the city, including the 998 MW Huaneng Beijing TPP, which was launched in 2017, the 845 MW Beijing Energy Gao’antun Gas TPP (2014) and the 838 MW Beijing Energy Caoqiao Gas TPP (2013).
As a result, gas demand in Beijing rose from 12 billion cubic metres in 2014 to more than 20 billion cubic metres in 2022, which is comparable to annual gas consumption in Kazakhstan.
Even more important has been the environmental effect reflected in a significant reduction in the number of days, during which the concentration of CO2 in the atmospheric air exceeded the norm.
