Beijing to shake up its energy infrastructure

People's Daily Online
December 12, 2006

Beijing is going to boost its power-generating capacity and do more to promote conservation, according to an official plan released yesterday. The plan's goal is to diversify and secure a stable energy supply for the capital city.

"We aim to establish a secure energy-supply system to guarantee a successful Olympic Games and to meet the increasing demand of the city's social and economic growth," said Liu Yinchun, an official with the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, at a press meeting yesterday.

According to the Plan for Energy Development and Saving (2006-10), the construction of energy infrastructure will be the municipal government's top priority in the coming years.

To strengthen the city's ring power grid, six more 500-kilovolt transformer substations will be built in the suburbs. The city will also build four more thermal power plants, adding 1.5 million kilowatts of power a year and central heating to cover 25 million square metres of space. A new 90-kilometre thermal power pipe will be built in central Beijing, improving the city's heating system.

Several major projects involving liquid natural gas and underground gas and oil deposits will also be completed by 2010. In addition to capacity building, the plan calls for Beijing to become a model of energy-conservation for the whole country by 2010.

Beijing became China's second most energy-consuming city last year after Shanghai, requiring energy equivalent to 55.22 million tons of standard coal. The city's per-capita energy consumption reached 3.6 tons of standard coal during the period, 2.1 times of national average.
The plan seeks to limit the city's energy consumption to 65 million tons of standard coal by 2010.

The plan also calls on the city to reform its energy structure by increasing the share of high-quality energy sources like electricity, natural gas and renewable energy in the city's overall energy supply.

The plan says 70 per cent of the total energy consumed will come from high-quality sources, compared with the current 57 per cent. The plan also places a greater emphasis on renewable energy sources, like geothermal, solar, biomass and wind energy.

By 2010, renewable energy is expected to account for 4 per cent of all the energy consumed in Beijing, compared with the present 1 per cent. Heat from renewable sources will cover 40 million square metres, 6 per cent of the city's total heating area.

Liu said Beijing was dedicated to reducing energy consumption and had shown progress in doing so in recent years. Beijing consumed 0.8 tons of standard coal per 10,000 yuan (US$1,250) of GDP last year, representing a drop of 39 per cent from 2000. The new plan calls for this number to drop by 20 per cent from the 2005 figure by 2010.

"We will gradually transform energy-consuming enterprises and eventually eliminate the development of major energy-consuming industries and products," Liu said.