With photovoltaic panels installed on rooftops, a solar farm in Yuanqu county supplies clean power to local grids. [Photo by Xue Jun for China Daily]

Province's energy producers turn to intelligent, green technologies

As an important coal-mining and energy industry hub in China, Shanxi province has been a major contributor to ensuring the country's energy safety over the past decades, according to local officials and industry insiders.

Miao Huanli, deputy chief of the Shanxi Provincial Energy Administration, said the North China province, based on its rich reserves, has produced a total of 21.7 billion metric tons of coal since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. More than 14 billion tons have been shipped to 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China to meet their demands for power, industrial raw materials and fuel for households.

Over the past four decades since the reform and opening-up initiatives began in the late 1970s, Shanxi has generated one-fourth of China's total coal output and more than 70 percent of the country's total exports of coal, according to Miao.

"If we used all the coal to build a wall with a cross-section area of 49 square meters, it would be equal to 35 Great Walls of China," Miao said proudly.

"As the province has supplied a large proportion of its coal output to the rest of country－more than 60 percent in the past seven decades and more than 70 percent in the past four decades－to meet the nation's demands for energy supply, it's no exaggeration to say that Shanxi has been one of the leading contributors to our national economy," Miao added.

Miao noted that behind such a remarkable contribution is a strong sense of corporate social responsibility among local coal and other energy producers.

This is especially true in recent years, Miao said, in the context that corporate interests and CSR are equally addressed.

Since the third quarter of last year, some regions in China have suffered power shortages due to a short supply and rising prices of coal and other energy resources.

Shanxi's energy companies, especially coal producers, recognize power shortages pose a challenge to national economic development and people's lives. So they have renewed their efforts to increase output to meet the country's increasing demand for coal and electricity.

According to the provincial energy administration, Shanxi's daily output of coal has been maintained at 3.3 million tons since October. Its total output during the first 11 months of 2021 amounted to 1.1 billion tons, increasing 12.4 percent or 120 million tons from the same period of 2020. Full-year output reached 1.19 billion tons in 2021.

The administration also said that the province supplied 110.76 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to other regions during the first 11 months of 2021, which surpassed the total volume of the whole of 2020.

Generally speaking, Miao said the short supply of coal in China has been eased in recent years, and it has been made possible for Shanxi's coal and energy producers to shift their CSR focus to other areas rather than merely ensuring supply.

Industry players in Shanxi are making more efforts in setting themselves up as role models in the fields of energy industry transformation, sustainability and safe production, according to Miao.

One recent initiative among local players is to improve operational efficiency, enhance production safety and lower emissions through the use of intelligent, digitalized as well as other advanced technologies, techniques and solutions.

According to Miao, Shanxi plans to develop 10 pilot smart mines and 50 pilot smart mining shafts in the next three years, with all the coal mines in the province to go smart by 2030.

The Shaqu No 2 Coal Mine, a subsidiary of Shanxi Coking Coal Group, is one of the pioneers in smart mining.

The coal mine's operations are now controlled by its smart coordinating center. At the center, a huge display shows all the data and images of all mining shafts underground.

"We have only a few inspection workers in the shafts," said Chen Pengfei, a Shaqu No 2 executive responsible for smart production. "Automation has been used in most of the operations, including coal cutting and conveying."

"As we have all the smart equipment and devices in place, we can launch almost all the operations by merely pressing a button."

The executive noted that the use of digital and other advanced equipment will eventually free all manpower in underground operations, and even the inspection and monitoring work will be done by 5G-connected sensors in the near future. "Such a level of automation can greatly improve workplace safety and efficiency."

Shanxi's power enterprises are also contributing their efforts to addressing the industry's sustainability by promoting their own clean production solutions.

These solutions include building more near-mine power plants featuring cleaner production and installing more high-capacity electricity transmission grids to reach the rest of the country.

Changzhi Power Generation, a subsidiary of local coal-mining and electricity giant Jinneng Holding Group, is one of the companies that is developing more near-mine generation facilities with high-performance and high-efficiency generators.

In a recent development, the company announced the operation of two generators with a capacity of 1 million kilowatts in February 2021.

Li Jinzhong, general manager of Changzhi Power Generation, said the two supercritical and air-cooled generators can reduce 10 grams of coal consumption for every kilowatt-hour of electricity. "That can translate into 100,000 tons of coal a year, which means a substantial reduction in emissions," Li said.

He noted that other environmentally friendly technologies, including recycled use of water, desulfurization, denitration and dust removal, have been used in the new facility, which can further economize the use of resources and reduce pollution.

According to the provincial energy administration, the province's power generation companies launched renovations on their 16 large power generation sets last year for clean and high-efficiency production.

Shanxi-produced electricity is now transmitted to the rest of the country via nine routes and 18 superhigh-voltage grids, according to Wang Zhengtao, board chairman of Shanxi Electricity.

"The capacity of our grids to other regions of the country currently stands at 38.3 million kW," Wang said. "That's equal to one-third of the power generation capacity in Shanxi."

Guo Yanjie contributed to this story.