Current situation of thermal power generation industry: It is still the most important form of power generation

Thermal power generation mainly refers to the use of combustible heat generated during combustion, through the power generation power plant to convert into electrical energy, including coal-fired power generation, gas power generation, fuel power generation, waste heat power generation, waste power generation and biomass power generation and other specific forms.

1, thermal power generation is the most important form of power generation in China

Thermal power generation is the oldest and most important power generation method in China, accounting for about 70% of the total installed capacity and total power generation for a long time.

In recent years, China's thermal power generation continues to increase. According to the data, in 2021, China's thermal power generation will be 5770.27 billion KWH, an increase of 8.4%. In January-February 2022, the national thermal power generation was 986.37 billion KWH, accounting for about 75.06% of the national power generation.

China's total installed capacity of thermal power also continues to grow. According to the data, in 2021, China's thermal power generation installed capacity of 1,296.78 million kilowatts, an increase of 4.1%, accounting for 54.56% of the total caliber power generation installed capacity.

2. Thermal power generation mainly uses thermal coal

According to the "China's thermal power generation industry development trend analysis and future prospects Research Report (2022-2029)" released by the research Report network, China's thermal power generation is mainly used by thermal coal, and it is domestic thermal coal. Data show that in 2020, China's thermal coal consumption is 3.437 billion tons, of which the thermal coal used in the thermal power industry is the most, accounting for more than 60%. In 2021, among the 1,296.78 million kilowatts of installed thermal power capacity in China, the installed coal power capacity will be 1,109.01 million kilowatts, accounting for 46.7% of the total installed capacity.

Thermal coal refers to coal used as a power raw material. Generally, in a narrow sense, it refers to coal used for thermal power generation. However, in a broad sense, all the coal used to generate power for the purpose of power generation, locomotive propulsion, boiler combustion, etc., belongs to power coal, referred to as thermal coal.

In 2021, the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus epidemic has become normal, the domestic economy has recovered, the electricity consumption of the whole society has increased, the demand for coal as the main energy has increased, and the production of raw coal has exceeded 4 billion tons, hitting a record high. Data show that in 2021, China's raw coal production completed 4.13 billion tons.

3, under the gradual strengthening of environmental protection, thermal power technology will develop in the direction of clean and efficient

Although thermal power generation is the oldest generation method in China, the technology is relatively mature, the cost is low, and the geographical environment is low. However, thermal power generation causes a lot of pollution, and part of the energy contained in the fuel in the power generation can be converted into electricity, and the rest is lost through various ways, including boiler loss, turbine loss, exhaust loss, generator loss, etc., the thermal energy utilization rate of large thermal power plants can only reach 60-70%; In addition, with the continuous shortage of natural resources, the price of coal and oil continues to rise, which directly affects the economic benefits of thermal power generation.

In recent years, with the gradual deterioration of China's ecological environment, China gradually attaches more importance to the environmental protection of thermal power generation. For example, the proposal of the "carbon neutral" policy further promotes the transformation of China's energy market to the direction of digitalization, information technology and wisdom, and the thermal power industry, as the main source of carbon dioxide emissions, accounts for 45% of carbon emissions, and is the current focus of energy conservation and emission reduction. Under the policy guidance of "big pressure on small", China actively promotes the optimization and upgrading of thermal power industry structure, and closes a large number of small thermal power units with low energy efficiency and heavy pollution, which has largely accelerated the replacement of domestic thermal power equipment.

In this context, China's thermal power generation market has contracted, the average utilization hours of thermal power generation as a whole showed a downward trend, and the proportion of electricity generation in the entire power generation market showed a slight decline year by year. Data show that in the whole year of 2021, the average utilization hours of thermal power generation in China was 4,354 hours, down 517 hours from 2013; Thermal power generation accounted for 60.0% of the total power generation, down 0.7 percentage points year-on-year.