-Beijing Cold Out Circle At 18 ℃: Emergency Restart Of Coal-Fired Power Plant And Large Increase Of Coal-Fired Gas Supply In Winter

North China, which has already experienced the cold, ushered in a stronger cold wave on January 6.

According to China Weather Network, the Central Meteorological Station issued the first cold wave warning in 2021. Affected by the cold wave, there will be strong wind cooling and continuous low temperature weather in Beijing. According to the weather in Beijing, there was strong wind and strong cooling weather in Beijing during the day of the 6th. According to the actual monitoring, the temperature in most areas of the plain is about - 18 ℃ at 20:00. Among them, - 17.9 ℃ has broken through the extreme minimum temperature (- 16.7 ℃) in the first ten days of January in recent 20 years. The temperature in the plain area is expected to be - 20 ℃ in the morning of July.

The continuous low temperature not only tests the people's warm clothing in North China, but also tests the energy security level of Beijing and other cities in North China. Since this year, both the price of steam coal and LNG has maintained a very high rise in winter, and the consumption of power grid is also increasing sharply.

According to the State Grid Beijing electric power company, as of 20:18 on December 29, 2020, the power load of Beijing power grid has reached 22.88 million kilowatts, breaking the peak of 21.56 million kilowatts on December 15, 2020, setting a new record in winter. During the new year's day, the power load of Beijing power grid remains at a high level. The maximum load is expected to be about 21.5 million kilowatts, an increase of 6.6% over the same period last year.

With the sharp increase of load, the only coal-fired power plant in Beijing has also started to be put into operation urgently, and the supply of steam coal and natural gas will soon be guaranteed. The whole chain of energy industry in North China is working hard against this severe winter.

Commissioning of coal fired power plant

At 9:42 a.m. on March 18, 2017, the coal-fired units of Huaneng Beijing thermal power plant, the last large-scale coal-fired power plant in Beijing, shut down for standby, marking that the Beijing power plant has entered an era of "coal-free", and therefore Beijing has become the first city in China to use low-carbon energy for power generation.

At the end of December 2020, Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Plant announced that No.3 and No.4 coal-fired units of Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Plant were started on December 26 and 28, and the grid connection was successful at one time. It is reported that all four coal-fired units of Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Plant have completed emergency start-up, and full load heating can replace gas-fired units, which consumes about 7.2 million standard cubic meters of natural gas per day.

It is reported that Huaneng Beijing thermal power plant, which was put into operation in 1999, is located in Gaobeidian, the eastern suburb of Beijing. With an installed capacity of 1.7684 million kilowatts, it is responsible for 10% of the power supply, 70% of the gas supply and 30% of the central heating in Beijing. It is an important power and heat source support point in Beijing.

Huaneng Beijing thermal power plant has also become the only coal-fired power plant in Beijing that can be restarted after the announcement of shutdown and standby in early 2017. At the end of 2017, it was also a cold winter. Natural gas shortage occurred in several provinces in North China, and LNG prices soared to more than 11000 yuan / ton. At that time, Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Plant restarted units 1 and 2. After that, the power plant will restart almost every peak to meet Beijing's electricity demand.

In September 2013, the Beijing municipal government issued the Beijing clean air action plan 2013-2017, which proposed to realize the gas-fired power production. In that year, on the basis of the southeast and southwest gas thermal power centers put into operation, two units were completed and put into operation in the northwest gas thermal power center. The main structure of the Northeast gas thermal power center was capped, and the coal-fired units of keliyuan thermal power plant were shut down.

In 2014, the northwest and northeast gas thermal power centers were completed and put into operation, and the coal-fired units of Gaojing thermal power plant were shut down. In 2015, the new gas-fired generating units of Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Plant were completed and put into operation, and the coal-fired units of Guohua and Jingneng thermal power plants were shut down. In 2016, the coal-fired units of Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Plant were shut down.

Under the promotion of this document, on the one hand, Beijing carried out a vigorous "coal to gas" action at the power generation end, leaving only one standby unit of Huaneng thermal power plant; on the other hand, it vigorously promoted the "coal to electricity" transformation at the user end, resulting in the rapid rise of power load, especially heating load, in winter, which increased the pressure of power supply in Beijing.

In addition to Huaneng Beijing thermal power plant, Beijing Thermal Power Group announced on the 6th that 17 peak boilers will be started to supplement heat sources for the urban heat supply network. It is reported that on the morning of the 6th, two 116 MW peak boilers of the Xima Jianfeng heating plant were started ahead of schedule last night. All the peak units involved Fangzhuang, Shuangyushu, Xima, Beichen and Huajiadi heating plants.

"Peak boiler is a standby boiler used when the temperature is very low and the demand for heating energy reaches a peak." A power industry source told reporters, "peak boilers are all gas-fired boilers, without the drying process of coal-fired boilers, and can be put into heating in a short time. Only in severe cold weather or when the heating temperature of municipal heating network is not enough, it will be put into operation."

When the thermal power plant is fully opened, steam coal and natural gas, as the most important energy supply, are also in full swing.

Coal gas supply guarantee

In response to a reporter's question on December 27, 2020, the relevant person in charge of the economic operation Bureau of the national development and Reform Commission said that in response to the arrival of a new round of cold weather, the national development and Reform Commission coordinated all parties to make a series of preparations from both sides of supply and demand. From the current supply and demand situation, although there may be increased pressure to guarantee supply in some regions and some time periods, it is generally balanced, and the people's livelihood uses gas What can be guaranteed is that the people can live a warm winter.

In terms of thermal coal, due to the cold winter and limited incremental supply, the price of its main futures contract has been rising since late October 2020, rising all the way to the high point of 777.2 yuan / ton on December 11, and then has been fluctuated and lowered. As of the press release, the steam coal report is 684.2 yuan / ton, still at the high point for many years.

In terms of spot goods, due to the current winter cold wave weather, the daily consumption of power plants is accelerated, and the inventory of power plants is obviously reduced. At present, the market replenishment is actively carried out. Meanwhile, the non power industry is still in the peak period of production, and the periodic contradiction between supply and demand is still in place. Therefore, under the overall tight domestic and foreign supply and demand pattern, domestic coal prices show a high rise and difficult to fall trend.

In terms of production, under the policy background of withdrawing backward production capacity in 2020, China's coal production capacity is undergoing an adjustment period. According to the public information, Shanxi Province plans to withdraw 20.74 million tons of coal production capacity in 2020, actually close 32 coal mines, reduce and reorganize 42 coal mines, with a total output capacity of 36.04 million tons, exceeding the annual target of capacity reduction.

"At present, the main factor to maintain the price of steam coal is actually the supply and demand fundamentals." An analyst in the coal industry told reporters, "in the past, ports often acted as a reservoir, but from now on, the enterprises waiting for coal production are just in need. Many coal produced are sold at the pit mouth, and will not be transported to the port. In addition, the natural gas is still cooling down, and the supply will not keep up for a while or a half. This kind of supply and demand fundamentals are short It's not likely to get better. "

In terms of LNG, according to the data of Shanghai oil and gas trading center, the ex factory price of LNG has been rising since late November, rising from about 3500 yuan / ton to about 6400 yuan / ton at the end of December, with an increase of more than 80%; then, as several central enterprises began to increase supply, the price began to decline step by step, with 3745 yuan / ton on January 6.

"In fact, in the first three quarters of 2020, including after winter, three barrels of oil and a series of information released by the national pipeline network, China's natural gas is not lacking." Liu guangbin, director of less better natural gas division, said, "as a result, with the release of supply guarantee information and the increase of Russian gas supply, the price of LNG has declined rapidly."

In terms of PetroChina, since the formal heating on November 15, 2020, the national average daily gas supply has increased by about 10% year on year. In the face of cold winter, China's overall domestic and foreign resources increased by 11.3% during the winter supply period to ensure the stable supply of natural gas resources.

In terms of Sinopec, since the start of heating season on November 1, 2020, Sinopec has supplied more than 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the market, with a year-on-year increase of 18%. Among them, about 5 billion cubic meters were supplied to seven northern provinces and cities, with a year-on-year increase of 31%, and a year-on-year increase of 7% for other regions.

In terms of CNOOC, in order to ensure the stable supply of natural gas in the heating season, CNOOC actively raises resources and strengthens the coordination of the industrial chain. This winter and next spring, China plans to supply 25.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas, an increase of 17% over the same period last year.

However, despite the huge increase in supply, it is not surprising that there is a certain degree of shortage during the winter peak period in terms of China's natural gas consumption characteristics. Taking Beijing as an example, the difference in gas consumption between peak and trough periods is about 12 times, and consumption peaks of nearly 200 million cubic meters per day tend to appear in winter peak periods. Too large a gap will often challenge the management of natural gas reserves, transportation and deployment, and thus affect prices.

"Therefore, at the time of this cold wave, from yesterday (5th), the price of LNG showed signs of rising again." "In the future, I don't think the price of natural gas is likely to exceed the peak at the end of December 2020," the industry source told reporters

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