Datang Power, one of China's leading power producers is planning to add up to six 600 MW (megawatt) coal-fired power generating units in Tangshan, North China's Hebei Province, said a spokesman from Datang Power yesterday. There are two units there already.

 

Datang Power and Hebei Construction Investment Co Ltd agreed on Sunday to create a new company, Wangtan Power Company, to build and operate the whole power plant in Tangshan, said a statement on Datang Power's Web site.

 

Under the agreement, Beijing-based Datang and Hebei Construction will invest 5.94 billion yuan (US$734 million) in the plant. Datang will provide 70 percent of the money and Hebei Construction will make up the balance, said the statement.

 

The plant is located in the Tangshan Port Development Zone, Hebei Province, where there is a lot of coal. The Wangtan Power Plant Project now consists of two 600 MW (megawatt) coal-fired power generating units. The plant project is now in its testing stage and is run by Datang Power.

 

According to a spokesman at Datang Power who declined to be named, they are considering adding four to six power generating units in the power plant in the next decade. He said they have not decided when the new units will begin operation

 

The electricity generated by the project will all be sold to the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Power Grid. Datang Power believes the power plant will take advantage of the growing demand for electricity in the area.

 

Apart from the Wangtan Power Plant, Datang Power is considering other projects in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Bohai Bay area this year, said the firm's spokesman.

 

The company is also planning to use the abundant water resources in the western parts of China. Datang Power is going to build hydro power plants in Chongqing Municipality as well as South China's Yunnan Province, said the spokesman.

 

He said that by 2014, hydroelectricity will account for around 25 percent of the electricity generated by the firm. Now it only accounts for 1 percent of the output.

 

In October last year, Datang Power announced that for the first three quarters of 2005, the total power generated by the company reached 53.305 billion kwh (kilowatt hour), an increase of 34.3 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

 

Most of China's power plants are now coal-fired. The country is adding hydro, nuclear and fossil-fuel capacity to fill the power gap.

 

(China Daily January 12, 2006)