By Wan Zhihong (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-09 10:12

China Huaneng Group, the nation's largest power producer, said yesterday it produced 16 percent more electricity last year, after adding plants to meet rising demand.

The company's total installed power capacity at the end of last year was 71.6 million kW, and it produced 327.1 billion kWh of electricity, Huaneng said yesterday.

The utility made several breakthroughs last year, including construction of the Yuhuan thermal power plant - the world's largest ultra supercritical power facility.

Located in Zhejiang Province's Yuhuan, the plant has four 1,000-megawatt (MW) generating units. It's also the nation's first project to use the world's most advanced thermal power technology.

With ultra supercritical technology, a power-generating unit operates under a mix of temperatures and pressures above the critical point, at which the boundary of water's liquid and vapor state disappears. By eliminating the transition of water into steam, the power units increase fuel efficiency.

Total investment in the plant is 15.6 billion yuan ($2.15 billion). The first phase, which includes two 1,000-MW generating units, was finished in December 2006.

According to Huaneng, the four units will save 400,000 tons of coal equivalent, compared with supercritical power plants. CO2 emissions will also be reduced by over 500,000 tons, and sulfur dioxide by over 6,000 tons.

The company is also developing China's first nuclear plant using high-temperature gas-cooled technology. The 200-MW Shidaowan plant involves a total investment of 3 billion yuan.

Huaneng is developing the project with China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corp and Tsinghua University.

China's first 10-MW high-temperature gas-cooled experimental reactor was designed and built by the Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology of Tsinghua University and began generating power in January 2003.

Earlier media reports said Huaneng was among the nine companies short-listed by the Singapore government as potential bidders for the $2 billion Tuas station, a major power generator in the city state.

But Huaneng declined to comment yesterday.