China's State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) on Sunday
disputed claims that coal shortages being experienced around the
nation were related to a campaign to close small coal-fired power
stations.
SAWS said that in 2007, the country eliminated 553 small thermal
power generators with a total capacity of 14.38 million kilowatts,
44 percent above target. Additional stations of this type would be
shut this year, amount to 13 million kw, or about 30 percent more
than the 2007 target.
Small coal-fired power stations were shut down "in dual
consideration of energy saving and environmental protection. Those
stations were out-of-date, wasted a lot of energy, emitted plenty
of pollutants and could not meet work safety requirements," said
Huang Yi, spokesman with SAWS.
He added that most of the country's worst mine accidents had
taken place among illegal facilities. Statistics indicate that
17,000 illegal mining operations have been banned and 11,000 small
stations have been eliminated since 2005.
In 2007, there were 2,900 deaths in coal mine accidents, down
15.5 percent year-on-year and 33.9 percent lower than 2005.
Huang stressed that the closure of small mines had not affected
coal production; rather, he said, it had promoted productivity.
Modern, safe coal and power industries couldn't be built on a small
scale, he said.
The country produced 18.58 million tons of crude coal in
January, up 3.1 percent over the previous year, according to
figures from SAWS.
Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice minister of the National Development and
Reform Commission, also said that current power shortages in some
regions were "absolutely not related to the closure of small
coal-fired power stations. And highly efficient, ecologically
friendly generators, with a total capacity of 100 million
kilowatts, had offset reductions caused by last year's
closure."
Coal reserves most recently stood at about 21 million tons, less
than half of the usual level. Nearly 90 power plants, which
accounted for more than 10 percent of national gross installed
capacity, had less than three days of coal reserves, the State
Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) reported late last
week.
Coal transport has been hampered by a combination of the harsh
weather that has affected much of the country and rising passenger
rail traffic as the Spring Festival approaches. Simultaneously,
cold weather has increased coal demand for heating, and heavy rail
traffic is also pushing up demand for coal, which helps power the
rail system.
(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2008)