China disputes claim of coal shortage link to power plant closings

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 Those stations were out-of-date, wasted a lot of energy, emitted plenty of pollutants and could not meet work safety requirements,” said Huang Yi, spokesman with SAWS.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.

Xinhua