The Beijing Electric Power Company of the State Grid Corporation of China announced on Nov. 14 that 407,700 households in 904 villages in Beijing have switched from coal-fired heating to electric heating this year, the final year of the city’s 2013-2017 Five-year Clean Air Action Plan.
The “coal to electricity” project will enable over a million households to enjoy safe and clean electric heating while reducing the consumption of coal by 3.86 million tons this winter. Emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and oxynitride will also be cut by 10.04 million tons, 92,700 tons, and 27,000 tons respectively.
During the past five years, Beijing has retired 4,923 coal-fired boilers -- 99.8 percent of all such boilers across the city -- and cut coal burning by nearly 9 million tons. In 2016-17, the Beijing Electric Power Company of the State Grid Corporation of China implemented “coal to electricity” transformation with an unprecedented scale, completing 1.7 times the workload of that of previous thirteen years combined and bringing electricity to 659,000 households in 1,551 villages.
According to officials at the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, all the central institutions and PLA units stationed in Beijing have eradicated coal-fired boilers. Meanwhile, the capital city has been aggressively cleaning up coal stoves and burners. Up to now 27,390 coal-burning stoves have been recorded and eliminated, and there will be follow-up measures to prevent backsliding.
For gas-fueled boilers, nitrogen-cutting transformation is needed to reduce emission of oxynitride. To this end, Beijing has pioneered in making use of low NOx burner or boiler to cut the exhaust from its source. So far, around 7,000 gas-fired boilers have gone through nitrogen-cutting transformation, which will reduce oxynitride by more than 10,000 tons this winter.
With the increasing use of clean energy, the closure of the four coal-fired power plants, and the commissioning of the four gas-fired thermal power plants, the annual average concentration of sulfur dioxide in Beijing had decreased from 28 micrograms per cubic meter in 2013 to 10 micrograms per cubic meter in 2016, achieving a 64.3 percent drop. By the end of October this year, the accumulated concentration of sulfur dioxide measured 8 micrograms per cubic meter. A new annual record low is in sight.