The key facts

  • The first power unit of the Golmud plant passed a 168-hour test and was put into commercial operation
  • The plant at an altitude of ~2,850 m is the highest among ultra-supercritical coal power units
  • Two units of 660 MW each are expected to deliver about 6 billion kWh per year — enough for roughly 6.6 million people

Launch at 2,850 meters above sea level

In the Chinese city of Golmud in Qinghai province, in the country's northwest, commercial operation has begun for the first power-generating unit of a coal-fired power plant that runs on steam with ultra-high temperature and pressure. The first unit successfully passed a 168-hour test and was put into commercial use. According to launch reports, the plant is the highest-altitude among power units of this class: it is located at an average altitude of about 2,850 meters above sea level.

Plant specifications and its role in the power grid

The plant consists of two power-generating units of 660 MW each, equipped with equipment designed for ultra-supercritical steam parameters. Once both units are in operation, the expected annual output will be about six billion kilowatt-hours — which, according to the cited estimates, is enough to cover the annual electricity needs of approximately 6.6 million people. The plant is intended to reliably supply consumers and, at the same time, to compensate for fluctuations in the output of renewable energy sources: it increases the stability of Qinghai province's power grid and creates reserve capacity for connecting renewable energy on a large scale.

Technical challenges of high altitudes

Building a coal-fired power plant at such an altitude involves serious technical difficulties: thin air, low oxygen content and reduced atmospheric pressure make it hard to burn coal efficiently, while a high content of alkali substances in the fuel can lead to the formation of slag layers and ash accumulation in the boilers. To address these problems, the plant has adopted oxygen technologies for ignition and combustion stabilization, allowing operation even at very low loads, and a specially designed boiler system ensures the burning of coal with a high alkali content and power output control in response to fluctuations in electricity demand. Thus, according to the project's assessment, a number of key technical limitations of coal power in high-altitude regions have been eliminated.

What ultra-supercritical technology is

Ultra-supercritical steam technology makes it possible to generate electricity at coal-fired plants using steam at a temperature usually above 580 °C and a pressure above 24 megapascals. By extracting more energy from the same volume of coal, the plant's efficiency increases while fuel consumption and the volume of pollutant emissions decrease. The launch itself demonstrates, as stated in reports on the project, that plants of this kind can operate effectively even in difficult high-altitude conditions.