China Resources Power flies high at Asian Power Awards 

The company has been awarded with three major titles during the event.

China Resources Power Holdings Company Limited (“CR Power”) brought home three major titles at the coveted Asian Power Awards for its various projects that have optimised operations and created an innovative power ecosystem. 

Efficient wind farm with unmanned operation 
Amongst these projects that CR Power worked on is its vigorous promotion of green and low-carbon development in its Longxiang Wind Farm under the national initiative of “dual carbon  goals.” The generation volumes from clean energy amounted to 547,000 MWh in 2022,  equivalent to saving 191,000 tonnes of standard coal and reducing carbon emissions by  477,000 tonnes. 

It also proactively carried out environmental governance and restoration by taking large-scale greening actions, including planting over 50,000 trees that resulted in a vegetation coverage rate of 85% in the project area. 

In order to enhance the management efficiency for wind power operation and maintenance at lower operation and maintenance costs in the Longxiang Wind Farm, the innovative operation and maintenance model combined with the unmanned operation was also implemented in 2022. 
Under this model, great efforts were made to promote equipment intelligence, digitisation and informatisation. Being integrated with technological applications, power generation can safeguard reliable equipment operation by reducing indirect investment of work resources and addressing various difficulties such as remote locations, transportation challenges, low efficiency and incomplete data. 

These efforts included carrying out the renovation of specialty equipment and studying the blade de-icing system strategies and implementation, which effectively enhanced the utilisation rate of  wind resources, and reduced fatigue loads and component wear. As a result, significant breakthroughs have been achieved in energy saving and efficiency improvement, preventing widespread power outages caused by icing on turbines during extreme weather conditions. 
CR Power’s initiatives in the Longxiang Wind Farm were recognised by the prestigious awards programme as the Wind Power Project of the Year - China. 

Transforming the boiler combustion system 
Another outstanding effort from CR Power was its project in Panjin, which saw the plant’s boiler combustion system innovatively using a central fuel-rich burner for optimisation and transformation. This project took home the Asian Power Awards’ Standby Power Plant of the Year - Silver.
The Panjin Project consisted of 2x350WM supercritical coal-fired cogeneration units. 

The transformation initiative ensured that NOx emissions from the furnace chamber exit were efficiently controlled when the boiler operated with a load equal to or less than 20%, and guaranteed the depth of the unit peaking capacity to ensure the stability of the boiler operation.  This ensures an achievement of ultra-low load self-stabilising combustion. 
With the burner optimised and transformed, the units can quickly enter the second-level peak regulation with a significant increase in its peaking depth. The annual cumulative second-level peaking duration for Q1 therefore increased significantly YoY. In the second quarter, as the windy season arrived, Panjin Company’s participation in peak regulation significantly increased in terms of depth and duration compared to the same period. 

“The combustion system optimisation and transformation for the Panjin Project has greatly enhanced its proactive capability for the flexible operation of power generation peak regulation and provided a reference for the diversified operation models of similar units in the power industry. The project has not only achieved good economic benefits but also actively practiced  corporate social responsibility.” CR Power said. 

Sustainable wastewater discharge process 
The company also implemented a zero-wastewater discharge transformation project for its entire 1200MW ultra-supercritical coal-fired generating units in the city of Heze from September  2017 to May 2019, as an active response to the national construction concept of ecological civilisation.

This comes as the water source for the company is urban reclaimed water, which contains an alarming salt concentration upon evaporation concentration in the cooling tower. Discharging such water would adversely impact the water quality of the Nansi Lake Basin, which is where the circulating water from the plant is discharged. After the project was put into operation, its efforts achieved outstanding environmental benefits and social benefits. 

The project adopted various innovative approaches, obtaining one invention patent and three utility model patents. 

The success of this project has been honoured by many award-giving bodies, including the  Environmental Upgrade of the Year - China title from the Asian Power Awards. This awards programme, now in its 19th year, celebrates and honours companies and projects that have taken innovative and game-changing steps to address the effects of the climate crisis and meet the growing demand for energy.

The Asian Power Awards is presented by Asian Power Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2024 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's revolutionary innovations and initiatives in the power industry in Asia, please contact Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].