China's power equipment manufacturing enterprises have formed an independent R&D, design and manufacturing technology system of high-efficiency ultra-supercritical units with one million kilowatts of secondary reheat, which has greatly improved the independent innovation capability and core competitiveness of China's power equipment and technology.
From 2002 to 2006, the power generation enterprises took the lead, combined with Industry-University-Research, and jointly tackled key problems with 23 units such as power equipment manufacturing enterprises, design institutes and universities, and completed the National Tenth Five-Year High-tech Research and Development Plan (863 Plan) project-"R&D and application of ultra-supercritical coal-fired power generation technology". The project studied and put forward the technical selection scheme for the development of ultra-supercritical thermal power units in China for the first time, and completed the design and development of three different types of 1 million kilowatt ultra-supercritical boilers and steam turbines, the development of manufacturing software packages and the research of material processing performance; A complete set of research on design and operation technology of ultra-supercritical power plants has been completed, and a complete design and manufacturing system of ultra-supercritical power plants in China has been formed. The project is supported by Zhejiang Yuhuan Power Plant, and four domestic 1 million kilowatt ultra-supercritical units have been built. Units 1 and 2 were put into operation in November and December of 2006. The actual coal consumption of the two units in 2007 was 282.6g/kWh, which was 22.6% lower than the national average coal consumption in 2006. In November, 2007, Units 3 and 4 were put into operation. Yuhuan Power Plant is the first domestic project for the manufacture and construction of ultra-supercritical units, which indicates that China has successfully mastered the ultra-supercritical thermal power generation technology. In January 2008, "R&D and application of ultra-supercritical coal-fired power generation technology" won the first prize of the 2007 National Science and Technology Progress Award.
After the development and application of ultra-supercritical coal-fired power generation technology, China began to explore the development of ultra-supercritical secondary reheat units. From October 2011 to October 2016, the power generation enterprises, design institutes and power equipment enterprises joined forces to successfully implement the 12th Five-Year National Science and Technology Support Program-"Key Technology Research and Engineering Application of Ultra-supercritical Units with High Efficiency and Low Emission". Relying on independent design, independent manufacturing, independent construction and independent operation, China has formed a complete new generation of high-parameter and large-capacity secondary reheat power generation technology system, which covers all aspects of planning, research and development, design, manufacturing, construction, commissioning, operation and maintenance, and has completely independent intellectual property rights. In September 2015, Unit 3 of Taizhou Power Plant, the demonstration project of the project, was put into operation, which is the world's first million kilowatt ultra-supercritical secondary reheat coal-fired generating unit. The demonstration project has greatly improved the level of energy conservation and emission reduction. The coal consumption for power generation is 256.2 g ∕ kWh, which is 6 g/kWh lower than the best level in the world at that time and 14 g/kWh lower than that of conventional million units. The emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and dust are reduced by more than 5%. China has the world's most advanced research and development and manufacturing technology of coal-fired power generation equipment.
China's power equipment enterprises continue to exert their efforts to develop higher-level coal-fired units. In December, 2020, Unit 3 of Pingshan Power Plant in Huaibei, Anhui Province was connected to the grid to generate electricity, which is the world's first 1.35 million kilowatt secondary reheat ultra-supercritical unit. The unit adopts the double-axis arrangement technology of high and low-level machines and a series of innovative energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies with independent intellectual property rights, and the designed coal consumption of power supply is 251g/kWh, making it the most energy-saving new, efficient, clean and low-carbon coal-fired power generation equipment in the world. Based on the endowment of China's energy resources, electric power enterprises use their own advanced coal-fired units to promote energy saving and carbon reduction of coal-fired power, thus realizing the goal of "double carbon".
