Breakthrough in Combined Heat and Power Technology
CHN Energy’s Anhui Suzhou Power Plant, in east China’s Anhui province, is a breakthrough in combined-heat-and-power technology: 2 molten salt tanks operating at 390°C and 190°C provide a total rated storage capacity of 1,000 MWh. The full-load trial is complete, and the project has been formally commissioned.
How It Works
When the power grid requires peak shaving, three-way steam extraction from the coal boiler is circulated and stored in molten salt. During peak electricity demand the system can supply full-rated heat for 4 hours continuously at full electrical load (220 tons of steam per hour), or for 5 hours when the unit is deep-cycled to 30% of rated output. External heat supply capacity has risen by 260 t/h to a new high of 410 t/h.
The technology enhances the regulation capacity by 100 MW, peak load capacity by 30–60 MW, and also increases peak-shaving flexibility. Approximately 128 million kWh of new energy can be stored annually in these tanks, reducing standard coal consumption by 60,000 tonnes and cutting carbon emissions by around 85,000 tonnes per year.
The team at CHN Energy have also built a simulation platform which coordinates grid-source control and distribution technology.
Future-Proofing Coal Plants
💡 From our perspective, the most important point here is not to merely increase profitability of a coal plant, but to prepare the coal plant for a life beyond coal: replacing coal boilers with a low-carbon heat source such as nuclear or geothermal, or sourcing renewable energy from the grid.
To connect to anything of value on a coal plant, we believe a thermal energy storage (TES) system such as this will be required.
It’s a form of future-proofing for a coal plant to invest in TES, to have a plug-in point for clean technology — and safeguard the plant, site and people.
We celebrate China’s successes with launching this demo project.
Learn More
Discover more about which coal plants are suitable for TES repowering at: