China Commissions First 350 MW Ultra-Supercritical Coal-Fired Cogeneration Unit

The milestone marks the first time China has deployed a 350 MW ultra-supercritical coal-fired cogeneration unit, with both units under the project now fully operational.

Original By NLS

At 8:58 a.m. on May 31, Unit 6 of the SPIC Tongliao 2×350 MW Smart Cogeneration Project successfully completed a 168-hour full-load trial run, officially entering commercial operation. The milestone marks the first time China has deployed a 350 MW ultra-supercritical coal-fired cogeneration unit, with both units under the project now fully operational.

Located in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, the facility is now the city’s largest source of centralized heating. It is expected to supply heat for 18.5 million square meters of urban residential and industrial space, and deliver over 3.5 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually to the Eastern Inner Mongolia grid—enough to power more than one million households in Northeast China and Shandong Province.

The unit features a wide load-following capability of 20% to 100%, allowing it to flexibly respond to the variability of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. This makes it a key asset in ensuring reliable power supply during peak summer demand. Its “small-capacity, high-parameter” design improves overall efficiency, reducing internal electricity consumption by 3% compared to previous-generation units. Each year, it is expected to save 120,000 tonnes of standard coal and 5.21 million tonnes of water, while also significantly cutting emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates.

With a total dynamic investment of RMB 3.04 billion (approximately USD 420 million), the project comprises two 350 MW ultra-supercritical, direct air-cooled, coal-fired cogeneration units. It replaces four older 200 MW units at SPIC’s Tongliao Power Plant and serves as a national demonstration project under China’s “replace small units with large ones” coal power upgrading initiative. Construction began on April 10, 2023, involving more than 6,000 workers over a 26-month period. The project marks a technological breakthrough as the first domestically developed 350 MW ultra-supercritical cogeneration unit in China, setting a benchmark for small-capacity, high-efficiency coal power systems in northern regions.