Following the operational start-up of 11 nuclear plants in the
southern and eastern regions of China, next year in Liaoning
Province in the northeast, and in Shandong Province in the east,
development will commence on two additional nuclear power
facilities, each housing two reactors.
Development of the Liaoning plant, consisting of two 1,080-MW
(megawatt) reactors, is projected to cost US$2.8 billion. It will
be the first nuclear base in northeast China, located at Hongyanhe,
the coastal city of Dalian, explained a senior official with China
Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPG).
"We expect to get the final go-ahead (to build the Dalian plant)
from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) by the end of this year,"
said the official, who preferred to go unnamed.
Last week CGNPG sources indicated that infrastructure
construction and design at the Dalian project should commence
within the month, and the plant should go online generating
electricity in 2011.
According to the investment agreement for the new project in
Dalian, CGNPG and China Power Investment Corp (CPI) will each
control a 45 percent stake. The remaining 10 percent will be
equally divided between local companies, Liaoning Energy Investment
Group, and Dalian Construction Investment Co.
For the nuclear power facility in Haiyang, Shandong Province,
CPI has reached an initial agreement to jointly develop that plant
with the country's largest nuclear plant constructor, China
National Nuclear Corp (CNNC).
The Haiyang plant, housing two 1,000-MW reactors, will process
at the same pace as the Dalian plant, CPI director Liu Changqing
told China Daily yesterday.
"We have submitted the feasibility study to the NDRC," Liu
said.
The Chinese Government has included both projects at Dalian and
Haiyang in the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2011), a CNNC
spokesman said last week.
The Dalian plant will cost less than the previous reactors,
since CGNPG will use China's own nuclear technology, CPR 1000, in
designing the new reactors. This plan is based on technology
adopted in the second phase of the Ling'ao nuclear project in south
China's Guangdong Province.
The new reactors at the Dalian plant are projected to operate at
a production cost of US$1,300 per kilowatt, compared with the
US$1,500 per kilowatt for the Ling'ao phase II, which launched
construction earlier this month and contains two 1,000-MW
reactors.
"We will be very competitive in the sale prices due to the lower
costs," the CGNPG said.
Coal-fired plants, which installed desulphurization facilities,
sell their electricity to grid companies at 0.347 yuan (4.28 US
cents) per kilowatt-hour in Dalian, according to the CGNPG
official.
In working to cut the sulphur pollutants produced by the burning
of coal -- which fuels more than 70 percent of the country's
electricity generators?-- the government ordered the
installation of desulphurization equipment in China's coal-fired
plants.
"We can make a profit at the same price with these coal-fired
plants," the company official said.
Equipment manufacturing and procurement for the new Dalian plant
will be open for bid among domestic suppliers, with a small
proportion expected to come from foreign companies, the CGNPG
official said.
"Domestic suppliers will produce 80 percent of the equipment
including the generation turbines designed for the new plant," he
said.
CPI sources earlier said that as many as 10 reactors would be
built at the two coastal places in Liaoning and Shandong, with six
built at Dalian and four at Haiyang.
Currently, only CNNC and CGNPG are authorized to build nuclear
plants in China. Other power companies, including CPI, will only be
allowed a stake in the nuclear plant if they intend to participate
in the nuclear sector.
Foreseeing great potential for nuclear energy, CGNPG, based in
Guangdong, is also planning two more nuclear plants at two
locations in the province, Taishan and Lufeng.
"Another in the neighboring Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is
also under study," the CGNPG official said.
(China Daily December 27, 2005)