POWER April 2017 - 8

Who Has the World's Most
Efficient Coal Power Plant
Fleet?
A comparison of coal power plant fleets
from China, the European Union (EU), Japan,
and the U.S. by the International
Energy Agency's (IEA's) Clean Coal Centre
yields surprising insights into efforts
these regions are making to deploy highefficiency,
low-emission (HELE) plants.
The December 2016-released report,
" An overview of HELE deployment in the
coal power plant fleets of China, EU, Japan
and USA, " compares data from existing
plants of 300 MW or larger, as well as
those under construction and planned. It
also sizes them up according to deployed
technology, age, and installed pollution
control equipment.
It concludes that the coal fleet in Japan
is the most efficient in the world,
followed by China, the EU, and finally,
the U.S.
Japan Leads the Pack. Japan's fleet,
which is relatively young as the report
notes, has an average operational efficiency
of 41.6%, calculated using lower
heating value (LHV, net; as are efficiency
values given below). Most coal plants in
Japan's fleet are HELE plants. According
to the report, Japan also hosts the
world's " cleanest " coal-fired power plant
in terms of emissions intensity: Unit 2 at
J-POWER's Isogo Thermal Power Station
(Figure 1), a 600-MW ultrasupercritical
unit in Yokohama, which began commercial
operations in July 2009. (The project
was a POWER Top Plant in October 2010).
China Is Not Far Behind. In China,
a government crackdown to shackle rampant
air pollution and shutter small,
aging, and less-efficient coal plants, as
well as soaring investments in research
and development (R&D) of advanced coal
technology, have transformed its energy
sector, the IEA says. The country's coalfired
fleet has an average operational
efficiency of 38.6%-higher than the
average across IEA member countries.
R&D, notably, allowed the country to design
and build the double-reheat 1,000MW
ultrasupercritical Guodian Taizhou II
Unit 3, the IEA says. The unit has been
in operation since September 2015, and
it reaches an efficiency of 47.82%, the
highest globally for a double-reheat
plant. The IEA also notes: " Every Chinese
power plant is equipped with [particulate
8
1. Clean coal crown. Unit 2 at J-POWER's
Isogo Thermal Power Station, a 600-MW
ultrasupercritical unit in Yokohama, Japan,
ranks as the cleanest coal-fired power plant
in the world in terms of emission intensity,
with levels comparable to those from a natural
gas-fired combined cycle plant. According
to the International Energy Agency's Clean
Coal Centre, the unit's average emissions are
in the single digits for NOx and SO2, and less
than five milligrams per cubic meter for particulate
matter. Courtesy: J-POWER
for limited water resources in some areas,
localized pollution control, and a
surge in the development of renewables,
" which can reduce the profitability of
coal-fired power plants, " the IEA says.
The EU Is Weighed Down by an
Aging Fleet. Several countries in the
EU have moved to phase out coal entirely
(See " The Big Picture " in POWER's
March 2017 issue), and few new coalfired
plants are being planned and built.
However, the bloc's average coal-fired
plant efficiency is a noteworthy 38%,
even though a significant proportion of
its fleet is relatively old, the IEA says.
One of the EU's most advanced coal-fired
plants is the 1,100-MW ultrasupercritical
Maasvlakte Power Plant 3 in the Netherlands.
That unit, which entered service
in 2015, has an efficiency of 47%. It can
cofire up to 30% biomass, is carbon-capture
ready, and can supply district heat.
The EU will require all coal-fired power
plants that operate after 2030 to employ
carbon-capture-and-storage technology,
the IEA notes. However, while the EU is
conducting notable research and development
on advanced ultrasupercritical
technology, construction of new coalfired
power plants in the EU could be
hindered by a low carbon price under the
emissions trading system.
Efficiency Lags in U.S., but Future
Is Promising. As this story goes into
production in early March, startup and
commissioning activities continued at
the Kemper County Integrated Gasification
Combined Cycle facility in Mississippi.
No other coal plants are under
construction in the U.S. The nation's coal
fleet has instead seen a marked move toward
pollution control systems for NOx
SOx, and particulate matter, driven large,
matter]
and SO2 control equipment, and
almost all have NOx removal devices. All
coal-fired plants will have to be ultralow-emission
by 2020. " The agency pegs
China's successes on the rapid implementation
of tight environmental and
performance standards, combined with
available finance for coal-fired projects
and subsidies for energy generated from
ultra-low emission power plants. The
country is facing critical barriers to an
expansion of its coal fleet, however, owing
to power overcapacity, competition
www.powermag.com
ly by regulations, the IEA says. But the
fleet is still dominated by relatively old
units, both subcritical and supercritical.
Its average efficiency is around 37.4%.
The most efficient coal-fired unit in the
country is the 665-MW John Turk Jr. plant
in Arkansas (POWER's Plant of the Year
in 2013), which achieves an efficiency of
42%. It is the nation's only ultrasupercritical
unit.
However, this January, NRG Energy
and JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration
Corp. began operation of the Petra Nova
project, the world's largest commercial
post-combustion carbon capture system.
POWER | April 2017
http://www.powermag.com
POWER April 2017

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