First GW Indirect Air Cooling Intelligent Power Station Successfully Completes Test Run

The No. 2 generating unit at Ningdong Power Generation Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Energy in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, passed a 168-hour test operation at 12:58 on July 8, marking the first domestic safe, green, effective and intelligent GW ultra-supercritical indirect air-cooling coal-fired generating unit is ready for commercial operation.

Ningdong Power Generation Co., Ltd. has two 1000-MW coal-fired indirect air-cooling generating units, which serve as supporting facilities for 800-kilovolt high-voltage direct current transmission project from Ningxia to Zhejiang Province. It is also one of the world's first GW indirect air-cooling power station. The project was started on August 28, 2015. The No. 2 generating unit finished installation and preparations on April 29, 2018, and started operation on a trial basis on April 19, 2019. During the trial operation, automatic point start-up and shut-down control system (APS) was used. 27 percent of peak load regulation was realized with the assistance of intelligent technologies. The optimization of generating units, performance test and trip test of low-load auxiliary engine were finished.

Over the recent years, the power station has been accelerating its process of going intelligent. It applied its research results of DCS based on the bussing technique, with a bussing coverage rate reaching 75 percent. The APS one-button start was achieved. A 210-meter indirect air-cooling tower was built. The designed capacity for coal storage shed, the longest in China that measures 229 meters in width and 254 meters in length, is 343,300 tons. The pre-stressed space trusses structure won the golden medal of China's 13th Steel Structure Work Award.