Operational Reliability of Generating Equipment

Operational Reliability of Generating Equipment

In 2016, 2,866 generating units with a total capacity of 972.89GW were incorporated into the reliability statistics, 126 units or 54.76GW more than the previous year. This includes thermal power units of 100MW and above and hydropower and nuclear power units of 40MW and above.

(1) Operation Reliability of Hydropower Units
In 2016, all together 45 hydropower units were incorporated into the reliability statistics, and the total capacity was 202,362.8MW. The service factor was 54.19%, 2.39 percentage points higher than the previous year. The equivalent availability factor was 92.44%, with a positive growth of 0.39 percentage point over the previous year. The equivalent forced outage rate was 0.09%, increased by 0.01 percentage point. The frequency of unplanned outage was 0.26 times per unit each year, 0.01 time less than the previous year.Figure 1 illustrates the major operation reliability indicators of hydropower units in 2015 and 2016.

Figure 1 Major Operational Reliability Indicators of Hydropower Units 2015 and 2016

(2)Operation Reliability of Coal-fired Units
In 2016, 1,752 coal-fired units totaling 711,287.9MW in capacity were incorporated into the reliability statistics. The service factor was 68.68%, decreased by 2.65 percentage points from the previous year. The equivalent availability factor was 92.77%, with a positive growth of 0.2 percentage point over the previous year. The equivalent forced outage rate was 0.27%, a decrease of 0.12 percentage point. The frequency of unplanned outage was 0.35 time per unit each year, 0.01 time more than the previous year. Figure 2 illustrates the major operational reliability indicators of coal-fired units in 2015 and 2016.

Figure 2 Major Operation Reliability Indicators of Coal-fired Units 2015 and 2016

(3)Operational Reliability of Gas-fired Units
In 2016,152 gas-fired units totalling 44,614.7MW in capacity were incorporated into the reliability statistics. The equivalent availability factor was 92.3%, decreased by 0.52% percentage point over the previous year. The service factor was 44.65%, with a year-on-year decrease of 1.24 percentage point. The frequency of unplanned outage was 0.39 time per unit each year, 0.02 time more than the previous year. Figure 3 illustrates the major operation reliability indicators of gas-fired units in 2015 and 2016.

Figure 3 Major Operational Reliability Indicators of Gas-fired Units 2015 and 2016

(4)Operational Reliability of Nuclear Power Units
In 2016, all together 17 nuclear power units totaling 14,628.2MW in capacity were incorporated into the reliability statistics. The service factor was 88.32%, with a year-on-year decrease of 1.09 percentage points. The equivalent availability factor was 88.77%, decreased by 0.3 percentage points over the previous year. The frequency of unplanned outage was 0.23 time per unit each year, 0.27 time less than the previous year. Figure 4 illustrates the major operation reliability indicators of nuclear power units in 2015 and 2016.

Figure 4 Major Operation Reliability Indicators of Nuclear Power Units 2015 and 2016

Major auxiliary equipment for thermal power units of 200MW and above are coal mills, boiler feed pumps, blowers, induced draft fans, and high pressure heaters. Numbers of the five auxiliary equipment were 6211, 3495, 2511, 2556, 3854 respectively in 2016. The service factor dropped in general, and the availability factor remains basically the same compared to the year earlier. Figure 5 shows major reliability indicators of five major auxiliary equipment for thermal power units in 2015 and 2016.

Figure 5 Major Reliability Indicators of Five Major Auxiliary Equipment for Thermal Power Units 2015 and 2016