New Build

Western China is being targeted for major infrastructure projects with more nuclear power plants set to be announced before the end of the year. Paul French reports on this region of China and its quest for meeting greater domestic demand for electricity.

By Paul French, Asia Correspondent

Progress so far

In late July China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Corporation (CGNPC), China’s second-largest builder of reactors, received State approval to construct two reactors in the south-western province of Guangxi.

The project’s primary funders are the Guangxi Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Company Ltd., which is a joint venture established by CGNPC and the Guangxi Investment Group Company Ltd. (the province’s investment corporation).

When finally completed, the plant will comprise six one-million-kilowatt generators. Construction on the first phase has now begun at the site in Guangpo Township, near Fangchengang on the Guangxi coast.

According to Chen Jian, the General Manager of the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Company, the first phase involves an investment of RMB26 billion (US$3.87 billion) to construct two CPR1000 pressurized water reactors (PWRs) with capacities of 1,080 megawatts each.

Upon completion in 2014 and 2016, the two generators will produce up to 15 billion kWh of electricity annually.

The timetable for the second phase of the project’s construction is yet to be determined, but is expected to increase the project’s total investment to nearly RMB70 billion (US$10.3 billion).

The Fangchengang reactors are the first nuclear facility to be built in Guangxi province and among the first in the under-developed western China region.

Go West Strategy

Guangxi, or officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is largely undeveloped and remains highly mountainous running down to China’s border with Vietnam. Guangxi’s economy has noticeably languished behind that of its wealthy neighbour, the export powerhouse province of Guangdong.

Explaining the progress of the site to date, Mr Chen of the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Company is keen to point out that the plant will go a long way towards easing the long-running power shortages in the Beibu Gulf region of Guangxi.

The so-called Beibu Gulf Economic Rim (also known as Gulf of Tonkin Economic Belt) is an economic region surrounding the border of China and Vietnam and including the Gulf of Tonkin (and includes Fangchenggang).

The Beibu Gulf is a key part of Beijing’s ‘Go West’ strategy, to boost China’s less developed western regions and promote cross-border trade.

Environmental measures

Mr Chen also believes that Fangchenggang will help Guangxi meet its environmental improvement targets, claiming that the project will reduce the province’s coal consumption by six million tonnes per year and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 14.82 million tonnes per annum, compared with coal-fuelled power plants of a similar capacity. Fangchenggang is already home to the Guangxi Fangchenggang Power Station, the largest coal-fired power project in Guangxi.

Mr Chen also noted that the coast-based Fangchenggang station will use a five kilometre pipe to discharge sewage into the deep sea in order to reduce the impact on the coastal eco-system.

Cornerstone for other energy plants

The Fangchenggang plant is the cornerstone of Guangxi’s ongoing energy programme. According to Li Kang, the Vice Chairwoman of the People’s Government of Guangxi based in the provincial capital of Nanning, the province is also planning biomass power and wind power plants as well as expanding existing thermal power plants in Beihai, Qinzhou and Fangchenggang (all within the Beibu Gulf Economic Rim), developing a coastal coal distribution base, and connecting to the Sino-Myanmar (Burma) Gas Pipeline Project.

Additionally, there are several ongoing hydroelectric power projects in conjunction with neighbouring Vietnam.

According to Ms. Li’s economic plans for Guangxi, the province’s installed electricity capacity is predicted to reach 60 million kilowatts by 2020.

CGNPC an obvious partner?

It should also be noted that Fangchenggang represents another project for the prolific CGNPC.

While CGNPC is perhaps the most obvious partner for any nuclear project in Guangxi, being based in neighbouring Guangdong, CGNPC’s reactor building programmes now account for approximately 50% of China’s total anticipated growth in nuclear power through to 2020.

Nationally, China plans to have an installed nuclear power capacity of 70 million kW by 2020.

The Fangchengang plant is technically one of 23 key projects the Beijing central government has approved this year as part of the ‘Develop the West’ campaign launched ten years ago.

‘Develop the West’ is aimed at improving the investment climate and ultimately the economies and living standards of the poorer western provinces in relationship to the more booming coastal provinces.

More nuclear projects in the pipeline

As well as the Fangchenggang project, it is expected that there will be additional nuclear projects in both Guangxi and throughout China’s western regions.

This year alone Beijing has announced that it will invest more than RMB682.2 billion (US$100 billion) across 23 new infrastructure projects in western China as part of efforts to boost domestic demand.

The money, distributed by the powerful the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC – China’s top economic planning agency), will be used to build railways, roads, airports, coal mines, power grids and nuclear power stations - Fangchenggang being the first to be announced, though additional reactors for western China are expected to be unveiled before the end of the year.

Image: Chen Jian, the General Manager of the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Company