The Changes and Constants of Thermal Reformation: High-Temperature Plate Heat Exchangers Bring about a Transformation in Energy-Efficient and High-Efficiency Heating Units

A name is a striking symbol. For both a company and an individual, a name change inevitably signifies unforeseen changes. In 2020, Zhengzhou Thermal Power Company, responsible for heating in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital, quietly restructured and changed its name to Zhengzhou Thermal Power Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhengzhou Thermal Power Group"), sparking curiosity among many citizens: What changes have occurred after the name change? What impact will this have on future heating services? Can the problem of insufficient heat sources in Zhengzhou be solved? And what is the development trend of heating companies in other northern cities in China?

【Trend】

Domestic heating companies are undergoing restructuring, with group formation becoming the mainstream direction.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, after decades of development, China has formed a pattern of centralized heating in the northern region north of the Huaihe River. Centralized heating in many northern cities has also gone through different stages of development. Oriental Metropolis Daily and Mammoth News' investigation found that since the beginning of the new century, group formation and economies of scale have become the general trend in the development of China's heating industry.

Beijing Thermal Power Group Co., Ltd. was established in June 2000 through the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, marking a new stage in the development of centralized heating in the capital. At the end of 2017, Taiyuan Thermal Power Company was restructured into Taiyuan Thermal Power Group. In September 2000, the subsidiary companies of Chengde Thermal Power Company underwent reorganization, transformation, and asset restructuring, officially establishing Chengde Thermal Power Group Co., Ltd., and achieving diversified equity. Changchun Thermal Power (Group) Co., Ltd., located in Northeast China's Jilin Province, is also a state-owned public utility enterprise established after the restructuring of Changchun Thermal Power Company.

From the trajectory of reform and development of heating enterprises in many cities in China, it is not difficult to find that group formation is the mainstream trend, and many heating enterprises also undertake government asset restructuring, improving the carrying capacity of urban infrastructure, and enhancing the financing capacity of public utilities.

“As we all know, centralized heating is a public utility enterprise. Only by achieving large-scale development and intensive operation can we enhance the ability to allocate heating resources for the entire city and achieve economies of scale. Especially for Zhengzhou, only by truly achieving large-scale development and intensive operation can a city-wide centralized heating system be built to support a new, internationalized Zhengzhou with a population of 17 million,” said Zhang Shu.

It is understood that Zhengzhou Thermal Power is in an advanced position in the national heating industry. According to the benchmarking of relevant data on domestic heating enterprises by the China Urban Heating Association, the thermal efficiency of gas boilers ranks second nationally. Currently, Zhengzhou's centralized heating system has developed into the third-largest urban centralized heating system in the country, and has been rated as a national leader in heating industry energy efficiency. From the perspective of the company's current scale and development prospects, restructuring into a group is in line with the overall trend of industry development.

Of course, the restructuring of Zhengzhou Thermal Power is also inseparable from the broader context of state-owned enterprise reform.

The "Guiding Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Deepening Reform of State-owned Enterprises" issued in 2015 clearly stated that by 2020, decisive achievements would be made in important areas and key links of state-owned enterprise reform. At the end of 2019, the Central Economic Work Conference proposed formulating and implementing a three-year action plan for state-owned enterprise reform, improving the comprehensive effectiveness of state-owned assets and enterprise reform, and outlining the reform route for 2020.

Therefore, at the end of 2019, at an important juncture where two key stages of state-owned enterprise reform converged, the official restructuring of "Zhengzhou Thermal Power Company" into "Zhengzhou Thermal Power Group" was very timely.

【Measures】Focus will be on three aspects

Solving Zhengzhou's problem of insufficient heat sources

At the beginning of centralized heating in November last year, due to insufficient heat sources, many communities in Zhengzhou could not connect to the network, causing dissatisfaction among citizens. Now that "Zhengzhou Thermal Power Company" has been restructured into "Zhengzhou Thermal Power Group," the biggest concern of the citizens is what changes it will bring to future winter heating, especially whether the problem of insufficient heat sources can be alleviated.

The well-being of the people has also attracted the attention of the Zhengzhou Municipal Committee. At the 10th and 11th plenary sessions of the 11th Zhengzhou Municipal Committee, the guiding principle was put forward to strive for "introducing heat into Zhengzhou" and "introducing external electricity into Zhengzhou," accelerating the transformation of municipal coal-fired power enterprises from "power supply" to "heat supply," and from "urban areas" to "urban suburbs".

The latest news obtained by reporters is that in 2020, Zhengzhou Thermal Power Group will closely integrate its updated enterprise development strategy and goals with the formulation of the "14th Five-Year Plan," based on Zhengzhou's new positioning, and comprehensively promote the transformation and upgrading of the city's heating industry from height, breadth, and depth.

Specifically, this means focusing on the needs of a future population of approximately 17 million, maintaining consistency with the development blueprint of the overall plan for building a national central city, adhering to the principles of moderate advancement and reform and innovation, fully considering the speed and scope of urbanization expansion, radiating from the built-up area to surrounding counties, cities, and functional new areas, comprehensively considering the integrated development and utilization of various clean heating resources, using "smart heating" as a guide to promote technological innovation in the heating system, using the comprehensive transformation and upgrading of Zhengzhou's heating industry to meet the growing heating demand year by year, and striving to achieve the strategic goal of Zhengzhou's high-quality development regional growth pole.

Zhang Shu revealed that, in conjunction with the formulation of the various levels of "14th Five-Year Plan," Zhengzhou Thermal Power has cooperated with top domestic professional institutions such as Tsinghua University, and based on the new positioning of Zhengzhou's core growth pole, is carrying out overall planning and research on the sustainable development of heating in the city. This year, efforts will focus on solving the bottleneck of insufficient heat sources from three aspects.

“Firstly, further consolidate and enhance the leading position of combined heat and power generation. Under the leadership of the government, actively promote in-depth mining of the heating capacity of thermal power plants and promote the two-way progress of combined heat and power generation to heat and power decoupling. Increase the efforts to "introduce heat into Zhengzhou," accelerate the implementation of major livelihood projects such as the supporting centralized heating network for the Yuzhong million-unit "introducing heat into Zhengzhou," and, in accordance with the progress of the in-depth transformation of thermal power plants, simultaneously improve supporting heat networks and heating facilities. Secondly, further scientifically plan and improve the heating capacity of large-scale gas boiler houses. Actively plan the construction of several new gas heat sources, such as the Lubo Avenue Heat Source Plant and the Zhengbian Road Heat Source Plant. Thirdly, further increase the promotion of clean heating. In areas not covered by the centralized heating network, develop new energy heating methods such as gas modular units, air-source heat pumps, and geothermal energy.” Zhang Shu said that Zhengzhou Thermal Power Group will work to optimize the overall layout and reasonable allocation of heating resources in the city, focusing on building a "green, efficient, and multi-energy complementary" heating energy structure, and achieving the transformation and upgrading of the city's centralized heating industry.

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