Guarantee supply and price stability, measures and measures (economic focus)

Source: People's Daily

Core reading

At present, the mainland's energy supply and price stabilization work has achieved positive results in stages, and domestic coal has been guaranteed in terms of production capacity, transportation capacity, reserve capacity, and key coal consumption。 Recently, the output of chemical fertilizers has increased year-on-year, and with the upcoming spring ploughing preparation, the spring tillage fertilizer reserves are being stored in an orderly manner. Comprehensive research and judgment, this year's national electricity consumption and the highest electricity load will still grow rapidly, the relevant departments will give full play to the role of various types of power supply, and actively do a good job in power supply.

Will the supply of coal and electricity be guaranteed in 2022? Spring ploughing is imminent, is the fertilizer production effective, and is the circulation smooth? ...... The national development and reform commission held a press conference on January 18 to respond to hot issues in people's livelihood one by one.

The domestic coal supply is guaranteed, and the coal storage in the national unified dispatch power plant is at the highest level in the same period of history

In the cold wind of hunting, a heavy-duty train full of coal assembled and departed at the Hudong Station of the Datong Daqin Railway in Shanxi, like a black "coal river" rushing to the port of Bohai Bay.

From January 1 to 17 this year, this major artery of "west-to-east coal transportation" has sent 18.71 million tons of coal, and the corresponding supply of coal in Qinhuangdao Port, Tangshan Port and Caofeidian Port has remained above 17 million tons.

Coal is the continent's basic energy source and an important industrial raw material, accounting for about 57% of primary energy consumption. Since the fourth quarter of 2021, energy supply and demand have continued to be tight. After multi-party overall coordination, the work of ensuring energy supply and stabilizing prices has achieved phased results, coal prices have returned to a reasonable range, and coal storage in power plants has reached the highest level in the same period of history。

"The work of ensuring energy supply and stabilizing prices has achieved positive results in stages, laying a solid foundation for the next stage of coal supply security." Li Yunqing, director of the Economic Operation Regulation Bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that in general, the domestic coal supply is guaranteed.

Production capacity is guaranteed. Organize Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia and other major coal-producing areas to increase production and supply, and the level of coal production has rebounded rapidly。 According to statistics, the national coal output in 2021 will be 4.07 billion tons, which is fully capable of ensuring the rational demand for coal.

Transport capacity is guaranteed. In recent years, we have continued to strengthen the construction of coal collection and transportation, and the capacity of coal transportation has been greatly enhanced. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the national railway thermal coal transportation increased by more than 20% year-on-year, and the throughput of northern coal ports hit a record high, and the demand for coal transportation can be better guaranteed.

Reserve capacity is guaranteed. In recent years, the reserve capacity of key areas has continued to improve, and the reserve resources that can be dispatched by the government have increased significantly, which has played an important role in ensuring coal supply. As of January 16, the national unified dispatch power plant had stored 166 million tons of coal, which could be used for 21 days, which was at the highest level in the same period of history.

Key coal use is guaranteed。 This year, we will continue to promote the full coverage of medium- and long-term contracts for coal for power generation and heating, and further consolidate the basic coal supply plate。 Judging from the preliminary summary data, the number of contracts that have been completed in various regions has increased by nearly 700 million tons compared with last year, and most provinces have achieved full coverage of coal contracts for power generation and heating.

At the end of last year, the Central Economic Work Conference pointed out that it is necessary to base ourselves on the basic national conditions of coal as the mainstay, do a good job in the clean and efficient use of coal, increase the ability to consume new energy, and promote the optimal combination of coal and new energy. Li Yunqing said that the National Development and Reform Commission is working with relevant parties to formulate guidance on promoting the high-quality development of coal, and put forward key goals and main measures in stages to promote the safe and green development of coal resources, clean and low-carbon utilization.

The national spring tillage fertilizer reserves are being stored in an orderly manner, and a certain scale of temporary reserves of summer pipe fertilizer have been added this year

Agriculture is stable and the world is safe. In 2021, fertilizer prices rose sharply due to the flood of global liquidity, the sharp rise in international fertilizer prices, as well as the tight domestic energy supply and the rise in raw material prices.

"At present, the peak period of autumn and winter seed fertilizer has passed, and the price of urea has dropped slightly, but it is still at a high level in the same period of nearly 10 years, and the prices of diammonium phosphate, potassium chloride and ternary compound fertilizer have also risen significantly year-on-year." Jin Xiandong, director of the Policy Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission, said.

Spring ploughing preparation is coming, is there a guarantee for the production and circulation of chemical fertilizers and other agricultural materials?

"Based on all aspects of the situation, the supply of fertilizer for spring ploughing this year is guaranteed." Kim Hyun-dong said.

According to reports, since the second half of last year, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments and units, has established a working mechanism for ensuring the supply and price stability of chemical fertilizers, and has carried out a series of work to ensure supply and stabilize prices.

Promote production. Ensure the supply of coal, electricity and gas for fertilizer production, and guide local governments to establish special work classes to ensure that key fertilizer enterprises can produce at full capacity. For example, the recent urea production has increased year-on-year for 4 consecutive weeks, of which the daily output of gas-based urea is about 30,000 tons, a substantial increase of nearly 140% year-on-year.

Flow freely. Recently, the supply and marketing cooperative system has given full play to the role of the main channel for the circulation of agricultural materials, actively carried out production and marketing docking with key upstream production enterprises, increased the intensity of fertilizer preparation, and the inventory continued to increase compared with the previous period.

Strong reserves. The national spring tillage fertilizer reserve is being stored in an orderly manner according to the requirements, and will be put on the market from March to May this year according to the start time of spring tillage in various places. In addition, this year, a certain scale of new temporary reserves of summer pipe fertilizer will be added to the reserves before the end of February.

"Considering the difficulty of further sharp decline in production costs, it is expected that the price of spring tillage fertilizers may still be running high." Jin Xiandong said that in the next step, the National Development and Reform Commission will give full play to the role of the chemical fertilizer supply and price stabilization work mechanism, ensure the supply of chemical fertilizer production factors such as coal, electricity, and natural gas, vigorously promote the reduction and efficiency of chemical fertilizers, guide farmers to use fertilizer scientifically, take multiple measures to do a good job in ensuring the supply and price stability of chemical fertilizers, fully protect the enthusiasm of farmers to grow grain, and effectively consolidate the foundation for a bumper summer grain harvest.

This year, the national electricity consumption and the highest electricity load will still grow rapidly, and we will do a good job in ensuring the supply of electricity from three aspects

Winter snowy plateau, high sky clouds, bunting flags, Huadian Jinsha River upstream Gongjue County Latuo and Mangkang County Angdo Phase I a total of 3.3 million kilowatts of photovoltaic projects officially started construction. With a total investment of about 16 billion yuan, the project will be jointly and complementarily operated with cascade hydropower in the upper reaches of the Jinsha River, with an annual power generation capacity of 6.518 billion kWh, which can save about 2 million tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 4.5 million tons per year.

Accelerating the construction of large-scale wind power photovoltaic base projects is the epitome of the current power supply guarantee.

Last year, due to the superposition of multiple factors, the mainland's electricity demand grew rapidly. According to statistics, in 2021, the country's total social electricity consumption increased by 10.3% year-on-year, an average growth rate of 7.1% in two years, 1.4 percentage points higher than the average annual growth rate in the "13th Five-Year Plan" period; the highest national electricity load increased by 10.8% over the previous year. Affected by this, the supply and demand of electricity during peak hours in some areas is tight, and in some places, there is a short-term electricity situation.

Although through the joint efforts of all parties, the national order of electricity supply and consumption soon returned to normal, and the current operation is generally stable, but how to effectively ensure the demand for electricity has received widespread attention from the whole society.

"Comprehensive research and judgment, in 2022, the national electricity consumption and the highest electricity load will still grow rapidly." Li Yunqing said that the overall planning of economic and social development, clean and low-carbon energy transformation, carbon peak carbon neutrality and other goals, put forward higher requirements for the power supply work, so it will do a good job in power supply assurance work from three aspects.

Give full play to the role of all kinds of power supply. On the basis of implementing peak shaving resources and consumption markets, accelerate the construction of large-scale wind power photovoltaic base projects focusing on deserts, Gobi and desertification areas, and make every effort to improve supply security capabilities and optimize the energy structure。 Combined with the progress of new peak regulation units in various places and the needs of power supply assurance, scientifically promote the "three reform linkages" of coal power energy saving and consumption reduction transformation, heat supply transformation, and flexibility transformation, and reduce the coal consumption of power supply units in service to less than 300 grams of standard coal/kWh, so as to better play the supportive and regulatory role of coal-fired power units。

Give play to the role of optimizing the allocation of large power grid resources。 Promote the acceleration of the approval of inter-provincial transmission channels, and start construction and production as soon as possible, effectively improving the ability to optimize the allocation of large-scale resources。 Implement the cross-provincial priority power generation system, scientifically formulate a cross-provincial power balance plan, and effectively enhance the overall national supply guarantee capacity。 Establish and improve the market-oriented mechanism for cross-provincial optimization and scheduling, and promote the overall balance of supply and demand.

Give play to the role of power demand-side management in ensuring people's livelihood。 Guide all localities to strengthen the construction of interruptible load resources, guide users to use electricity at different peaks and avoid peaks in a market-oriented manner, control unreasonable electricity demand, resolutely adhere to the bottom line of ensuring people's livelihood and electricity consumption, and guide the whole social science to use electricity, save electricity, and stagger peak electricity.