On August 13, Unit 2 of the Huadian Hami 2×1,000 MW coal-fired power project, constructed by PowerChina Nuclear Engineering Company, successfully completed a 168-hour trial operation, marking the official completion of the core supporting power source of China's first "desert-gobi-desert" new energy export base — the Xinjiang Tianshan Northern Foothills Gobi Energy Base.

The Xinjiang Tianshan Northern Foothills Gobi Energy Base is a supporting power source project for the "Xinjiang Power to Chongqing" project, the third ultra-high-voltage corridor for Xinjiang power transmission and a key project of China's 14th Five-Year Plan. The base is founded on large-scale wind and photovoltaic power, supported by clean, efficient, advanced and energy-saving coal power generated from local thermal coal on site, with a total installed capacity of 14.2 million kW, including 4 million kW of coal power, 7 million kW of wind power, 3 million kW of photovoltaic power and 200,000 kW of solar thermal power, along with 1.2 million kW/4.8 million kWh of electrochemical energy storage. Through an "integrated wind-solar-thermal-storage" model, it achieves a high proportion of new energy export, which is of great significance for optimizing the allocation of power resources and promoting coordinated regional development.

The coal-fired unit put into operation this time adopts world-class power generation energy-saving technologies and equipment, achieving multiple global firsts in areas such as cooling tower structure, high-alkali coal combustion and key auxiliary equipment technologies, and solving a series of world-class technical challenges. At the same time, by deeply integrating ultra-supercritical technology with deep peak-shaving capability, the unit can both serve as a "stabilizer" for power supply under the "Xinjiang Power to Chongqing" project and act as a "regulator" for new energy consumption, opening a new path for energy security and green transition.

The project is located in the hinterland of the Santanghu Gobi in Hami, with a huge project scale, complex geological conditions, harsh natural environment and extremely high comprehensive technical difficulty. Since construction began, the project team has closely followed the goal of high-standard commissioning, adhered to the management philosophy of "standardization, intensification and penetration," and firmly shouldered the solid responsibility of the PowerChina iron army, completing the commissioning task more than 40 days ahead of the contract schedule and turning the "impossible" into "achieved ahead of time." Next, PowerChina Nuclear Engineering Company will continue to carry forward the "nuclear power iron army spirit," earnestly practice the "dual carbon" goals, and go all out to contribute PowerChina strength to advancing the construction of large "desert-gobi-desert" new energy bases.