China's largest coal-fired power plant, equipped with four 1,000-megawatt generating units, went into operation on Thursday, sources with the China Huaneng Group told Xinhua.

The project, located in east China's electricity-deficient Zhejiang Province, cost an investment of 15.6 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion).

The first two generating units kicked off production in December 2006.

This is also believed to be the world's largest coal-fired power plant built with ultra-supercritical technologies, the highest global standards of the industry, according to the country's leading energy conglomerate.

If all the coal-fueled power plants could be substituted with this type of generating units, 200 million tons of coal could be saved and 540 million tons of carbon dioxide emission could be reduced each year.

The Chinese government has pledged to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent and emission of major pollutants by 10 percent by 2010.

Official statistics showed that more than 70 percent of the country's energy is produced by coal-fired power plants.

China has been building large-capacity power plants to save energy and reduce emissions. The country plans to close small but energy-guzzling coal-fired generating units with a total capacity of 50 million kilowatts by 2010.

(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2007)