Widespread misreporting of harmful gas emissions by Chinese electricity firms is threatening the country’s attempts to rein in pollution, with government policies aimed at generating cleaner power struggling to halt the practice.
Coal-fired power accounts for three-quarters of China’s total generation capacity and is a major source of the toxic smog that shrouded much of the country’s north last month, prompting “red alerts” in dozens of cities, including the capital, Beijing.
However, the government has found it hard to impose a tougher anti-pollution regime on the power sector, with China’s energy administration describing it as a “weak link” in efforts to tackle smog caused by gases such as sulfur dioxide.
No official data on the extent of the problem has been released since a government audit in 2013 found hundreds of power firms had falsified emissions data, although authorities have continued to name and shame individual operators.
“There is no guarantee of avoiding underreporting [of emissions] at local plants located far away from supervisory bodies. Coal data is very fuzzy,” said a manager with a state-owned power company, who did not want to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The manager said firms could easily exaggerate coal efficiency by manipulating their numbers. For example, power companies that also provided heating for local communities could overstate the amount of coal used for heat generation, which is not subject to direct monitoring, and understate the amount used for power.
Coal emission violations cost power producers 635 million yuan (US$96.5 million) in lost subsidies and fines last year, while at least 10 thermal power companies have paid 519 million yuan in fines since 2013 for misusing emissions control equipment in order to meet targets and get subsidies.
In its latest bid to curb pollution, China’s Cabinet last month ordered all coal-fired power firms to reduce pollutants like sulfur dioxide by 60 percent by 2020, saying it would close inefficient plants and promote advanced low-emissions technology through subsidies.
As an incentive, it offered increased payments to generators that upgrade facilities, with total subsidies estimated to be worth 42 billion yuan per year.
However, for power plants already under pressure from crippling overcapacity and slowing demand growth, threats of heavy fines or forced closures also offer a powerful incentive to massage emissions numbers.
The ministry last month acknowledged that “a minority of firms were still manipulating emissions control equipment and falsifying data in an attempt to avoid supervision.”
To help counter fraud, the government has set up continuous emissions monitoring systems that can share real-time pollution readings with authorities, but critics say these can be manipulated and only cover big state-owned firms.
However, environmental group Greenpeace last month said that some plants it investigated in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province even recorded “negative” emissions, according to data submitted to authorities by the companies.
All 12 of the plants it investigated exceeded emission limits on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides last year, the group said.
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