Excessive emissions put CRP in the spotlight

China Resources Power Holdings, which has seen two former chairmen put under graft investigations on the mainland in the past two months, has been found by the environment watchdog to have flouted regulations on the mitigation of sulphur dioxide emissions.

CRP topped a list of 19 rule-breaking firms released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection yesterday, with three subsidiaries named and shamed for irregularities in their use of desulphurisation equipment.

They account for 6 per cent of CRP's total coal-fired power generating capacity.

Former chairmen Song Lin and Wang Shuaiting were put under graft probes after being accused of shady coal dealings.

Two of the three generating units at CRP's 600-megawatt electricity and power cogeneration plant in Shenyang had fabricated data collected from sulphur gas emission monitors, the ministry said.

CRP's 600MW Jinniu power and heat cogeneration plant in Inner Mongolia had lied about the sulphur content of coal it consumed in the first four months of last year, and emission data collected by its desulphurisation equipment was untrue, resulting in excessive emissions, the ministry said.

It added that CRP's 270MW Xingning power plant in Guangdong had deficiencies in the design of its desulphurisation equipment, causing unstable operation and excessive emissions.