OREANDA-NEWS. August 24, 2011. China’s National Energy Administration has mapped out guidelines to boost the use of natural gas for small, distributed power plants 10-fold over the next decade, according to Chinese media.

By 2020, total gas-fired power generation capacity at these small units is forecast to 50GW, or 3% of installed power generation, from a current 5GW, reported the China Securities Journal.

Distributed power plants are typically units of 10-30MW that an end-consumer builds to meet its own needs. Larger gas-fuelled facilities have normally a generation capacity of 200MW or larger and sell power to the grids. In China, larger plant total 35MW of capacity with plans to surpass 60GW by 2015.

Over the next decade, the country wants to triple the use of natural gas, which emits half of the CO2 of coal, to around 10% of its total energy consumption. At present, coal fuels nearly 80% of China’s power supply. However, while the power sector is expected to increase its share in natural gas use, it is envisaged that industrial and residential sectors will take the lead in the push for gas.

In June, the National Development and Reform Commission raised grid feed-in tariffs for gas-fired plants in Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces.