coal Photo:VCG

North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will take measures to increase coal production to ensure domestic energy supply amid recent power shortages, while strictly preventing any long-term damage to the environment, local officials said on Saturday. 

Local authorities in Inner Mongolia held a meeting to study and finalize arrangements to further boost domestic energy supply and ensure national energy security, local news website northnews.cn reported on Sunday. 

The meeting stressed that Inner Mongolia will do everything possible to increase coal production and speed up the approval and commencement of new energy production capacity to guarantee coal supply for domestic power generation and residential use and heating through the upcoming winter and spring months. 

The region will also make targeted adjustments to regulations to effectively alleviate the contradiction between electricity supply and demand through market-oriented means, according to the report.

The meeting also provided a framework on strengthening the management and regulation of energy-intensive industries and strictly preventing any long-term damage to the environment, while enhancing production capacity. 

Recent power shortages in many parts of the country caused by soaring coal prices and policies aimed at reducing energy consumption have sparked rising concerns over the potential disruption of supplies as demand spikes heading into winter.

Inner Mongolia has been promoting the signing of medium- to long-term supply contracts for thermal coal, as 29 enterprises in the province will supply a total of 53 million tons of coal to 18 provinces and regions, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday.  

Inner Mongolia has rich coal resources, with a total of 1.001 billion tons of output in 2020, according to official data, ranking second after North China's Shanxi Province, which is the country's largest coal production base. Coal output by the two provinces accounted for 53.7 percent of China's total in 2020. 

In Shanxi, 60 coal mines have suspended operations and local coal transport has also been affected over the past week due to heavy rain and flooding, according to media reports. 

In order to secure coal supplies, the energy administration in Inner Mongolia issued an urgent notice on Thursday, telling 72 coal mines in the region to immediately increase their production capacities to the planned quota on the premise of ensuring safety, per media reports. 

Global Times