URUMQI, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- During this year's winter heating period, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region plans to replace more of its coal-fired heating facilities with those powered by electricity.
The region plans to expand the area with electric heating to more than 10 million square meters by April 2018 when the heating supply period ends, according to the State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd.
Last year, 7.22 million square meters of the region was equipped with electric heating, reducing a total of 136,000 tonnes of coal burning and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 340,000 tonnes.
Huang Zhen, vice general manager of the company, said Xinjiang has an advantage in expanding the use of electricity, due to its installed electricity capacity of about 80 million kw and an installed capacity of new energy of over 27 million kw.
The main part of the region's grid system has reached 750 kv, creating a solid foundation for a large-scale electric heating.
The region hopes that ten percent of its total buildings area will be equipped with electric heating by 2020.
