New Regulations Promote Cogeneration Plants

As part of its efforts to promote sustainable development, improve its power supply and protect its environment, the PRC government has, over the past several years, increasingly encouraged the development of cogeneration power plants - that is, plants capable of producing both heat and electricity. The PRC Conservation of Energy Law, in particular, provides that the "State encourages the development of cogeneration . . ."

New Regulations

To further this process, the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC), the State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC), the Ministry of Construction (MOC) and the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) on August 25 2000 jointly issued the Regulations Concerning the Development of Cogeneration (the Cogen Regulations). These regulations are a revised and supplemented version of the Certain Regulations Concerning the Development of Cogeneration issued by the State Planning Commission, the SETC, the Ministry of Power Industry and the MOC on February 17 1998 (the 1998 Regulations). To the extent that the Cogen Regulations conflict with other documents issued by the SDPC, SETC, MOC and SEPA, the Cogen Regulations prevail.