China's coal-fired power generators are confronting very adverse market conditions in 2015-16 featuring a perfect storm of sluggish energy demand, lowering electricity prices in the downstream and rising coal prices in the upstream. On contrast, vast coal capacity remains in the pipeline, waiting to be added on top of the already-excessive coal power generation capacity. In the face of shrinking capacity utilization hours (4400 hours in 2015), and heightened risks of stranded assets, NRDC, together with World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Energy Fundation China (EF) and Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), held the 4th Roundtable on the role of coal power in the 13th Five Year Plan on January 26th, 2016. The meeting started with an outlook of electricity demand-projected to be weak- in the 13th FYP, and arrived at the conclusion that in order to economically manage coal capacity, planning for coal-fired generators, and electricity markets to generate price signals would both be pivotal to directing future energy investments, thus calming down the current coal capacity addition kicked on high gear. 

Click here to the conference files.