A report on the energy conservation and environmental protection industrial development policy implementation reform was released by Shanxi province recently. The local government will spend 51.1 billion yuan ($8.31 billion) in promoting 617 energy-saving renovation projects in coking, building materials, metallurgy, electric power and chemical sectors. These projects will help save the energy equivalent of 11.28 million tons of coal.

In addition to energy-saving technical renovation, the province will increase motor company endogenous power in energy conservation through upgrading electric motor efficiency. It has clarified the goal of eliminating low-efficiency motors and promoting efficient ones.

Shanxi will strictly enforce a multistep electricity price policy for the energy intensive industry in addition to formulating an industry plan. It has carried out site inspection of energy consumption of aluminum liquid electrolysis at six electrolytic aluminum production enterprises in 2013, has made the list of cement clinker producers that should be phased out, and has offered guidance for the pricing department to implement the multistep electricity price policy in 2014.

Giving the market a leading role and popularizing advanced and suitable energy-saving technology is also a focus of Shanxi’s new move. The province established an energy efficiency competition system and carried out energy efficiency benchmarking activities among cement, electric power and steel industries. It has worked to formulate the implementation plans to build a batch of leaders in energy efficiency.

Shanxi will also develop energy conservation and environmental protection services and encourage energy conservation service companies to carry out energy metering, energy saving diagnosis, energy audit and energy conservation audit services. It will lead thousands of enterprises to adopt contract energy management for energy saving transformation.

Edited by Liu Yufen and Michael Thai