Among SOEs, SPIC sets example of resuming work during epidemic

Employees from a power company in Chuzhou, Anhui province, install a cable at an industry park. [Photo by Song Weixing/For China Daily]

State Power Investment Corp Ltd, a major State-owned enterprise, is taking the lead in resuming work in an orderly manner, offering support to the stable operation of the national economy during the coronavirus outbreak.

Cong Liang, secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a news conference that as more people return to cities after an extended Spring Festival holiday, the emphasis in the next steps should lie in both lowering the epidemic's influence and promoting the high-quality development of the economy.

"Therefore, on the basis of epidemic prevention and control, it is important to resume work in an orderly manner," Cong said.

To resume operations while avoiding risks, SPIC had worked out a series of thorough and scientific arrangements. Those arrangements were made based on the specific situations of different regions, subsidiaries and projects.

"For each project in various enterprises, the work plan to resume operations while preventing and controlling the epidemic should be targeted, so that the plan can take effect," said Qian Zhimin, chairman of SPIC.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Sunday called on the Party committees and governments at all levels to continue to make unremitting efforts in various prevention and control work and help resume work and production in an orderly manner.

To win the battle against the disease, China's SOEs are setting good examples. They are resuming operations in order, based on different regions, industries and projects, Xia Qingfeng, director of the Bureau of Publicity of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, said in a news conference.

He noted that for major and influential projects, it is crucial to speed up the resolution of the difficulties that lie ahead and ensure timely construction.

SPIC said it is now stepping up efforts to promote its major endeavors, including a heavy-duty gas turbine project and a nuclear power project, so they could better resume operations.

To meet the project's target on time, China United Gas Turbine Technology Co Ltd, a subsidiary of SPIC, has resumed work since Feb 10.

The company said it is making every effort to ensure that both the preliminary design completion milestone of its 300-megawatt F class heavy-duty gas turbine and the conceptual design completion milestone of its 400-MW G/H class heavy-duty gas turbine can be achieved by the end of this year.

It is also striving to accomplish its two other goals for 2020. One is to start the compressor and hot path component test rig construction, and the other is a pilot power plant construction at the end of May and September, respectively.

The first refueling outage of Unit 1 of Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant in Yantai, eastern China's Shandong province, also went off like clockwork.

"We should attach equal importance to epidemic prevention and control and nuclear safety," said Wu Fang, Party secretary and chairman of Shandong Nuclear Power Co Ltd under SPIC, the company in charge of conducting the project.

Data from the company showed that by Feb 17, the refueling outage of Unit 1 of Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant was operating in an orderly fashion, and Unit 2 was in safe and stable operation. The two units had generated an accumulative power of 12,869 million-watt-hours.

SPIC said that during the epidemic, it will spare no effort to effectively handle the relationship between epidemic prevention and control and resumption of work.

"We will focus on the overall situation of epidemic prevention and control, while innovating working methods. On the basis of avoiding the spread of the epidemic, the company will coordinately resolve all difficulties in returning to work and resuming production, and restore normal working order as soon as possible," Qian said.

It is necessary to formulate a thorough plan for resuming work and production, and establish an effective protection plan with specific operating guidelines, while setting up and improving the working mechanism, SASAC's Xia said.

SASAC said at this time, more than 80 percent of the manufacturing subsidiaries of the 96 centrally-administered SOEs have resumed production.