As China expands the renewable share in its power system, coal power is regulated to balance load by adjusting output to meet system demand at all times. In 2016, the Chinese government required existing coal fleets to conduct flexibility retrofits to accommodate more renewable power. We conduct this study to evaluate how coal power retrofits could affect wind integration and emissions at a system level. By constructing a balancing model that respects China's unique quota-based dispatch rules, we use real data from provincial dispatch center of Jilin Province to compare wind power integration and system emissions before and after coal power retrofits. We find that coal power retrofits can significantly reduce wind curtailment from 31 to 7% in our base simulation model. However, emission reductions achieved from coal power retrofits are subject to diminishing marginal returns. We suggest policy efforts to proceed with the strategy of coal power retrofits but carefully evaluate both economic and environmental costs associated with different technologies to reduce pollution and implement from the least expensive ones.
Keywords: Coal power retrofits; Emission reduction; Grid flexibility; Wind integration.