China Huaneng Group, one of the nation's major power generators, has announced its electricity output climbed ten percent year on year to 282 billion kilowatt-hours last year.

Li Xiaopeng, president of the state-owned firm, said the company posted a sales revenue of 84.5 billion yuan (10.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, an increase of 14.8 percent from a year earlier.

Li said the company's installed power generating capacity reached 57.19 gigawatts with total assets of 285.6 billion yuan (36.7 billion U.S. dollars).

Li said the company produced one kilowatt-hour of electricity by burning 345 grams of coalon average, leading the power industry in energy efficiency.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the nation's top economic planner, announced on Monday that the government would close 50 gigawatts of power generation capacity at small, more polluting and energy-consuming power plants.

China's electricity output went up 13 percent to reach 2.83 trillion kilowatt-hours last year, according to the State Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The NDRC said on Tuesday the government planned to expand its electricity capacity by one third to 840 gigawatts in 2010 to meet the country's increasing energy demand.

Source: Xinhua