China shut down small coal-fuelled power plants with a total generating capacity of 54.07 million kilowatts from 2006 to the end of June this year, an energy official said Thursday.

The authorities were 18 months ahead of schedule in their goal to close 50 million kilowatts of coal-fuelled generating capacity by the end of 2010, said Sun Qin, deputy director of the National Energy Administration (NEA) at a press conference.

Because of the closures, the average coal consumption by plants had fallen by 30 grams to 340 grams a kilowatt, which equated to 160 million tonnes of coal saved since the beginning of 2006.

Sulfur dioxide emissions were down by 1.06 million tonnes a year, and carbon dioxide emissions by 124 million tonnes annually, said Sun.

The proportion of generating units with capacity above 300,000 kilowatts rose to 64 percent of the total plants in operation by the end of June, up 20 percentage points from the beginning of 2006, while those with a capacity below 100,000 kilowatts dropped to 14 percent, down 16 percentage points.

Sun said the country has allocated more than 2 billion yuan (292.8 million U.S. dollars) from the central budget since 2006 to enterprises and local governments involved in small thermal power capacity closures.

These funds were used to help power generation plants re-deploy workers, train laid-off staff, and restructure. According to an initial estimate, the closures involved 400,000 workers nationwide.

"Although the move to eliminate high-energy-consumption small coal power capacity faced great difficulties, the government has done a good job as a whole," Sun said.

Asked if the closures would result in an electricity shortage, Sun said efforts to establish more large power generators would ensure an adequate power supply.

New power generation capacity was about 70 million kilowatts a year on average, he said. Most new generators had energy efficient coal-fired units.

Despite the achievements in closing small thermal generating units, Sun said more should be done to eliminate small power generation capacity, as "the work is still tough and has a long way to go."

Coal-fired units with a single generator capacity of up to 200,000 kilowatts still accounted for about 80 million kilowatts of China's power supply.

Sun called on local governments and enterprises to step up closures of small thermal power capacity, in order to further cut energy consumption, lower emissions and protect the environment.