The Inner Mongolia autonomous region, China's leading producer of coal, has increased production to meet heating needs as cold waves send temperatures plunging across the country.

"We have conducted comprehensive overhauls of production equipment to ensure that they function well in low temperatures as we continue to boost production," said Wang Wei, a worker at an open-pit coal mine owned by Zhunneng Group, a subsidiary of China Energy Investment Corporation.

Although the mine completed this year's projected production tasks in November, it is still actively producing to cope with energy demand. On Dec 6, about 80,000 metric tons of coal were mined from the pit.

China Energy's Shendong Coal Group is also unleashing its production capacity with all of its 13 mines and 11 coal-washing plants running at full capacity.

Freight trains run daily from the coal production base in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, carrying raw coal across the country, fueling thermal power plants to warm millions of households.

According to data from the regional energy bureau, the region's coal output reached 970 million tons in the first 10 months of this year, up 13.6 percent year-on-year, of which 600 million tons were sent out of the region to meet the coal demand of 29 provincial-level regions.

In addition to raw coal, Inner Mongolia is also supplying electricity, relying on the region's strong thermal power generation capacity.

Inner Mongolia Datang International Togtoh Power Generation, located in the regional capital Hohhot, is currently the world's largest operating thermal power plant. With a total installed capacity of 6.7 million kilowatts, the company generates more than 30 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, ensuring power supply for the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan area.

The company said that since the start of winter, it has ensured a stable supply to feed the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan power grid.

In the first 10 months of 2022, the cumulative power generation in the Inner Mongolia amounted to 528 billion kWh, up 5.7 percent year-on-year. The region's power transmission volume during that period reached 214 billion kWh, up 4.8 percent year-on-year — ranking first in China in terms of power transmission volume among all provincial-level regions.

East Inner Mongolia Electric Power of the State Grid Corporation of China has built the world's first ultra-high voltage hybrid power system, which can send electricity generated from both thermal and wind power plants in Inner Mongolia to the national grid.

Inner Mongolia has also generated 1.29 million tons of crude oil output and 25.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas output in the first 10 months, up 33.9 percent and 4.4 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Wang Jinbao, director of the energy bureau, said with its target of building into China's important national energy and strategic resource base, the region will further promote the energy revolution, and continue to upgrade energy production, supply, storage and sales systems to help safeguard national energy security.