An aerial view of a coal-fired power plant in Yanji, Northeast China's Jilin Province, supplying electricity and heating to local communities on October 24, 2026. Photo: VCG

As a cold front swept across northern China and heating services officially started in some provinces, the country's major energy and logistics groups ramped up winter supply guarantees, the Global Times learned on Sunday.  

Heating services officially started on Sunday in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Jinan and Zhengzhou, among other cities.

China State Railway Group said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Sunday that it is leveraging the "one national rail network" and centralized dispatch system to boost coal shipments from major producing regions. 

Since October, with northern areas gradually entering the heating season, the group has made dedicated supply guarantees to eight power plants, ensuring thermal coal is loaded and delivered in an accelerated manner.

In the first 10 months of 2026, national railways shipped 1.75 billion tons of coal, including 1.16 billion tons of thermal coal. Coal stocks at directly supplied power plants have stayed at healthy levels, the state railway operator said.

Also on Sunday, China Oil & Gas Pipeline Network Corp (PipeChina) said that it has advanced its "summer-winter integrated" storage mechanism, with three gas storage facilities completing injection tasks and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal tank inventories exceeding 1.05 billion cubic meters (bcm).

The national gas network's daily peak-shaving capacity has been raised to 1.2 bcm, up 30 million cubic meters from the same period last year, enough to meet surging winter demand, the company said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Sunday.

A number of major networks, connectivity and storage projects have been completed. The Hulin-Changchun natural gas pipeline, a key national project, has finished full-line construction and is entering the commissioning phase. Once operational, it will carry up to 10 bcm of gas a year and link with the "north-to-south" gas corridor and northeast pipeline networks to strengthen eastern China's supply security.

PipeChina is also taking in more domestic gas field output and expanding international LNG sourcing to keep the system balanced.

In mid-October, China Datang Corp's coal-to-natural-gas project in Fuxin, Northeast China's Liaoning Province, launched its first production line and fed gas into the national network, with a maximum injection capacity of 3 million cubic meters per day. Combined with a new injection project at the Changqing oilfield's gas production plant, which adds more than 10 million cubic meters a day, the winter supply base has gained solid backing.

With main pipelines, interconnection projects and storage upgrades coming online, China is moving into the heating season with stronger multi-source coordination, ample storage and readiness, a Chinese analyst said. In addition to coal and gas, more clean energy production will also boost the energy system's long-term sustainability.

Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times that ensuring winter energy supply is always a priority for government officials and the energy sector and predicted ample power supply this year, given the current supply and demand dynamics.

Overall, the risk of a large-scale energy shortage is minimal, Lin said, noting that renewable energy has played an increasingly complementary role alongside traditional energy sources in ensuring energy supply.