Power coal refers to coal used as power raw material. In a narrow sense, it refers to coal used for thermal power generation. Broadly speaking, all coal used for power generation, locomotive propulsion and boiler combustion belongs to power coal. Power coal mainly includes lignite, long flame coal, non-stick coal, lean coal, gas coal and a small amount of anthracite.

Thermal coal is the most important energy structure in China, and more than 65% of thermal coal is used for thermal power generation. Followed by coal for building materials, accounting for about 20% of consumption, and coal for cement is the largest; The remaining thermal coal consumption is distributed in metallurgy, chemical industry and civil use.

The requirements of thermal coal for calorific value, volatile matter and ash are not as high as those of chemical coal. But considering the economic benefits of electric power technology, thermal coal should also have certain quality requirements.

The quality requirement of power coal is lower than any other coal. For example, coal gangue with a low calorific value greater than 4 186.8kJ/kg can be used as the fuel of a boiling boiler. But considering the economic benefits of electric power technology, thermal coal should also have certain quality requirements. First, the calorific value, followed by the ash melting point and the difficulty of slagging, the grindability coefficient should be considered in pulverized coal boiler combustion, and the coal lump rate should be paid attention to in chain boiler fuel. Power coal is also divided into ship coal, locomotive coal and power generation coal, and their requirements for coal quality are also different.