URUMQI -- A total of 316,000 households in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region benefited from the local coal-to-electricity conversion project in 2019.

Last March, Xinjiang launched the three-year project in four poverty-stricken prefectures in the south of the region to increase the clean energy use for winter heating.

About 4.6 billion yuan (around $663 million) were allocated last year to construct and upgrade power grids in the farming and ranching areas in the four prefectures, involving 224 townships and 1,205 villages.

The energy conversion project is of positive significance to the local ecological environment. Every year, it will reduce the consumption of 425,000 tonnes of standard coal, cutting down the emission of carbon dioxide by 1.06 million tonnes, sulfur dioxide by 32,000 tonnes and dust by 289,000 tonnes.

In 2020, the four prefectures will complete the conversion of coal to electricity for 288,600 households, realizing the target of energy conversion for 900,000 households by 2021.