Abstract: Combined with production practice, the spontaneous combustion process of coal in storage is described. The characteristics of coal yard spontaneous combustion, such as the coal qualities, yard locations and climate conditions are summarized. The effective measures to prevent the spontaneous combustion are also put forward, including choosing the coals of good stability as bed coal to pave the coal yard, tamping the coal pile bottom periphery, putting the coal of high-risk spontaneous combustion in storage in special areas or mixing it with high-ash content coal for storage, adopting the right way to extinguish the fire with water under different spontaneous combustion scenarios; reducing the windward side area with reasonable group piling ; prioritizing the high-risk coal for firing. After taking these measures, the frequency of coal yard spontaneous combustion in one power plant is gradually decreasing. So far no spontaneous combustion has ever taken place in a continuous long period.

Key words: thermal power plant, coal, spontaneous combustion, autoignition core, spontaneous combustion control