As the world seeks to phase down use of coal, China’s biggest coal-fired power plant has just finished construction and entered operation on Dec. 28. The Shanghaimiao plant, located in the country’s top coal-producing region of Inner Mongolia, said on Tuesday that its first of four 1,000-megawatt units was online after passing a 168 hour period of trials. The plant will supply power to China’s eastern coastal Shandong Province. The thermal power plant is operated by the Guodian Power Shanghaimiao Corporation, a subsidiary of the centrally-owned China Energy Investment Corporation. China, where coal-fired plants generate more than two-thirds of its electricity, pledged to reduce its reliance on coal as part of global efforts to tackle climate change, but to do so only after 2025. The power crunch engulfing the country this year has disrupted the daily lives of tens of millions of people, crippled industrial output, and wreaked havoc on global …