BEIJING, June 15 -- China is promoting the use of wind-generated electricity for winter heating in northern regions as part of its effort to alleviate air pollution.

The National Energy Administration (NEA) on Monday demanded the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Hebei and Shanxi, as well as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region come up with plans to include wind power into their heating system before next winter.

The goal is allow wind-powered heating to replace coal and make it accessible to places with no natural gas pipelines, the NEA said.

The NEA said the standard is 10,000 kilowatt of wind power capacity for the heating of every 20,000 square meters.

The latest move also aims to combat the issue of wind power waste, a headache for China thanks to imbalanced distribution of wind resources and imperfect grid system. Wind-rich provinces are mainly in the less developed north and northwest regions where electricity supply exceeds demand.

An average of eight percent of wind electricity was abandoned last year. The rate climbed to 18.6 percent in the first three months of the year.