The quality of coal which varies due to rising use of import coal has a major influence on the effects in the electrostatic precipitator (ESP).The understanding of the theor. background in the ESP is giving the fundamentals for the characterization of the separation behavior in dependence of the used coal.The dust separation in the ESP was investigated for a range of different import coals regarding different local conditions.In this study, the possible future fuel supply regarding the emission limit for power plants designed for German hard coal is rated.Within that scope, the primary retention of ash in wet bottom or dry bottom boilers, the operation temperature of the ESP, and the SO3 conversion are important parameters.A further factor with influence on the raw and clean gas dust concentrations is the use of back-up fuel.Within these investigations, hard coal from Germany, Russia, Columbia, Poland, South Africa, and Australia were rated and the individual components and their influence on the precipitation is analyzed and presented.As a reference for the calculated dust resistivity and clean gas dust concentrations, investigations at Evonik power plants and different operational values were taken into account for validation.