Active wall conditioning through boron powder injection compatible ELM control in EAST

•The real-time boron injection effectively conditioned the plasma-facing components, as shown by the reductions in low-Z and high-Z impurities and the global recycling level in the whole inner vessel.•The improved wall conditions resulted in suppression of strong MHD and an earlier transition from L- to H-mode.•The boron powder injection shows effectively ELM control in H-mode discharges in the lower single null configuration with ion grad-B drift toward X-points while leaving the plasma density and stored energy largely unaffected.