Only by doing a good job in energy storage can we develop renewable energy on a large scale

Reporter: For those who are not familiar with the energy and power sector, the concept of energy interconnection is still somewhat unfamiliar. What do you think energy interconnection means to ordinary people?

Du Xiangwan: This is a very broad topic. My understanding is very limited, so I will just talk about my limited knowledge. The concept of "energy internet" was first proposed by the British magazine "The Economist" in 2004. Later, Rifkin mentioned "energy internet" in his book "The Third Industrial Revolution". He emphasized distribution, which is also related to the development of renewable energy. Distributed development may be an important direction for future energy development. I think we must first clarify the purpose of energy interconnection, which is to establish a "safe, economical, efficient, low-carbon, and shared" energy system, which is ultimately for sustainable development.

Whether it is the Global Energy Internet or the Energy Internet, it must serve the establishment of a "safe, economical, efficient, low-carbon and shared" energy system.

Reporter: There are many ways to achieve sustainable development, and energy interconnection is one of them. What is the biggest difference between energy interconnection and other methods?

Du Xiangwan: Energy interconnection has several characteristics. First, electrification. Electricity only accounts for 20% of my country's terminal energy consumption. This proportion needs to be increased. Energy must be electrified. Developing electricity and increasing its proportion is a general direction that everyone agrees on and is undoubtedly a development direction.

Second, low carbonization. Coal-fired power is high-carbon. If we want to achieve low carbonization of energy, the first thing is to achieve low carbonization of power supply, and the proportion of non-fossil energy should be increased. In 2014, non-fossil energy accounted for 12% of my country's total energy consumption. It is planned to increase to 15% in 2020 and 20% in 2030. At present, among terminal energy sources, the proportion of non-fossil energy in electricity is only 25%, and this proportion needs to be increased. There are two reasons. One is to alleviate air pollution. The main source of air pollution is the combustion of coal and oil, and the particulate matter produced by combustion accounts for more than two-thirds of the total particulate matter. The second is to alleviate climate change. The concentration of carbon dioxide and other substances has continued to increase significantly, bringing about climate warming and extreme weather, which is also due to the combustion of coal and oil. Although air pollution and climate change are two concepts, they have the same origin. Therefore, we must gradually reduce the use of fossil energy and increase the proportion of non-fossil energy. For electricity, non-fossil energy power should gradually become the main player.

Third, intelligence. In the power system, intelligence provides the possibility to improve energy efficiency management. At present, the development of information technology and big data technology will bring profound changes to our production and life, and also give us the conditions and needs to realize the intelligence of energy management.

Reporter: What do you think is the relationship between the development of distributed energy and centralized energy Internet, that is, smart grid?

Du Xiangwan: The above mentioned "three transformations", and the following two "combinations". The first is the combination of smart grid and distributed energy network. They support and cooperate with each other. The concept of traditional power grid is centralized (now refers to smart grid), which is still needed, but we must also focus on developing distributed low-carbon energy network, which can complement the large power grid. For a long time, my country has been a centralized power grid, but with the development of renewable energy and information technology, smart grid came into being. With the development of solar energy and wind energy, every household can become a producer and user of energy.

In the process of urbanization, it is necessary to develop a distributed low-carbon energy network. In the future, my country's urbanization rate will increase by ten or even twenty percentage points. After urbanization, farmers will become citizens, and their quality of life will improve, including farmers who stay in rural areas. With the modernization of agriculture, their living standards, per capita energy consumption, and electricity consumption will increase. Therefore, we should especially advocate a distributed low-carbon energy network, combining centralized power grids with distributed networks, including rural power grid transformation, which should also focus on the development of distributed networks and use more renewable energy.

Second, in addition to the combination of centralized power grids and distributed low-carbon energy networks, we must also focus on the combination of horizontal interconnection and vertical optimization. The horizontal aspect is the combination of multiple energy sources, such as thermal power, wind power, nuclear power, etc. The vertical aspect is the optimization of power generation, power consumption, power distribution, power consumption, energy storage and other links.

Reporter: In the development of energy Internet, which technology do you think is most worthy of attention and will develop rapidly in the future?

Du Xiangwan: It is worth mentioning energy storage. Energy storage is an important direction for the development of renewable energy. Solar energy and wind energy are intermittent and cannot be fully connected to the grid. Energy storage can help the grid reduce wind and solar power abandonment. There are many ways to store energy now, including physical energy storage and chemical energy storage, but after the large-scale commercial application of renewable energy, how to better combine energy storage with it needs further research. The next step is to develop high-density energy storage, and there will be continuous innovations in this regard in the future. Only by doing a good job in energy storage can we develop renewable energy commercially and on a large scale.

In addition to energy storage, there is also a technology for utilizing the peak of renewable energy. For example, how can we avoid wasting renewable energy when it cannot be connected to the grid? Using the above technology, when it reaches its peak, this energy can be used to electrolyze water or desalinate seawater. Electrolyzing water can produce hydrogen, which can be used as an energy carrier. Therefore, the energy Internet can drive a series of technological developments.

Reporter: China has proposed the concept of global energy internet, and some practices have been carried out in China. The development of UHV technology is the foundation of global energy internet. What do you think of the role played by UHV?

Du Xiangwan: UHV is a good technology and it is well done in China. The demonstration of the first UHV test demonstration line, the 1000 kV high-voltage AC transmission demonstration project of Southeast Shanxi-Nanyang-Jingmen, was done by the Chinese Academy of Engineering. We support the construction of this line and it is running well now. Technology should be used where it should be used and where it is needed. When applying it, top-level design and scientific demonstration should be done well. China's modernization needs to be carefully designed, because our country's per capita resources are relatively limited, and we must do a good job of demonstration in the spirit of economy, efficiency, safety and low carbon. For example, what kind of centralized power grid and distributed power grid does my country need to combine, what kind of network construction is needed to be more optimized, meet the principles of efficiency, economy and low carbon, and do things on the basis of good scientific demonstration.

Reporter: The energy structure will gradually change from being dominated by fossil energy to being dominated by non-fossil energy in the future. This is an inevitable development direction and a common development trend in the world. It will take a long time to complete this transformation. How can we speed up this process?

Du Xiangwan: This requires a clear strategic direction. The West was also dominated by coal a hundred years ago. Now coal accounts for only about 30%. Later, solar energy, natural gas, and renewable energy gradually developed. my country's natural endowment is mainly coal. To further reduce the proportion of coal, we must further increase consensus, unify our understanding, reflect it in policies, cooperate in technology, actively guide coal control and reduction, and gradually increase the proportion of low-carbon energy. For example, natural gas now accounts for only 6%, and I expect it to increase to more than 10% in the future.

Original title: The development of my country's energy Internet must be combined with distributed low-carbon energy networks