Global Energy Internet Promotes Electrification of Energy Consumption

China Energy Storage Network : How to deal with the three major challenges facing the world's energy development: resource shortage, environmental pollution, and climate change? The construction of a global energy internet is being steadily advanced and becoming a reality.

China's Solution to the World's Energy Problems

From March 30 to 31, the 2016 Global Energy Internet Conference, with the theme of "Global Energy Internet - Meeting Global Electricity Demand with Clean and Green Ways", attracted more than 600 representatives from international organizations such as the United Nations and government departments, industry organizations, related enterprises, and scientific research institutions from 26 countries to Beijing. At the opening ceremony of the conference, the Global Energy Internet Development Cooperation Organization, exclusively initiated by the State Grid Corporation of China, was unveiled. This is the first international organization initiated by China in the energy field. Liu Zhenya, Chairman of the State Grid Corporation of China, was elected as the first chairman of the cooperation organization, and former US Secretary of Energy Chu, General Manager of the State Grid Corporation of China Shu Yinbiao, and Masayoshi Son, President of Japan's SoftBank Group, served as vice chairmen. The first batch of 80 members came from countries on five continents, including 2 individual members, 10 social groups, 10 research institutions and universities, and 58 companies (including 22 Fortune 500 companies), covering energy, electricity, technology, environmental protection, finance and other fields, with extensiveness and representativeness. The establishment of the cooperation organization marks the entry of the Global Energy Internet into a new stage of comprehensive development.

During the conference, the "Northeast Asia Power Grid Cooperation Memorandum" signed by China State Grid Corporation, Korea Electric Power Corporation, Japan SoftBank Group and Russian Power Grid Company marked a solid step forward in cooperation. The conference also released the Arctic Wind Power Resources Development Research Report and the Global Energy Internet Research Report, and issued the "Global Energy Internet Development Cooperation Declaration", which put forward eight initiatives to clarify the development direction, build an organizational platform, strengthen the dissemination of concepts, carry out planning research, promote technological innovation, strengthen communication and exchanges, promote project cooperation, and create a better future, expressing the common wish of all participating representatives to promote the innovative development of the Global Energy Internet, promote the world's energy transformation and sustainable development of mankind.

Interconnected grids to meet power demand

Building a global energy security system with electricity as the center and the power grid as the platform to meet global electricity demand in a clean and green way is the direction of world energy development. The power grid will surely become an energy network that integrates energy development, transmission, configuration and use. So, what exactly does the global energy Internet look like?

Liu Zhenya, Chairman of the State Grid Corporation of China, said that the essence of energy internet is interconnected power grids. The fundamental purpose of building a global energy internet is to meet electricity demand and open up a new path to address climate change. The global energy internet is "smart grid + UHV grid + clean energy", which is a sustainable, green, low-carbon, economical and efficient, open and shared energy system. Smart grid is the foundation, UHV grid is the key, and clean energy is the basis. The global energy internet has huge economic, social and environmental comprehensive benefits.

Since 2000, the global clean energy has developed rapidly, with wind power installed capacity growing by 25% and solar power installed capacity growing by 42% annually. In 2015, the global wind power installed capacity reached 440 million kilowatts and the solar power installed capacity reached 240 million kilowatts. Among them, China's wind power and solar power installed capacity reached 130 million kilowatts and 42 million kilowatts respectively, making it the country with the largest scale of wind power and solar power generation in the world. With technological progress, the competitiveness of clean energy is expected to surpass fossil energy by 2025. Electrification is the basic direction of the energy consumption revolution. Increasing the proportion of electricity in terminal energy consumption can improve the overall energy efficiency of society, reduce costs and increase output. The development of the global energy Internet will strongly promote the electrification process of energy consumption; it is expected that by 2050, the proportion of electricity in global terminal energy consumption will exceed 50%.

Liu Zhenya believes that wind power, solar power generation in the "one pole and one channel" (the Arctic and the equator) and hydropower in major river basins of each continent are the strategic priorities for future energy development. The UHV grid is the main grid of the global energy Internet, and the world's major clean energy bases and load centers are within the UHV transmission range. Arctic wind power can be transmitted to Asia, Europe, and America through UHV to build an Asia-Europe-America interconnected power grid; North African and Middle Eastern solar power can be transmitted to Europe to the north and Asia to the east through UHV to build a Europe-Africa-Asia interconnected power grid. Other continents and countries can be interconnected through various means such as UHV. Interconnection between continents and countries has significant benefits in terms of time zone differences, seasonal differences, and electricity price differences, which will greatly improve the safety, economy, and stability of clean energy, and realize the globalization of energy production, allocation, and trade.

According to the concept, the construction of the global energy Internet is generally divided into three stages: domestic interconnection, intra-continental interconnection, and inter-continental interconnection. Each stage can be coordinated and promoted in combination with actual conditions. From now to 2020, the focus will be on accelerating the development of clean energy in various countries and the construction of domestic power grid interconnection; by 2030, the focus will be on promoting the development of large-scale clean energy bases in the continent and cross-border interconnection of power grids; by 2050, the focus will be on developing "one pole and one road" energy bases and promoting cross-continental interconnection of power grids, and basically building a global energy Internet.

Achieving energy transformation

"The United Nations will actively support and promote the construction of a global energy internet as an important solution to accelerate energy transformation, achieve clean development and address climate change," said Wu Hongbo, UN Deputy Secretary-General.

Professor Li Yining, Honorary Dean of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, said that the Global Energy Internet provides a practical and systematic solution for developing a low-carbon economy and achieving energy transformation. China's development is at a critical period of transition from old to new drivers. The construction of China's Energy Internet will become an important tool for promoting supply-side structural reforms, cultivating and strengthening new drivers, and accelerating the development of the new economy, which will benefit both the present and the long term. The construction of the Global Energy Internet is in line with the development concept of "innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing", and is a major innovative breakthrough in the energy development strategy, technology, and practice in the 21st century.

The guests at the conference spoke highly of the Global Energy Internet, believing that the conditions for building it are in place, and called on all parties concerned to strengthen cooperation, form synergy, and jointly promote the development of the Global Energy Internet.

At present, China State Grid Corporation has put into operation 7 UHV projects of "three AC and four DC", and is building 10 UHV projects of "four AC and six DC". The advanced and mature UHV transmission technology has laid a solid foundation for the interconnection of intercontinental and cross-national power grids.

"Smart grid is an 'Internet of Things' that integrates power transmission, resource allocation, market transactions, information interaction, and intelligent services. China State Grid Corporation has formulated a smart grid development plan and carried out smart grid construction covering power generation, transmission, transformation, distribution, power consumption, and dispatching. It has built 2,554 smart substations, and 35,000 substations have been unmanned. It has installed 310 million smart meters, and has realized automatic collection of electricity consumption information for 320 million households. It has built more than 1,500 electric vehicle charging and swapping stations and 30,000 charging piles. Innovation and breakthroughs in smart grid technology, standards, and engineering practices have created conditions for building a global energy Internet." Liu Zhenya said that the global energy Internet will not only benefit people of all countries, but will also bring important opportunities to investors. It is an important starting point for the construction of the "Belt and Road" and also brings opportunities to domestic excess production capacity in steel, cement, etc., and opens up new horizons for wind turbine manufacturers and photovoltaic industry companies.