Energy Internet business operation model tends to be flat and decentralized

China Energy Storage Network: In recent years, with the continuous development and deep integration of emerging energy technologies with information technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and mobile Internet, the energy Internet has been increasingly widely regarded as an important technical fulcrum for realizing the future energy revolution. Shi Yubo, executive vice president of the China Energy Research Society and former deputy director of the National Energy Administration, pointed out that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the development of China's energy Internet industry is expected to maintain a growth rate of 18.5%. Against the backdrop of the "new normal" of the economy, China's energy Internet industry will undoubtedly become one of the strong engines for reform, innovation and development.

my country's energy costs are still high overall

At present, sustainable energy development is a major issue facing the world, and my country is facing an even more urgent need for a new energy revolution and energy market revolution. Shi Yubo pointed out that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, my country should actively build a smart energy system, promote the deep integration of new technologies in the fields of energy and information, coordinate the construction of energy and infrastructure networks such as communications and transportation, and build an energy Internet with coordinated development, integration and complementarity of "source-grid-load-storage".

Fan Bi, inspector of the General Department of the State Council Research Office, pointed out that my country's energy is still extensive, and its unit energy consumption is higher than the global average. It can be said that it is still in the coal era. There are also problems such as price lever failure and consumers lack of choice. As the core concept of the third industrial revolution, the energy Internet is not just energy + Internet, but it adopts Internet concepts, methods and technologies to achieve major changes in the energy infrastructure architecture itself, so as to openly interconnect and exchange and share energy. Among them, users in the energy Internet are both consumers and producers of energy.

Fan Bi believes that the Internet has fundamentally changed the way of production, the way of life, and the world, but it has not changed my country's energy. From the perspective of production methods, my country's energy is still far from achieving the production methods of the Internet world. Whether it is electricity or oil and gas, it is generally centralized and standardized production, long-distance transportation, and factory manufacturing. Moreover, compared with the Internet, my country's energy still has the characteristics of slow technological updates, single distribution methods, and backward trading methods.

Fan Bi said that although energy Internet payment has brought low costs, my country's energy as a whole is still high-cost. For example, electricity bill payment has not seen the same blowout development as Internet finance and the entire e-commerce. If "Internet +" smart energy is used, it may be possible to improve energy efficiency, promote energy quality, flexibly adjust energy supply and demand, and improve energy economy to meet the diversified needs of consumption.

Energy Internet is a forward-looking technology and industry

Han Yingduo, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Power Electronics Engineering Research Center of Tsinghua University, believes that as an emerging business model, the energy Internet is a forward-looking technology and industry with strong internal and external driving forces. Its impact on energy production and consumption is subversive, and it is foreseeable that many traditional industries will be subverted and eliminated. Ding Mincheng, global vice president of Accenture and vice chairman of Greater China, pointed out that China's energy and power market reforms have not been fully implemented at the grassroots level, most energy companies still lack a clear digital strategy, cross-border partners still lack mature and reliable business models and win-win mechanisms, and the segmentation of China's energy user needs is not enough to support new profit growth points. These are the main factors hindering Chinese companies from investing in the energy Internet.

The survey report shows that the interviewed Chinese corporate executives generally believe that the energy internet will have an impact on the existing Chinese energy industry chain. The changes in the industry chain first come from the demand side, but at the strategic level, Chinese companies are not fully prepared to capture the synergy and market opportunities brought by energy internet technology. Among them, more than 90% of Chinese companies believe that the energy internet will have an impact on China's energy industry chain in the next three years. Nearly 20% of Chinese companies believe that the impact of the energy internet on China's energy industry chain will be subversive. The most subversive market change in the next three years is that the value growth point of the energy and power industry will shift from traditional product sales to digital-based energy services.

Ding Mincheng believes that thanks to the rapid development of IT/OT technology, China's energy Internet has taken shape and is constantly evolving into new formats. The new round of market competition will revolve around energy consumption and demand, and the differentiation of energy consumption experience will force companies to transform digitally. Among them, the most noteworthy high-value-added areas include distributed energy and energy storage solutions, as well as the Internetization and intelligence of energy trading platforms. It is estimated that by 2020, the total market size of China's energy Internet will exceed US$940 billion, accounting for about 7% of China's GDP that year.

It is estimated that by 2020, the total market size of China's energy Internet will exceed US$940 billion, accounting for about 7% of China's GDP that year.

Energy Internet needs to open up all links

The report pointed out that Chinese companies expect energy market reform measures to be further refined and implemented to enhance the certainty of investment decisions in energy internet, but most of the Chinese companies interviewed have not yet effectively activated and connected various digital applications. Among them, Chinese new energy companies are most in need of strengthening their "Internet +" capabilities in order to get rid of their dependence on policy subsidies as soon as possible. In this regard, Zeng Ming, director of the Energy Internet Research Center of North China Electric Power University, believes that with the expansion of market scale and the maturity of market mechanisms, the overall development of energy internet business operation models in the future will tend to be flat and decentralized. After the market environment and technology are relatively mature, it is possible to consider gradually introducing diversified and decentralized new business models to open energy internet interfaces for more market players.

Han Yingduo pointed out that the Energy Internet draws on Internet thinking and concepts to build a new type of information-energy integrated "wide area network", that is, using the large power grid as the "backbone network", and microgrids, distributed energy and other energy autonomous units as the "local area network", with an open and peer-to-peer information-energy integrated architecture, truly realizing two-way on-demand transmission and dynamic balanced use of energy, and can adapt to the access of new energy to the greatest extent.

Xu Songlin, deputy secretary-general of the China Electricity Council and director of the Standard Management Center, believes that the energy internet was proposed in recent years and covers many disciplines. Therefore, in order to play a role, it is necessary to open up channels in all links. Among them, a standardized and unified standard system is the basic condition to support the development of the energy internet and an important guarantee for the construction of a complex system of the energy internet.

Xu Songlin introduced that my country used to adopt international standards, but now my country has advantages in smart energy and projects are progressing rapidly, so China should actively participate in the formulation of international standards and even lead the formulation of international standards to enhance my country's international status. By 2018, my country will initially build an energy Internet technology standard system and form a number of technical specifications and standards. By 2025, my country will initially build an energy Internet industry system and form a relatively complete technology and standard system to promote international leadership and realize the development of energy Internet.