Energy Internet Virtual Reality: How Many Ways Do Enterprises “Affiliate” Know?

China Energy Storage Network News: Since the news that the National Energy Administration was organizing the drafting of the "Internet + Energy Action Plan" was released in April, the capital market has never stopped speculating on the concept of "Energy Internet".

"The Internet + Energy Action Plan is still in the early research stage and has not yet been formally drafted, so there is no clear timetable." An official from the National Energy Administration emphasized to the "Clean Technology Investment" reporter.

"Clean Technology Investment" exclusively learned that the National Energy Administration has organized four seminars on energy internet with relevant experts and enterprises, and arranged more than a dozen related topics at the most recent seminar. The topics include the functional positioning, architecture, key technologies, business models, institutional guarantees and evaluation mechanisms of energy internet, and the project undertakers are required to complete them as soon as possible.

Ding Wenlei, executive director of Hangyu Solar Energy, told Cleantech Investment that the vision of energy internet is good, but it is difficult to implement. "We have no shortage of new concepts and new terms. The most urgent task is to promote electricity reform, create a good institutional environment for energy internet, and encourage all kinds of enterprises to carry out independent innovation."

Energy Internet should be based on power Internet

Although the energy internet is very popular, no one has clearly defined what it is.

A reporter from "Clean Technology Investment" found that the extension of "energy" in "Energy Internet" has already covered the three major areas of coal, oil and gas, and electricity.

In May this year, Zhang Yuzhuo, Chairman of Shenhua Group, pointed out in his signed article "Shenhua's Internet Exploration" that Shenhua Group has opened a small window of "Internet + coal industry" by selling products through the Internet. In April, Alibaba and Sinopec reached an agreement that Alibaba will provide cloud computing services and big data analysis for Sinopec, upgrade some traditional petrochemical businesses, and create a new business service model with multiple formats. In addition, there are also various "Internet + electricity".

"The concept of energy internet should not be generalized, and the information transformation of the energy industry cannot be collectively referred to as energy internet." Cao Junwei, a researcher at the Institute of Information Technology of Tsinghua University, told "Clean Technology Investment".

Cao Junwei pointed out that electricity has incomparable comprehensive advantages in energy transmission and conversion, and its infrastructure foundation is the most complete and has the conditions for interconnection. Therefore, the energy Internet will be based on the power Internet.

Cao Junwei analyzed that with the implementation of the reform idea of ​​"liberalizing the two ends and controlling the middle" proposed by the new electricity reform, the power market will continue to liberalize the power sales market on the basis of the already liberalized power generation market. A relatively fully competitive market structure is expected to be formed, which will provide diverse participants for the development of the energy Internet.

Feng Qingdong, chief expert of State Grid Energy Research Institute, once publicly proposed that the energy internet was proposed in the context of energy transformation. The massive access of new and renewable energy will completely change the structure of the power system, and base load thermal power plants will gradually decrease. The main goal in the future is to enhance the flexibility and adaptability of the power system to accommodate more new and renewable energy.

Electricity Internet should focus on renewable energy

However, the industry's understanding of power Internet varies.

Cao Junwei believes that the energy internet is about constructing an energy system that allows energy to be freely accessed and shared by any legal entity, just like Internet information. From a control perspective, it is about realizing an information-led, precisely controlled energy system through the integration of information and energy.

Feng Qingdong proposed that the energy internet is the smart grid 2.0. It is a smart energy management and control system that takes the internet technology as the core, the distribution network as the basis, and the access of new energy as the main focus. It uses the energy management system as a distributed energy device to implement wide-area optimization and coordinated control, realize the complementarity of multiple energy sources such as cold, heat, gas, water, and electricity, and improve energy efficiency.

"There is a basis for this statement. The International Electrotechnical Commission defines a multi-energy grid based on the intelligence of multiple energy networks as Smart Grid 2.0. The overall integration of energy networks, social networks, information networks, environmental networks and natural networks is defined as Smart Grid 3.0." Feng Qingdong explained to "Clean Technology Investment" that Smart Grid 2.0 is a short-term goal of the Energy Internet.

Bai Jinfu, president of the China Institute of Economic Research, holds a different view. He believes that the energy Internet is a two-way energy configuration platform based on the Internet, which is mainly suitable for distributed energy. It can deliver renewable energy such as wind energy and solar energy to various users. At the same time, it can also repurchase and reconfigure individual power sources through the Internet, promoting the integration of production and consumption and two-way interaction. The energy Internet cannot only consider "free access and sharing of entities" in a one-way manner, but also form energy that can be traded online.

Five ways for enterprises to "rely" on the energy Internet

Although the debate in academia is still going on, the industry wants to get on board the energy Internet train, and various actions "affiliated" with the energy Internet have far exceeded the above scope.

The "Clean Technology Investment" reporter found that the industry's "hanging on" behavior is mainly reflected in the power generation and sales ends of the electric power industry, and is trying various new business models.

First of all, on the power generation end, there are three main types of "hanging on": the first type is represented by companies such as Sungrow Power Supply, Huawei, Envision, and Mulian Energy, which use the intelligent operation and maintenance system of new energy power stations to conduct big data analysis to improve the power generation efficiency and safety of the power stations; the second type is represented by companies such as SPI and Risen Energy, which try to build a financing and leasing platform for photovoltaic power stations, and claim that their model is "Internet + Energy + Finance"; the third type is represented by Hangyu Solar Energy, which plans to learn from the thinking of "Soufang.com" to build an Internet platform for connecting distributed photovoltaic roofs and land resources with project developers.

Regarding the first type, Zhao Wei, vice president of Sungrow Power Supply, explained "Clean Technology Investment" that "the inverter is a distribution center for various operating data of photovoltaic power stations. This is a good entry point for photovoltaic power stations to transform into energy Internet. Therefore, we recently launched the iSolarCloud smart photovoltaic cloud in April in cooperation with Alibaba Cloud. This is our fourth-generation power station operation and maintenance management system, and also a group-level photovoltaic power station operation and maintenance platform."

On the electricity sales side, there are mainly two types: one is the attempts of traditional power grid companies, such as the "Internet + Power Grid" project cooperation between Sichuan Electric Power Company and Tencent; the other is new players in electricity sales after the liberalization of the electricity sales market intend to use the Internet platform to make efforts, such as Shenhua.

For the former type, the cooperation between Sichuan Electric Power and Tencent will integrate WeChat's "Smart Life" solution and Sichuan Electric Power's user big data resources to realize the smart services of State Grid Sichuan Electric Power; and integrate Tencent's full media communication resources to carry out State Grid Sichuan Electric Power's service marketing.

For the latter type, Zhang Yuzhuo proposed that Shenhua will explore the establishment of an electricity sales company, actively participate in market competition, and mainly sell electricity products including new energy and carbon quotas through the Internet platform.

However, most interviewees stressed that among the five types of tricks in the above-mentioned industry, how many are conceptual hype and how many are real? This question still needs time to verify.

Energy Internet needs to cross the chasm

The National Energy Administration has been quietly taking action.

"Clean Technology Investment" learned that the first energy internet conference held by the National Energy Administration on April 17 announced that the National Energy Internet Action Plan will focus on business models such as distributed energy, microgrids, demand-side management, contract energy management, and data-based services.

"The National Energy Administration has put forward its own preliminary concept. The energy Internet can be developed in two steps. The first step is to encourage competition among multiple electricity sales entities at the electricity sales end, encourage clean energy operators to participate in electricity sales and carbon quota transactions, and form interconnection between electricity sales companies and users. The second step is to improve the electrification level of society through the development of energy storage technology and the development of new carriers such as electric vehicles, green buildings, and smart cities at the terminals of electricity consumption." A corporate representative attending the meeting introduced "clean technology investment".