Regional energy faces a good opportunity for development

China Energy Storage Network: Under the strategic guidance of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Zhuhai Hengqin New Area is working hard to implement the concept of green city development. As the basic supporting facilities of the area, the State Power Investment Group's multi-generation gas energy station demonstration project with a total investment of 12 billion yuan is being promoted in an orderly manner. The project is an important energy support for Hengqin's construction of an "ecological island" and the creation of a national low-carbon city (town) pilot project. It will provide comprehensive energy products such as electricity, cold, heat, and steam to the entire Hengqin Island. After completion, it will become the world's largest regional energy project.

So, what lessons can Hengqin's regional energy projects provide for the development of regional energy in my country? Recently, during the "8th China Urban Regional Energy System Operation and Promotion Seminar" hosted by the Regional Energy Committee of the China Building Energy Conservation Association, reporters visited the above projects and gained a general understanding of them.

Committed to achieving

Replicable and scalable

The regional energy system is based on the energy structure and resource endowment in a certain region, optimizes the allocation of traditional fossil energy and various new energy sources, and combines waste heat utilization, heat pumps, energy storage and other advanced technologies to make full use of high- and low-grade energy. Through the cascade utilization of energy, it provides energy solutions for cold, heat, electricity and other products for urban end users, aiming to achieve low-carbon and high-efficiency energy use in urban areas. This is particularly important for China, which currently has high energy consumption and great environmental pressure and urgently needs to seek green, low-carbon and sustainable development.

"The Hengqin Regional Cooling and Heating Project is very demonstrative and instructive," said Sun Yaowei, former inspector of the Legal and Institutional Reform Department of the National Energy Administration, when visiting the project. Some experts also said after visiting the project that multi-energy complementarity and "Internet +" smart energy are the two main directions for the development of modern regional energy systems. The Hengqin Multi-energy Energy Station Regional Cooling and Heating Project is in line with this development trend.

"Our goal is to make the project replicable and scalable," said Hou Zhenlin, general manager of Zhuhai Hengqin Energy Development Co., Ltd. of State Power Investment Corporation. Based on comprehensive considerations of the project, during the seminar, the Hengqin Regional Energy Project was listed as the first "China Regional Energy Demonstration Project" launched by the China Building Energy Conservation Association.

According to Hou Zhenlin, the Hengqin Energy Station project is based on a gas-fired power plant and nine centralized refrigeration stations (six to eight more will be added in the long term), and carries out comprehensive energy supply development and services with multi-energy complementation, Internet technology integration and optimization, such as photovoltaic, electric refrigeration, power plant waste heat, water storage and ice storage. Relying on high-tech means such as big data and cloud computing, it has built a comprehensive smart energy management system that is visualized, easy to manage and easy to count, which can make the primary energy utilization efficiency of natural gas reach 73%, and help the green, low-carbon and sustainable development of Hengqin New Area from the high energy efficiency of the whole life cycle. As of August this year, the project has developed a total of 80 users, and the total cooling demand in 2017 reached 200,000 refrigeration tons.

Compared with buildings that only use central air conditioning, the four cold stations in the first phase of the regional cooling and heating project are expected to save 400 million kWh of electricity consumption for cold source electric refrigeration for Hengqin Eco-Island each year, reduce the use of approximately 180,000 tons of standard coal, and reduce emissions of approximately 480,000 tons of CO2 and approximately 1,500 tons of SO2.

What is particularly noteworthy is that the project uses a two-part pricing system of "infrastructure supporting fees + metered cooling fees" to implement energy-saving management, which effectively compensates for the impact of low load in the early stage. "The two-part pricing system can provide the industry with a demonstration effect of reducing investment risks, energy consumption and heating and cooling costs." Hou Zhenlin told reporters.

The reporter learned that the No. 3 station of the first phase project was put into operation in May 2016. The price mechanism ensured that the project achieved a break-even in the current energy price level and without any subsidies in the early stage of operation. Based on the existing project financial evaluation, after all four cold stations of the first phase are put into operation in 2019, it is expected that the revenue in 2023 will exceed 250 million yuan and the net profit will exceed 30 million yuan.

Sustainable Urban Development

District energy needed

Looking at the world, cities should take the lead in achieving green and low-carbon energy transformation. Reporters learned from the seminar that although the global urban area only accounts for 2% of the earth's surface area, the population accounts for 54% of the world's total population and GDP accounts for 80% of the world's total. Jiang Nanqing, head of the United Nations Environment Program's China Office, said: "Correspondingly, urban energy consumption accounts for 70% of the world's total. Among them, energy consumption for heating, cooling and hot water supply in cities accounts for 60% of building energy consumption."

With the rapid urbanization process in recent years, some institutions predict that China will become the country with the largest urban population in the world by 2030. At the same time, China's per capita resource reserves are far below the world average, and its energy consumption per unit of GDP remains high.

According to Xu Wenfa, Honorary Director of the Regional Energy Committee of the China Building Energy Conservation Association, the world's average energy consumption per million US dollars of GDP is about 2.49 tons of oil equivalent, while my country's is as high as 7.18 tons of oil equivalent. In terms of energy efficiency, my country is only about 36.81%, while the world average is 50.32%, India is 39%, and Denmark is as high as 72%.

The reporter learned that it is thanks to the widespread use of regional energy systems that Denmark has become one of the most energy-efficient countries in the world. Denmark is currently committed to achieving the zero-carbon goal of completely getting rid of its dependence on fossil energy and using 100% renewable energy by 2050.

The view that "district energy is the most effective way to promote sustainable urban development" is gradually gaining global consensus. Many experts agree that "modernized district energy systems will be the key to reducing energy demand and the most effective way to implement the last mile of sustainable urban development and achieve efficient conversion and supply of urban energy." "By 2050, the transformation of the district energy system will contribute 60% of the global emission reduction target and save 50% of primary energy consumption," said Xu Wenfa, citing the words of Liga Nona, Director of the Technology, Industry and Economics Division of the United Nations Environment Programme, at the meeting.

Regional Energy Development in China

Welcome the strategic opportunity period

Regional energy has been developed in my country for more than 10 years, and has been developing at a faster pace in recent years. The reporter learned that there are currently more than 400 regional energy projects in China, and nearly 100 companies engaged in regional energy investment and operation.

In addition to the Hengqin project, the Guangzhou University City Energy Station regional centralized cooling and heating system project has been in operation for 13 years. The project generates about 600 million kWh of electricity annually, provides more than 200,000 GJ of heat annually, and has an energy comprehensive utilization efficiency of up to 78%.

In addition, according to Hu Yongfeng, deputy chief engineer of Huadian Distributed Energy Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., as of the end of 2016, Huadian Group alone had put into operation 964.5 MW of distributed energy installed capacity, and built more than 20 regional energy stations, including the Shanghai Xinzhuang Industrial Zone regional energy system, the Shanghai University of Science and Technology regional energy system, and the Disney Tourist Resort regional energy system. The comprehensive energy utilization rate of the projects that have been put into operation can reach more than 85%, and the relative energy saving rate is more than 20%.

As the domestic regional energy development policy guidance gradually becomes clearer, various projects have begun to show results and are gaining more and more widespread recognition. The industry generally believes that the development of regional integrated smart energy projects has entered a strategic opportunity period.

According to Sun Yaowei, my country has launched the first batch of 23 pilot projects for the multi-energy complementary integrated optimization demonstration project and the first batch of 55 pilot projects for the "Internet + Smart Energy". "It is worth fully affirming that regional energy emphasizes the integration of production and city, promoting production with city, and the overall planning, organic combination and unified operation of regional energy and cities, communities, and large-scale industrial and commercial projects are more conducive to improving the overall efficiency of energy utilization. In combination with my country's resource endowment and the actual situation of economic, social and energy development in various regions, the distinctive business models currently created around regional energy development in China have a positive demonstration and guiding role in promoting my country's energy revolution and energy transformation." He said.