The immaturity of the energy storage market mechanism is the main obstacle to its current promotion

Recently, the relevant person in charge of the Energy Conservation Division of the Energy Conservation and Technology Equipment Department of the National Energy Administration said on the issue of promoting the development of energy storage: "We should strive to build a fair policy environment for the energy storage industry. What is fairness? If energy storage creates value, it should be reflected." More than half a year has passed since the five departments issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Energy Storage Technology and Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") in October last year. In the field of new energy power generation, the immaturity of the market mechanism is still the main obstacle to current promotion. The "Opinions" require the "formation of a market mechanism of 'pay according to effect, whoever benefits pays'" seems to need to be continuously improved.

Fierce competition among beneficiaries

Energy storage is an important component and key supporting technology of smart grids and energy systems with a high proportion of renewable energy. It plays an important role in stabilizing the output of renewable energy power generation, promoting the consumption of clean energy, participating in peak load regulation and frequency regulation, ensuring the safe and stable operation of the power grid, and reducing investment in power grid infrastructure. However, energy storage, which should have been very popular in the power system, has developed slowly due to the high cost of equipment and the controversy over the beneficiaries.

In some foreign countries with developed electricity markets, energy storage and frequency regulation are extremely competitive and have been widely used. On the thermal power generation side of my country, energy storage participating in auxiliary services such as peak regulation and frequency regulation has also gradually been accepted by the market. Adding energy storage equipment to thermal power plants can achieve accurate and rapid peak regulation and frequency regulation response, improve the peak regulation and frequency regulation effect, and reduce the peak regulation and frequency regulation costs of thermal power units, thereby earning a certain service fee for thermal power plants. Therefore, energy storage has been promoted smoothly in thermal power plants, but after all, it has been less used and limited in scale. On the new energy power generation side with great promotion potential, since the dispute over the beneficiary has not been concluded, neither new energy power plants nor power grids are willing to pay for the addition of energy storage equipment. To a certain extent, this has caused disadvantages in the promotion of energy storage in the field of new energy power generation.

Zhang Jing, supervisor of the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance, said that for new energy power plants, they believe that energy storage can stabilize the output of new energy, reduce off-peak power generation to a certain extent, ensure the safe and stable operation of the power grid, and save a lot of infrastructure construction investment for the power grid, so the power grid should pay for energy storage. However, the power grid believes that the price of purchasing new energy power generation is already high enough, and energy storage promotes the effective consumption of new energy power generation, so it is natural that new energy power plants should pay for energy storage.

Jiang Liping, deputy director of the Energy Research Institute of State Grid Corporation of China, believes that renewable energy power generation and energy storage are correlated rather than twins, and that clarifying this relationship is the basis for promoting the development of energy storage.

She further pointed out that we have not been treating renewable energy generation as a truly independent power source, but rather nurturing it as a new thing. The power grid uses a higher on-grid price than thermal power to purchase unstable electricity from renewable energy power plants. Therefore, the power grid is unwilling to pay extra for configuring energy storage equipment for renewable energy power plants, because stable power supply is the obligation and responsibility that the power source should bear.

It is understood that although the current grid-connected price of renewable energy power generation is higher than that of thermal power generation, due to large investments and long payback periods, the profitability of many renewable energy power plants is not high. It is not economical to add energy storage equipment at this time, so the enthusiasm is not high.

Market mechanisms need to be further improved

On the one hand, everyone generally agrees that energy storage has great potential for application in various fields such as renewable energy power generation, auxiliary services, microgrids, user side and energy Internet. On the other hand, enthusiasm is low and promotion is difficult. Zhang Jing said that to break this situation, it is necessary to further improve the market mechanism and price mechanism of energy storage so that the value of energy storage can be truly demonstrated.

Some experts hold the same view. At present, the multiple value benefits of energy storage in my country are still unclear. It is necessary to clarify the application value of energy storage in each link of generation, transmission, distribution and use, and to reflect the commercial value of energy storage through an open electricity market and a flexible market-based price mechanism. Xie Kai, deputy director of the Beijing Power Exchange Center, also said that a sound market mechanism is very important for the development of energy storage. He introduced that in countries that have established a sound energy storage market mechanism, the energy storage industry has developed relatively quickly. Taking the frequency regulation compensation mechanism abroad as an example, this can shorten the cost recovery period of energy storage equipment from 5 to 8 years to 2 to 3 years.

In this regard, the relevant person in charge of the Energy Conservation Division of the Energy Conservation and Technology Equipment Department of the National Energy Administration pointed out that the effect of the "Opinion" will gradually emerge. The "Opinion" clarifies the policy direction of encouraging and supporting the development of energy storage, clarifies the main identity of energy storage, clarifies the investment management mechanism of energy storage, and clarifies the demonstration tasks of energy storage. This gives investors visible expectations and is conducive to stimulating market vitality.

He said that the National Energy Administration will work with relevant departments to continue to promote the development of energy storage from four aspects: first, improve relevant policies and institutional mechanisms; second, promote the advancement of energy storage technology and reduce costs; third, organize energy storage demonstrations and support enterprises to lead innovation in technology, business models, and large-scale applications; and fourth, improve the relevant standard system.