Qinghai: Establishing an interactive data sharing network between energy storage and power grid to ease the bottleneck of clean energy consumption

China Energy Storage Network: The dazzling sunlight, white and scorching, tanned the face and burned the skin. The employees of China Power Engineering Nuclear Power Engineering Co., Ltd., who are busy in the Qinghai Delingha Industrial Park, are both afraid of and love the plateau sunlight. The 50MW CSP project of China General Nuclear Power Group, which they built, has rows of huge trough collectors behind them, facing the sun like sunflowers.

"It uses molten salt to store solar thermal energy, and can generate electricity continuously and stably regardless of whether it is rainy or cloudy at night," said Li Huigang, project manager. "The project generates nearly 200 million kWh of electricity annually. Compared with thermal power generation, it can save 60,000 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 100,000 tons, which is equivalent to planting 4,200 mu of trees."

Delingha, with an average annual sunshine of more than 3,500 hours and an average annual total solar radiation of 7,000 megajoules per square meter, is now becoming a veritable "solar thermal capital". Large-scale solar thermal power stations are like troops on a battlefield, with tower, trough and butterfly types, collecting heat and storing energy, each showing its own capabilities.

Qinghai has abundant wind, solar and water resources, and is uniquely positioned to create a national clean energy demonstration province. According to the head of the Qinghai Provincial Energy Bureau, Qinghai's clean energy consumption continues to lead the country. In 2018, the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption remained at 40%, far higher than the national average of 14%. It once set a world record of 9 consecutive days and 216 hours of clean electricity consumption. The installed capacity of grid-connected new energy has exceeded 12.29 million kilowatts, surpassing traditional hydropower installed capacity for the first time. Among them, the centralized photovoltaic power station is 9.56 million kilowatts, ranking first in the country.

Wind and light are unstable and will be lazy and have bad tempers. Qinghai insists on multi-energy complementarity and coordinated development. When you come to Gonghe County, you will see the Longyangxia Hydropower Station with high lakes and clear waters on one side and the vast photovoltaic power station on the other, forming the world's largest hydro-photovoltaic complementary power station. "This 850-megawatt photovoltaic power station is connected to the hydropower station. Through the rapid adjustment of the turbine unit, the intermittent, fluctuating, random, and unstable sawtooth photovoltaic power source is adjusted to a balanced, high-quality, safe, smooth and stable power source, and then sent to the power grid in combination." Jin Dongbing, executive director of the Yellow River Hydropower Operation Company, said that the photovoltaic power station can also be regarded as a "virtual hydropower unit."

In response to the difficulties of "difficulty in absorbing", "difficulty in exporting" and "difficulty in peak load regulation" of clean energy, Qinghai actively organized direct transactions between new energy power generation enterprises and large users to improve the capacity of new energy consumption, and continued to explore the power market outside the province. Last year, 10 billion kWh of clean electricity was exported, achieving net power output for the first time. The abandonment rate of solar and wind power was less than 5% throughout the year, and the level of new energy consumption was leading in the country. "Wind and light come from the sky, and electricity travels through the air." The world's first transmission channel from Hainan, Qinghai to Zhumadian, Henan, which transmits all clean electricity, will be officially put into use next year, and the ±1100 kV ultra-high voltage direct current transmission channel from Haixi, Qinghai to East China will soon start construction.

The first market-based trading contract for peak load assistance between energy storage power stations and centralized photovoltaic power stations was signed in Xining recently. This is an exploration by State Grid Qinghai Electric Power Company to form a sharing model in the field of energy storage through market cultivation through the Internet of Things. At the Provincial Energy Big Data Center of Qinghai Electric Power Company, General Manager Zhang Jietan introduced: "Relying on this platform, we have established a data sharing network for the interaction between energy storage and the power grid, effectively alleviating the difficulties in absorbing clean energy."

Relying on many photovoltaic industries to develop advanced manufacturing industries, Qinghai has initially built a research and development manufacturing industry chain integrating polysilicon, monocrystalline silicon, solar cells and inverters, photovoltaic brackets, etc. Upstream manufacturing guarantees downstream power generation, and downstream power generation promotes upstream manufacturing, a virtuous cycle, optimized combination, and staggered development. The Xining Dongchuan Industrial Park Crystal Silicon Base, Nanchuan Industrial Park High-power Concentration Solar Cell Base, etc., the industry is now booming.