Energy complex: Substation undergoes a “gorgeous transformation”

China Energy Storage Network News: Substations are the core resources of power grid companies. Relying on the convenient conditions of substations to carry out energy complex construction can realize the natural extension of power grid companies from traditional power supply business to comprehensive energy service business.

Substations are the core resources of power grid companies and play an important hub role in power transmission and distribution and regional power supply. Relying on widely distributed substations to carry out energy complex construction can realize the natural extension of power grid companies from traditional power supply business to comprehensive energy business. At the same time, energy complexes based on substations can achieve benign interaction and mutual benefit and win-win results among power/energy suppliers, equipment providers and users, and have good development prospects.

Multiple sites in one, precise policy implementation

The energy complex is essentially a one-stop energy solution centered on customer needs and oriented towards services. The core of the energy complex based on substations is to give full play to the role of substations as energy allocation centers and build a "source-grid-load-storage" collaborative control block that supports multi-energy complementarity. The ultimate goal is to achieve the transformation of power grid companies from single power supply to comprehensive energy services and promote the deep transformation of power grid companies into comprehensive energy service providers.

There are many options for building an energy complex based on a substation. The most convenient option is to use the roof resources of the substation, arrange rooftop photovoltaic panels, and build a photovoltaic power station. The electricity generated can be used for lighting, operation and cooling of the substation, thereby reducing the power loss and cost loss caused by the operation of the substation itself.

This "self-generation for own use" model is only the first step in the transformation of substations. On the basis of facility transformation, substations can be further transformed into energy supply stations, power service stations, energy storage stations and electric vehicle charging stations, and thus become the collection and analysis center of energy data in the region.

By installing gas-fired distributed power sources, heat pumps, ice storage and other devices, the substation can be transformed into an energy supply station in the region. Using the waste heat and flue gas of gas-fired distributed power generation to centrally provide cooling and heating, and carry out "cogeneration of cooling, heating and electricity", it can reduce the electricity cost of cooling and heating loads and meet users' diverse energy needs for cooling, heating and electricity. This model can mainly target users such as traditional industrial parks, hospitals, and universities.

Substations can also be transformed into power service stations in emerging industrial parks (such as chip manufacturing and semiconductor manufacturing), computing centers, and important power users that have special requirements for power quality. By installing power quality adjustment devices, substations can provide users with customized power supply packages to reduce production losses caused by voltage sags, three-phase imbalance, harmonics, frequency fluctuations, and other problems.

Substations are also important infrastructure resources for the development of grid-side and user-side energy storage. Installing flywheel, electrochemical and other energy storage devices in substations to build energy storage stations can improve the reliability of users' power supply, reduce users' capacity electricity charges, and conduct peak-valley arbitrage, making it easier for users to participate in power auxiliary market transactions when conditions are ripe, while taking into account the value of grid-side and user-side energy storage. This model is highly applicable to industrial users with peak production characteristics and high requirements for power supply reliability.

In addition, charging piles and parking spaces can be installed, electric vehicle charging stations can be built at substations, electric vehicle charging and leasing businesses can be carried out, the charging service market can be expanded, user stickiness can be improved, and reasonable profits of substations can be guaranteed by charging charging service fees, parking fees, etc.

Whether it is an energy supply station, power service station, energy storage station or electric vehicle charging station, the large amount of data resources generated can become an important core resource of the substation. Building a data center in the substation to carry out user energy efficiency monitoring and intelligent analysis can achieve complementary coordination of energy, optimize control and panoramic display, and build the energy complex into a coordinated control center of "energy flow + information flow + value flow" in the region, and provide users with energy use suggestions and formulate energy-saving plans through big data analysis.

In the construction of energy complex, the above-mentioned "multi-station integration" construction can be carried out in the pilot stage, and the elements can be selected according to the actual situation in the later promotion stage. The selection of elements should take into account the energy demand and characteristics of users around the substation on the one hand, and the area occupied by the substation itself and the scalability of the electrical design on the other hand. For substations that intend to carry out trigeneration, the coverage of natural gas pipelines and gas source guarantee capabilities should also be considered.

It should be pointed out that for 2 to 3 substations with relatively close geographical locations and relatively concentrated power supply service users, different elements can be selected for construction separately, and then "group together" to carry out energy coordination and scheduling to jointly meet the needs of users in the area, thereby saving land and improving the utilization rate of equipment.

One specialty, multiple skills, multiple benefits

Substations are not only the technical entities for power transmission and distribution, but also an important infrastructure with many public characteristics. Gradually transforming substations into energy complexes will not only help improve the operation and management quality of the substations themselves, but also become the glue for multiple resources and multiple entities in the community, thereby improving the energy operation efficiency of the entire region.

The construction of energy complex can first promote the construction of substation itself. By scientifically utilizing prefabricated cabins and standard equipment, the construction efficiency and process level of substation can be improved. At the same time, by guiding the formulation of relevant equipment standards, the healthy development of the comprehensive energy-related equipment manufacturing industry can be promoted.

In terms of integrated energy business, by building rooftop photovoltaic, trigeneration, ice storage, charging piles and other facilities, we can reduce substation energy consumption, increase users' energy options, expand the electric vehicle charging market, give play to the natural geographical advantage of urban substations close to users, increase user stickiness, and increase the market share of integrated energy business.

In terms of land resource utilization, the construction of energy complexes can effectively utilize the land resources of existing substations. By arranging diversified integrated energy devices inside traditional substations, the substation can be transformed from a single power supply function to a variety of energy supply functions, and achieve "one specialty and multiple functions" in production factors, thereby further breaking down industry barriers and bringing another breakthrough in the energy supply system.

The development shift of substations is also an opportunity for incremental power distribution reform. Transforming qualified park power supply substations into energy complexes, providing industrial users in the park with multi-energy services and one-stop solutions such as cooling, heating, gas, and high-quality electricity, can improve users' energy efficiency, reduce users' energy costs, and reduce user losses caused by energy quality issues.

Consider multiple factors and achieve win-win results for all parties

The four principles that energy complex construction should adhere to are: customer-centric in nature, practical in operation, favorable strategies in path, and mutual benefit and win-win in goal. Guided by the above principles, energy complex should focus on the following factors:

The first is the choice of address and elements. The substation selected by the energy complex, whether newly built or renovated, should be as close to the user load center as possible to reduce energy loss during transmission and provide convenience for users. Therefore, user stations located in the city center, close to industrial parks or inside the park should be the first choice for energy complexes. In terms of planning and site selection, it is necessary to fully investigate the energy characteristics and energy needs of the park and users, select a suitable location for the renovation or construction of the energy complex, reasonably match the construction elements of the energy complex and optimize the capacity of the integrated energy device.

In the selection of elements, the energy demand and energy characteristics of surrounding users should be fully investigated. For industrial parks, they should be reasonably divided according to discrete manufacturing (communication facilities, aerospace, electronic equipment, machine tools, automobiles, home appliances, toys, clothing, etc.), process industries (electricity, metallurgy, chemicals, building materials, papermaking, food, medicine, etc.), and new R&D industries (electronic information, new materials, biotechnology, energy conservation and environmental protection, new energy, etc.). Based on the investigation, different application scenarios should be set according to different user categories, and typical designs of different integrated stations should be carried out.