How can the power grid play a role in breaking the bottleneck of new energy consumption?

China Energy Storage Network: 2020 is the "final year" for achieving the goals of the "Clean Energy Consumption Action Plan (2018-2020)", and it will also usher in a "rush to install" before the arrival of the "parity era" of new energy. Against the backdrop of a further increase in the proportion of new energy installed capacity and a continued slowdown in electricity consumption growth, how to maintain high-quality development of new energy has become a topic of concern in the industry. New energy consumption is a comprehensive issue. While ensuring consumption, the premise of safety must not be lost. If new energy consumption and safety are compared to the two ends of a seesaw, in order to find a balance point, scientific and reasonable top-level design and coordinated policy guidance are crucial.

With the growth of installed capacity and the slowdown of consumption, the consumption of new energy is still facing great pressure

The rapid development of new energy is an indisputable fact. At present, it has become a global trend to promote the clean and low-carbon transformation of energy through large-scale development and utilization of new energy such as wind energy and solar energy. my country has become the world's largest energy producer and consumer, facing challenges such as huge pressure on energy demand and many constraints on energy supply.

In the near term, affected by the adjustment of the national subsidy policy, there will be a "closed door" period for wind power and photovoltaic grid-connected subsidies in the next two years. In 2020, the demand for grid connection in various regions is strong, and new installed capacity may increase significantly. In the long term, the national "Energy Production and Consumption Revolution Strategy (2016-2030)" clearly states that non-fossil energy will account for 15% and 20% of primary energy consumption in 2020 and 2030. New energy will continue to grow on a large scale in the "14th Five-Year Plan" and in the future. According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, from 2021 to 2030, the average annual new installed capacity of new energy will be more than 55 million kilowatts.

The rapid development of new energy is accompanied by the problem of consumption. On the one hand, my country is in a critical period of changing its development mode, optimizing its economic structure, and transforming its growth momentum, and the growth of electricity demand has slowed down. Against this background, the space for new energy consumption is limited.

On the other hand, with the reduction of subsidies for photovoltaic power generation and wind power generation, the layout of new energy installations has changed significantly. The central and eastern regions with high electricity prices have a strong impulse to increase parity installations, and the development of distributed photovoltaic power generation, offshore wind power, and decentralized wind power has accelerated. It is estimated that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the central and eastern regions will have an additional installed capacity of about 18 million kilowatts of offshore wind power, and distributed photovoltaic power generation will be mainly concentrated in the central and eastern regions.

The power grid is in the middle of energy production and consumption, and is an important platform for energy resource allocation, and undertakes the important task of absorbing new energy. Transformation has become a trend. Power grid companies actively adapt to and serve energy transformation, comprehensively enhance resource allocation capabilities, balance and regulation capabilities, and open sharing capabilities, and better adapt to the needs of intensive development of energy bases and large-scale grid access of new energy, distributed energy, energy storage, and interactive energy facilities, which will have a positive impact on the absorption of new energy.

The consumption of new energy involves power sources, power grids and power loads, and is a systemic issue. Energy production and consumption, as well as market mechanisms, need to be adjusted accordingly. With the growth rate of installed capacity remaining unchanged and the consumption space limited, the consumption of new energy still requires joint efforts from all parties to open up the consumption situation.

Promoting the efficient use of new energy, safety considerations are the basic bottom line support

The report of the 19th CPC National Congress stressed the need to "establish a safe development concept". Grid security is related to national security and energy security, and is also a prerequisite for achieving high-quality development and efficient use of new energy.

The large-scale access of new energy to the power grid, with its high volatility and strong randomness, poses challenges to the security of the power system. It requires continuous exploration in technology, market and other aspects to adapt to the new characteristics of the modern energy system.

From the perspective of the power grid, new energy has become the main source of new power, with more obvious volatility, making it more difficult to ensure power supply. According to data released by the State Grid Corporation of China, the maximum daily power fluctuation of new energy in the State Grid's operating area exceeded 100 million kilowatts in 2019, and the proportion of wind power output to load during the peak summer period was as low as 1.5% (installed capacity accounted for 10.6%).

At the same time, new energy has profoundly changed the power structure, and the complexity of the power system has continued to increase. The characteristics of large-scale new energy such as active and reactive response during fault voltage ride-through have become important factors affecting the voltage, power angle and even frequency stability. In particular, distributed power sources are prone to chain disconnection during frequency and voltage fluctuations, expanding the scope of fault impact.

From the station side, the single-point capacity of new energy installations is small, the number of centralized stations and distributed systems is huge, and their network information security is gradually becoming a new security risk point.

Safety responsibility is heavier than Mount Tai. For the power grid, safety is the premise of all work and the most basic bottom line support. Under the complex situation, State Grid Corporation of China has always carried out its work from the perspective of ensuring national energy security, put production safety at the top of all work, and has been accumulating experience in operating super-large power grids in practice. The relevant business person in charge of State Grid Corporation of China said that in the future, the company will increase investment in power grid operation safety, new energy network safety, and communication network security to ensure power grid safety.

In terms of grid operation safety, State Grid Corporation of China will focus on improving the level of management and control over AC/DC hybrid power grids with a high proportion of renewable energy, and encourage various market players to jointly support grid security; in terms of new energy network safety, efforts will be made to promote the performance transformation of new energy network-related power grids, and implement each key link from access, grid connection, operation, etc. step by step, so that new energy meets the access and operation conditions of large AC/DC hybrid power grids; in terms of communication network security, efforts will be made to strengthen the security protection of power monitoring systems and promote the deployment of monitoring devices at new energy sites.

"Promoting the high-quality development of new energy must be based on the safety and stability of the power system." The relevant business manager of State Grid Corporation of China said that while taking multiple measures to absorb new energy, ensuring the safety of the power grid is also the most important and basic consideration.

Power grid management, technology and market efforts are being made to improve the level of new energy consumption

The development of new energy cannot be separated from the support of national policies and mechanisms. The new energy electricity price policy released every year will arouse great attention from the industry, and electricity prices, development, and consumption will affect and restrict each other.

The goals and responsibilities of various government departments are both organically unified and different, and multiple factors need to be considered in a coordinated manner. A high proportion of new energy puts forward new requirements for the design of power market mechanisms. Due to the low marginal cost and high capacity cost of new energy, after considering subsidies, it is easy to squeeze out the space of conventional power sources such as coal-fired power in market competition. However, due to the uncertainty of new energy output and the instability of operation, it is easy to bring about a high proportion and high-risk operation scenario. In practice, it will be of guiding significance to promote the healthy development of the new energy industry if policies are formulated in accordance with local conditions and facts.

Relevant experts said that the formulation of coordinated and interconnected policies is the lifeline for the healthy development of new energy. If the market rules are designed to only encourage the reduction of operating costs and the improvement of economic benefits, the system operation reserve, stability and safety will be ignored, and the interests of conventional power sources that play an important supporting role in the safety of the power grid will be ignored, resulting in an imbalance in the development of power sources and affecting the safe and stable operation of the power grid.