Analysis of opportunities in the electricity business model of energy internet

The "Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things" is a network on the "energy demand side". Relying on the "cloud, big data, Internet of Things, mobility and intelligence" technology, it fully connects energy terminals, and then explores the value of data, develops a highly competitive service system, and provides energy demanders and users with energy products and comprehensive energy services that are greater than the existing value.

1Energy Internet and Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things

Energy Internet refers to the transformation of a centralized, one-way producer-controlled energy system into a distributed energy network that is less centralized and interacts with more consumers. It mainly involves five aspects:

1) Use Internet technology to transform the power grid on every continent into an energy sharing network;

2) Shifting transportation to plug-in and fuel cell powered vehicles;

3) Transformation of energy consumption from fossil energy to renewable energy;

4) Convert buildings on every continent into micro power plants;

5) Develop energy storage technology and use more hydrogen and other energy storage technologies

According to the definition of State Grid Corporation of China, the ubiquitous power Internet of Things is a component of the energy Internet. It is an important support for the "three types and two networks" strategy. It and the "strong smart grid" together constitute the energy Internet. If we compare the "strong smart grid" to the main transmission network, then the "ubiquitous power Internet of Things" is the distribution network directly connected to customers; to put it more clearly: this network is a network that directly interacts with users.

Therefore, the "ubiquitous power Internet of Things" is a network on the "energy demand side". This network relies on the "cloud, big data, Internet of Things, mobility and intelligence" technology to fully connect energy terminals; and then explore the value of data, develop a more competitive service system, and provide energy demanders and users with energy products and comprehensive energy services that are greater than the existing value.

2 Typical Architecture of Energy Internet

Energy Internet or ubiquitous power Internet of Things can be divided into three major modules: Big data system Internet system and Internet of Things system The big data system includes the application layer and platform layer, the Internet includes the network layer, and the Internet of Things system includes the perception layer. The perception layer refers to the power grid and equipment deployed on site. The various systems realize a resource sharing mechanism with bidirectional transmission characteristics through power flow and information flow.

3 Analysis of opportunities for power business models in energy internet

Driven by the energy internet, some new industrial chains will be spawned, combining with the development of traditional industries to form new business models. At the same time, under the background of the energy internet, the way of energy development and utilization has changed, and more models are based on the combination of distributed energy modules and centralized energy modules. On the basis of self-balancing of sub-modules, the coordination and complementarity of various modules are realized to achieve the goal of synergistically optimizing the energy utilization efficiency of the supply and demand sides. Here, three representative business models are proposed, including "Internet of Things +", "Internet +" and "Energy +", and the opportunities of these three business models are summarized and analyzed.

3.1 "Internet of Things +" business model

The "Internet of Things +" business model is one of the solutions to the current development problems of the power equipment manufacturing industry. In the context of the energy Internet, it brings new opportunities to the equipment manufacturing industry, which are mainly divided into four levels:

1) At the equipment research and development level, increase the development of new electricity metering equipment, realize multi-meter integrated energy gateway and intelligent sensing, etc.;

2) At the financial leasing level, optimize the distribution network and microgrid investment strategy, increase the PPP investment model, and maximize the investment benefits of the power grid;

3) At the energy service level, on the basis of traditional electric energy services, remote services are added to improve service quality, and on this basis, the equipment management and energy efficiency management processes are improved;

4) At the data bank level, in the context of energy internet, combined with big data foundation, energy consumption analysis is added to achieve the goal of energy-saving mining data value-added

The industries involved in the "Internet of Things +" business model can be mainly divided into six categories, including: new energy industry, energy storage industry, electric vehicle industry, power equipment industry, energy-saving products and intelligent device research and development, etc., as shown in the figure below.

Against the backdrop of energy internet and my country's energy reform, the development of new energy has entered a favorable period. The new energy industry is one of the important development modules in the current power business model.

3.2 “Internet +” Business Model

The "Internet +" business model is the most representative power development model under the background of energy Internet. It combines energy development with Internet technology to give birth to emerging industries and emerging models, mainly including five categories: power services, digital power, data services, information integration and financial services. Among them, information integration provides information services for power grid companies, financial services provide financial business support such as PPP for enterprises, data services provide users with data value-added services and basic services such as data storage and cloud computing, digital power provides new energy + intelligent power products, and power services assist users in participating in power transactions.

(1) Electricity service industry

The electric energy service industry is known as the "third industry" in the energy sector. It mainly adopts measures such as equipment hosting, load hosting, electricity bill hosting, energy hosting and virtual scheduling to realize smart energy use for energy consumption such as water, electricity, heat and gas. The electric energy service group is very wide, mainly facing demand-side users, including corporate users, high-tech park small and medium-sized users and energy companies. The electric energy service industry module provides support for the key industrial chain of the energy Internet, and provides a good platform for energy-saving transformation of equipment manufacturing and PPP finance.

(2) Data service industry

The data service industry module is a new module jointly spawned by the energy Internet and big data. It forms data assets by accumulating high-quality and valuable data, is committed to discovering the value of data in management decisions, builds massive data computing systems, provides production-level data applications, shares data value with partner customers based on data operations, and improves the ability and efficiency of obtaining data.

3.3 “Energy +” Business

The core concept of energy internet covers key parts such as new energy, energy storage, electric vehicles, and information technology. Its potential business model can be deeply explored from the perspectives of equipment manufacturing, information technology, marketization, and grid construction. Among them, the "energy +" business model mainly revolves around four centers: facility trading market, microgrid, and aggregator. There are various electricity business models in different centers.

(1) Power trading industry

The power trading industry module is one of the core modules of the Energy Internet. Electricity is a standard type of energy exchange, and the integrity of the power trading industry chain is related to the development of the entire Energy Internet.

Among them, the demand-side management industry involves the basic equipment manufacturing industry and the energy-saving service supporting industry. The power system reform provides the possibility for the innovation of power trading model. The trading model breaks the previous conventional power grid company's only purchase and sale vehicle (without considering local electricity). Various trading models will emerge under the new power reform environment.

(2) Smart microgrid industry

The energy Internet nerve endings industry chain covers a wide range. The smart microgrid aims at self-sufficiency and takes energy management as its core. The main business models covered include: microgrid planning, construction, operation and management, energy services, value-added services, etc.

The business models covered by the cloud center include: operation data analysis, financial support business, smart energy service, energy efficiency monitoring and evaluation, etc. The business models involved in the power trading center include: electricity sales business, demand response, settlement, personal credit evaluation, etc.

(3) Virtual Power Plant

The virtual power plant module is an important means of the energy Internet on the demand side, which can achieve a smooth load curve, increase the load rate, and improve energy utilization efficiency.