Newly started UHV: will bring more than 30GW of new photovoltaic projects

On February 7, the State Grid proposed 12 measures to fully resume construction and promote the resumption of work and production of enterprises, aiming to achieve a resumption of work of no less than 50% by the end of February and full resumption of work except Hubei Province by March 15. A number of UHV projects will be resumed and newly started. Preliminary estimates show that it will drive the construction of at least GW of photovoltaic projects. The UHV projects that have resumed and started construction include:

1) Qinghai-Henan ±800 kV UHV DC: 3GW photovoltaic

2) Yazhong-Jiangxi ±800 kV UHV DC: 20GW PV

3) Northern Shaanxi-Wuhan ±800 kV UHV DC project: 3GW photovoltaic

4) Zhangbei Flexible DC, Zhangbei-Xiong'an 1000 kV UHV AC: There are 5.8GW of alternative parity PV projects in the area

5) 1000 kV UHV AC from Mengxi to Jinzhong: total transmission capacity 8000MW, PV scale unclear

1) Qinghai-Henan ±800 kV UHV DC: 3GW photovoltaic

The ±800 kV UHV transmission channel from Qinghai to Henan is the world's first 100% clean energy transmission demonstration channel and the world's first 10 million kilowatt-level hydro, solar and wind multi-energy complementary demonstration project. The project strives to complete the Qinghai section of the transmission line by the end of 2019 and is scheduled to be put into trial operation in June 2020.

The first phase of the UHV base supporting new energy project will have a construction scale of 3GW of AC photovoltaic power and 2GW of wind power. The photovoltaic project was originally expected to be connected to the grid at September 30, 2020.

For details, please see "Next year, Qinghai will add 3GW of photovoltaic power and 2GW of wind power to the grid, and SPIC will take 2.4GW of photovoltaic power and 1.65GW of wind power". As early as September 2019, SPIC completed the bidding for components and inverters for the base. For details, please see "Results of the bidding for SPIC's 3GW components and 2GW inverters"

2) Yazhong-Jiangxi ±800 kV UHV DC: Preliminary estimate of about 20GW of photovoltaic power

In July 2019, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment approved the "Environmental Impact Report of the Ya'an-Jiangxi ±800kV UHV DC Transmission Project". The project mainly builds a new ±800 kV sending-end converter station, which is located in Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

As early as May 2019, the Sichuan Provincial Energy Bureau had begun planning photovoltaic bases in the four prefectures in western Sichuan, with 1 to 3 bases in each prefecture, with each base having a scale of more than 1GW and less than 20GW.

It is reported that the total scale of supporting photovoltaic bases in Sichuan Province is initially expected to be around 20GW, and several design institutes have been commissioned to carry out relevant planning and design work.

3) Shaanxi-Hubei UHV: 3GW photovoltaic

On February 28, State Grid held a mobilization meeting in Beijing . Mao Weiming, Chairman and Secretary of the Party Committee of State Grid, announced that the construction of the Shaanxi-Hubei ±800 kV UHV DC project has officially started.

In January 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission's "Approval on the Shaanxi-Hubei ±800 kV UHV DC Transmission Project" clearly stated that it is planned to provide 8GW of thermal power and 6GW of new energy, taking into account the power balance and peak-shaving balance of the channel power grid, the channel power transmission capacity, the new energy power abandonment rate and the utilization hours of thermal power.

According to the Environmental Impact Report on the Construction Planning of Supporting Power Sources for the Shaanxi-Hubei UHV DC Transmission Project:

According to the distribution of new energy installed capacity that has been approved for filing, under the 6GW new energy supporting plan, 3GW of wind power and 3GW of photovoltaic power can be considered.

4) Zhangbei Flexible DC, Zhangbei-Xiong'an 1,000 kV UHV AC;

As early as 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice on the Development Plan of the Renewable Energy Demonstration Zone in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, proposing a photovoltaic installed capacity target of 6GW in 2020 and 24GW in 2030.

Zhangbei has excellent solar energy resources, and grid parity can be achieved at current costs. However, the pressure to absorb new energy is high, which directly limits the number of new photovoltaic projects in the area.

In May 2019, the Hebei Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the "Notice on Issuing the First Batch of 2019 Photovoltaic Power Generation Grid-Parity Project Plans" (Hebei Development and Reform Energy [2019] No. 719). Among them, Appendix 3 publicized 5.81GW of grid-parity candidate projects. The reason why these projects were not selected is because of local consumption restrictions. The completion of these two UHV lines will directly solve the consumption problem of these evaluated grid-connected projects and become grid-parity projects.

6) 1000 kV UHV AC from Mengxi to Jinzhong

In 2019, in the leader bidding in Dalat Banner, the lowest winning bid price was as low as 0.26 yuan/kWh, which is lower than the local coal-fired power benchmark price. The solar energy resources in western Inner Mongolia are good and can fully achieve grid parity. However, the local consumption level severely restricts the development of grid parity photovoltaic projects.

Like Zhangbei's UHV, the Mengxi-Jinzhong line will add 8,000MW of transmission capacity to solve the problem of local renewable energy consumption and bring new growth points to Mengxi's wind power and photovoltaics.