What do the four key businesses of State Grid’s comprehensive energy services specifically include?

In February 2019, State Grid Corporation of China issued the "2019-2020 Action Plan for Promoting the Development of Integrated Energy Service Business", proposing to coordinate the layout of four key business areas, including integrated energy efficiency services, multi-energy services for cooling, heating and power supply, distributed clean energy services and exclusive electric vehicle services.

In January 2020, State Grid Corporation of China issued Document No. 1 of 2020 on "Opinions on Comprehensively Deepening Reforms and Striving for Breakthroughs". The four key business areas of integrated energy services were further clarified as the coordinated development of integrated energy efficiency services, multi-energy supply services, clean energy services and emerging energy services.

Integrated energy services cover a wide range of businesses and many sub-business areas. Currently, no authoritative organization has clearly defined all the sub-businesses of integrated energy services. The scope of the four major businesses newly defined by State Grid is wider than before. What specific sub-businesses are involved?

State Grid defines comprehensive energy efficiency services as improving customer energy efficiency and reducing energy costs, implementing changes in traditional energy-saving methods based on the application of power Internet of Things technology, and realizing the transformation from single equipment-level energy-saving transformation to system-level and platform-level comprehensive energy efficiency improvement methods. Specific sub-businesses involved include lighting transformation, motor frequency conversion, air conditioning energy-saving transformation, boiler energy-saving transformation, distribution network energy-saving transformation, waste heat and waste pressure utilization, and customer energy efficiency management.

Multi-energy supply service refers to the energy supply that meets users' different energy needs for electricity, cooling, heating and domestic hot water, etc. It mainly refers to the application of trigeneration technology, including solar thermal, biomass heating/power generation, natural gas trigeneration, water/ground/air source heat pumps, industrial waste heat utilization, geothermal, electric heating, thermal storage, cold storage, etc.

In terms of clean energy services, the new four key businesses will remove the word "distributed", which means that they will also cover the development of a wider range of centralized clean energy projects. Specifically, the use of clean energy such as photovoltaic power generation, wind power generation, and biomass energy are all covered, and the planning, investment and construction of centralized or distributed clean energy projects are carried out according to local conditions, providing 100% clean energy supply services.

The most obvious change is the term emerging energy services. The previous exclusive electric vehicle services should be a major part of emerging energy services, including electric vehicle leasing, charging pile construction, operation and maintenance services. There is no clear definition of emerging energy services. In addition to electric vehicle services, it should also include intelligent operation and maintenance management services for other types of energy-consuming equipment.

From the perspective of the above four major businesses, comprehensive energy efficiency services can be seen as an upgrade of energy-saving services. Multi-energy supply services are the integrated utilization of the three main energy sources of cold, heat and electricity from the supply side. Clean energy services also achieve 100% clean energy supply from the supply side. Emerging energy consumption services are more about realizing intelligent management of energy-consuming equipment from the demand side.

It is worth noting that these four businesses all include the word "service" without exception. At present, the energy world is undergoing a revolutionary transformation, and energy supply companies are rapidly evolving into energy service companies. To expand the comprehensive energy service market including the above four key businesses, the connotation of the word "service" should be re-examined and paid special attention to, so as to adapt to the development and changes in the energy industry.