Technological innovation enables high-quality energy development in the new era

For a long time, my country's energy industry has been "heavy on transmission, inferior in distribution, and light on use", and the technology and management level on the consumer side is relatively low. There is a lot of room for energy conservation and efficiency improvement in municipal, residential, commercial, and transportation departments. At present, my country's building energy consumption accounts for about 1/3 of the total social energy consumption. Through household photovoltaics, heat pumps, wall heat storage and other means, it is possible to achieve self-production and self-sale of building energy, and accelerate the creation of "low-carbon buildings", "zero-carbon buildings" and even "positive energy buildings".

Deep integration leads to efficient development.

If the improvement in traditional energy efficiency and the reduction in costs mainly come from the iterative innovation of the parameter performance of a single technology itself, the driving force for energy transformation in the new era will come more from diversified application needs.

On the one hand, the digital economy based on advanced information technologies such as 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain will accelerate the integration and penetration of traditional industries, and accelerate the formation of a new economic form with technological innovation, application innovation, and model innovation as the core. Its significance is not only in the technical development of innovative routes such as smart power plants, smart oil and gas fields, smart mines, and smart grids, but also in promoting the automation of energy equipment, the digitization of control systems, the unmanned operation and maintenance, the transparency of energy transactions, and the interconnection of energy networks, and ultimately building a new form of smart energy systems; it also brings a more inclusive, open, and friendly energy technology innovation ecology to innovation entities and market entities, and promotes the reduction of information costs and investment thresholds through digital infrastructure, giving rise to a business form of co-construction and sharing, and bursting out with tremendous productivity.

On the other hand, more attention should be paid to systematic quality improvement and efficiency increase. The improvement of energy efficiency of a single type will eventually encounter bottlenecks. The cross-border integration of multiple energy types will break down technical and industry barriers, activate flexible resources, maximize the benefits of the energy system, and provide a feasible idea for the efficient and sustainable development of the energy industry. Build a comprehensive energy base according to local conditions, and optimize the system integration through the complementarity of wind and solar power, supporting energy storage and hydrogen storage, and peak-shaving coal-fired power after flexibility transformation to achieve overall stable output of the energy base; in response to the trend of large-scale development of distributed energy, the virtual power plant technology will be used to organically integrate and coordinate the independent and decentralized thermal power, renewable energy power sources, and energy storage and hydrogen storage to further enhance the clean energy consumption capacity; research on electricity substitution and load flexible adjustment technologies in the fields of residents, industry, construction, transportation, etc., and use intelligent sensing, plug-and-play, digital twins and other technical means to achieve efficient energy conversion and supply and demand interaction through cross-industry comprehensive energy services.

To open up the energy technology innovation chain

Improve collaborative efficiency

Compared with developed countries, my country's energy science and technology innovation system is still imperfect and cooperation is not close enough. We need to further break down the management and research barriers of the energy science and technology innovation chain and implement the "dual-wheel drive" of scientific and technological innovation and institutional innovation.

Government science and technology management is "divided but integrated". In my country's energy science and technology field, the Ministry of Science and Technology, relevant ministries and commissions, and local governments have clear divisions of labor, but there is a phenomenon of separation and disconnection between them. It is necessary to strengthen macro-coordination and strategic coordination. It is recommended to improve the government's innovation governance mechanism and top-level design, strengthen the interconnection of science and technology resources within and outside the industry, and between national and local science and technology resources, and promote the coordination of science and technology innovation ideas, policies, and mechanisms. Improve the participation and contribution of relevant industry authorities in major national science and technology plans, key science and technology demonstration projects, and innovation platform construction, and give full play to the advantages of departments to implement hierarchical and classified guidance.

Innovation subjects are "united but divided". In recent years, with the continuous advancement of "production, learning, research and application", the linkage and coordination of innovation subjects have been improved. It is necessary to further give play to the advantages of the new national system, strengthen the integration of advantageous forces in key core areas and concentrate on key research. At the same time, the positioning of innovation subjects should be further clarified, and research should be deepened in the subdivided key technology fields. Colleges and universities and scientific research institutions should make full use of advantageous disciplines and scientific research resources to strengthen source knowledge innovation. Upstream and downstream energy companies are closer to market demand, increase investment in engineering research and development, equipment manufacturing, industrial application, etc., and give play to the main role of enterprises in technological innovation. By strengthening institutional mechanisms such as policy incentives, market incentives, and equity incentives, we will promote efficient linkage and mutual benefit and win-win results in all links of the innovation chain, and create a healthy and friendly innovation ecology.

Focus on promoting the integration and innovation of market and technology

In my country, due to the heavy asset nature of the traditional energy industry and the absolute dominance of state-owned enterprises, the market activity has always been relatively low. With the acceleration of energy transformation, new models and new formats in the energy industry continue to emerge and grow, and the role of the market in my country's energy technology development orientation and resource allocation has become increasingly prominent. The "decline" of renewable energy subsidies has become a foregone conclusion, and the era of grid parity for wind power and photovoltaic power generation is approaching. Through the replacement of large-capacity wind turbines, new high-efficiency batteries and other technologies to achieve cost reduction and efficiency, and research and development of new technologies such as hybrid power generation and green hydrogen production to open up the market. The construction of China's carbon market has achieved initial results. According to reports, since the operation of Shenzhen's carbon emission rights trading market, the carbon emission intensity of coal-fired power and gas-fired power has significantly decreased on the basis of the leading level of similar units in China, which will effectively promote the upgrading of power generation technology and the development of renewable energy.

At the same time, energy technology innovation should be closer to the social and people's livelihood needs and market demands of the new era, expand market space through demand guidance, promote the iteration of business models, mobilize investment enthusiasm, and establish a virtuous circle. For example, through technologies such as blockchain, accelerate the construction of a fair, open, and just energy and electricity market order, so that market players can fully share the fruits of energy development, thereby supporting and promoting power market reform. For another example, through V2G, shared energy storage, smart buildings and other technical or model innovations, achieve efficient and reliable interaction between supply and demand, improve market user participation and sense of gain, and accelerate the transformation and upgrading of energy consumption.

If you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools. Scientific and technological innovation, the national weapon, will continue to provide vitality for the high-quality development of energy in the new era, help production transformation, promote consumption upgrades, empower reforms, and guide China's energy development, contributing to China's dream of becoming a technological power.

(The authors all work at the Electric Power Planning and Design Institute)