Whether it is the application of energy storage technology on the DC side of new energy stations or the trial of shared energy storage models, in recent years, Qinghai’s energy storage industry has ushered in a new stage of leapfrog development. The industry is generally optimistic about the future development of energy storage.
As an important new energy industry base in the country, Qinghai has also accelerated the layout of the energy storage industry, using technological innovation and model exploration to help the transformation and development of energy structure.
The first mention of “shared energy storage” promotes the high-quality development of new energy
Relying on the unique solar energy resources and large-scale desertification land resources, the installed capacity of new energy, mainly photovoltaics, in Qinghai has grown rapidly in the past ten years.
Up to now, the total installed capacity of Qinghai Power Grid has exceeded 40 million kilowatts, of which new energy installed capacity accounts for more than 60% of the total installed capacity.
Due to the instability and congenital defects of new energy such as intermittency and volatility, energy storage technology has emerged as a solution to the lack of stability of new energy power generation and to improve the carrying capacity and adjustment capacity of the power grid system for new energy power generation.
The energy storage industry is also With the development of Qinghai’s new energy industry.
In the field of solar thermal power generation with molten salt heat storage as the core technology, as early as July 2013, Qinghai realized the grid-connected power generation of solar thermal power stations in the Qaidam Basin, and thus began the industrial application of my country’s independent research and development of solar thermal power generation technology.
Since then, Qinghai has always been at the leading level in exploring the sustainable development of the solar thermal power generation industry. According to data provided by relevant departments, as of March this year, the installed capacity of solar thermal power stations connected to the grid nationwide was 538,000 kilowatts, while the installed capacity of solar thermal power plants in Qinghai was 210,000 kilowatts, accounting for nearly 40% of the country’s total installed capacity.
As of the end of October this year, Qinghai grid-connected electrochemical energy storage capacity was 579,500 kWh, of which 2 power stations participated in shared energy storage, with a total capacity of 164,000 kWh. Qinghai Power Grid shared 4,600 transactions of energy storage power stations, achieving an additional 139 million kWh of new energy generation.
According to the person in charge of State Grid Qinghai Provincial Electric Power Company, in order to fully release the energy storage development potential of Qinghai Power Grid, in 2018, State Grid Qinghai Electric Power actively carried out research on the application of shared energy storage, and proposed the concept of “shared energy storage” for the first time in China to support And promote the high-quality development of new energy in Qinghai Province.
Take the Minhang energy storage power station located in Golmud City, Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province as an example. At present, under the unified dispatch of the State Grid Qinghai Provincial Power Control Center, this shared energy storage power station will Charge and discharge flexibly, realize charging and discharging at any time, and maximize utility. The person in charge of the Minhang energy storage power station told reporters that since last year, this shared energy storage power station can at least realize one charge and one discharge every day. .”
In recent years, Qinghai Power Grid has continued to promote the application of source-grid-load-storage interaction technology. By improving the source-grid-load-storage coordination and balance strategy and optimizing the charging and discharging mode of energy storage power stations, the new energy consumption space at noon has been increased by more than 1 million kilowatts, and the entire network has been improved. The new energy utilization rate is 1.2%.
A pumped storage power station is a hydropower station that uses electricity to pump water to a high place for storage, and releases water to generate electricity when the power system is insufficient. This type of power station has multiple functions such as peak regulation, frequency regulation, energy storage, and emergency backup, and is considered to be the most mature and reliable energy storage method at present.
In terms of the construction of pumped storage power stations, Qinghai has also been actively demonstrating and researching. In 2021, 11 pumped storage power stations in Qinghai Province will be included in the national “14th Five-Year Plan” key implementation plan. The reporter learned from various aspects that the Golmud Nanshankou Pumped Storage Power Station, Guinan Wahrang Pumped Storage Power Station and Tongde Pumped Storage Power Station have all completed pre-approval work and are expected to start construction from this year to the beginning of next year.
“Pumped storage power station is currently the most effective and mature energy storage method, and it is also the best way to support the development of new energy. 1 million kilowatts of pumped storage can support 4 million kilowatts of new energy power generation.” A person in the energy field Experts believe that various forms of energy storage technologies have developed rapidly in recent years, such as compressed air, photothermal, electrochemistry, pumped storage, and new energy hydrogen production, etc., but the projects that have already been industrialized are mainly photothermal, electrochemical and pumped hydro storage.
In January 2021, Qinghai Province issued “Several Measures on Printing and Distributing Support for the Development of the Energy Storage Industry (Trial)”, clearly requiring that the integrated development of “new energy + energy storage” be implemented, and the energy storage capacity of new energy projects should not be low in principle For 10% of the installed capacity of new energy projects
the energy storage time is more than 2 hours. At the same time, 12 specific measures have been introduced from the four aspects of giving priority to the peak-shaving efficiency of energy storage and moderately subsidizing the operation of electrochemical energy storage facilities.
The development of the energy storage industry faces two major challenges
The reporter interviewed and found that due to factors such as changes in the market environment, lack of industry system rules, and unsound operating standards, the development of the energy storage industry still faces two major challenges.
First, the investment in energy storage construction is high and the cost is high, and the electricity price mechanism is not yet sound.
A person in charge of an enterprise in charge of new energy development in Qinghai told reporters that the current cost of electrochemical energy storage based on lithium batteries is about 0.8 yuan per kilowatt-hour;
pumped storage consumes 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity to generate 3 kilowatt-hours, The comprehensive cost is also between 0.6 yuan and 0.7 yuan, and the electricity price cost of energy storage power stations is higher than that of photovoltaic projects. Pumped storage is generally favored by the industry, but pumped storage power plants require more investment.
In addition, the construction of pumped storage power stations is also subject to various constraints such as geography and environment.
Second, the reliability of electrochemical energy storage needs to be further improved. According to industry insiders, energy storage is a technical field involving multiple disciplines and specialties, including system control, electrical safety, and equipment optimization.
With the increase of new energy storage power stations, the safety risk of energy storage operation has increased. Li Xian, a staff member of the planning and post-evaluation office of the Technical Service Center of the Innovation Center of Huanghe Company, believes that at present, ensuring the safe and stable operation of energy storage power stations is still a key factor for the sustainable development of the industry.
Experts put forward three suggestions
With the advancement of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, the development potential of renewable energy is huge. For the development of energy storage industry, three suggestions are given:
The first is to further promote the reform of the power market, optimize the allocation of energy storage resources, coordinate the interests of power supply, energy storage, power grid and user systems, and form a new energy industry chain that is win-win for all parties.
“When the scale of energy storage is balanced with new energy projects, new energy is stable, clean, and safe high-quality energy.” Tian Zhong, director of new energy projects at Qinghai Branch of Huaneng Group, believes that from the perspective of large-scale development of new energy, speed up all Research on key technologies of similar energy storage, and promote the scale of energy storage industry.
The deployment of large-scale energy storage systems in the grid system can not only build a grid with a high proportion of new energy in grid peak regulation and frequency regulation, but also enhance the security and flexibility of the grid through rapid power adjustment.
The second is to clarify the energy storage electricity price subsidy mechanism.
The interviewees believe that they can learn from the way of promoting the rapid development of the industry through the electricity price subsidy policy in the early stage of the development of the photovoltaic industry, and introduce various preferential policies for energy storage development by category and region, so as to give investors a “reassurance” in the way of guaranteeing the bottom line. While developing, gradually guide the electrochemical energy storage industry to transform into a market.
Finally, speed up technological transformation and upgrading, and reduce the cost of energy storage construction and operation.
Li Xian believes that cost is also the key to the development of the energy storage industry. At present, energy storage still needs to reduce costs through technological breakthroughs and model innovations
so as to introduce policies to encourage and guide the new energy industry to increase investment in energy storage technology research and development;
to overcome key technologies, optimize system integration, and improve energy storage system efficiency through system integration research. Reduce operating costs.