Electricity supply remains stable throughout the summer, what "Eastern power" is hidden behind it?
2024-08-11
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Since July, many European countries have been hit by a new round of heat waves, with a surge in electricity demand. The power grid has been overwhelmed and has suffered frequent power outages, seriously affecting people's daily lives and business activities. During the same period, many parts of my country also experienced continuous high temperatures, and the maximum power load rose rapidly, breaking historical records many times. The difference is that my country's power supply during the peak summer period is strong and effective. Under the huge contrast, some netizens are curious about what mysterious "Eastern power" is hidden behind this?
my country's power peak summer is smooth and orderly, thanks to the increasingly rich "toolbox". Global warming, frequent extreme weather, high temperature heat waves have become common, and reliable power supply in summer is becoming more and more difficult. From an economic point of view, it is impossible to match 100% of the bottom power supply to meet the short-term peak power consumption in the construction of any power system. Therefore, in order to ensure that the peak summer does not "fall off the chain", in addition to increasing the construction and transformation of power supply and power grid, and ensuring the supply of electric coal and other conventional operations, my country has also unlocked more new skills such as increasing energy storage regulation capabilities, regional power mutual assistance, and virtual power plants.
The regulation capacity of new energy storage is constantly improving. The main contradiction in the current peak summer power supply and demand is not the absolute lack of electricity, but the structural time and space mismatch. For example, when new energy is in full swing at noon, the demand for electricity is not that high; during the peak nighttime electricity demand, new energy generation is often insufficient. New energy storage is like a "super charger", which can re-match power supply and demand by shaving peaks and filling valleys.
The grid-side energy storage power station in Changxing, Zhejiang Province has been upgraded to a "giant power bank" to help the city's power grid "meet the peak demand in summer". Photo by Xu Yu (Xinhua News Agency)
In April this year, the National Energy Administration issued policies to regulate the grid connection of new energy storage and promote the efficient dispatch and use of new energy storage, achieving good results. Data show that in the first half of 2024, the equivalent utilization hours of new energy storage in the State Grid Corporation of China's operating area reached 390 hours and the equivalent charge and discharge times were about 93 times, an increase of about 100% and 86% respectively compared with the first half of 2023; in the first half of 2024, the equivalent utilization hours of new energy storage in the China Southern Power Grid Corporation's operating area reached 560 hours, which is close to the full-year call level in 2023. With the increase in the scale of new energy storage installed, its role in promoting the development and consumption of new energy and improving the safe and stable operation of the power system has gradually increased.
The mutual assistance capacity of electricity continues to increase. When I am short of electricity, you supply me; when you are short of electricity, I supply you. In the face of the spatial mismatch of electricity supply and demand during the peak summer season, balancing electricity supply and demand in a larger scope is an efficient and economical measure. Due to the differences in industrial structure and peak hours of electricity load in different regions, this feature can be cleverly utilized to supply electricity from provinces where electricity load is not at its peak to provinces with peak electricity load, and reverse electricity supply in another period to optimize the allocation of electricity resources.
In May this year, the Fujian-Guangdong interconnection project delivered electricity to Guangdong at full channel capacity for the first time, fully supporting Guangdong's electricity demand. Affected by the climate, Fujian enters summer later than Guangdong, and the power load characteristics of the two provinces are complementary. When Guangdong began to enter summer in May, Fujian still had surplus electricity to send to Guangdong to support Guangdong's summer peak electricity load; from July to September, when the southwest hydropower was sufficient and could be sent to Guangdong in large quantities, Guangdong could send surplus electricity to Fujian once it had electricity, alleviating Fujian's power supply pressure during the peak load period in summer. In June this year, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and one city signed the "2024 Yangtze River Delta Integration Peak Summer Power Mutual Aid Cooperation Framework Agreement", and jointly responded to the peak electricity consumption this summer through power replacement and other means. In the future, more regions will join the power mutual aid family.
Workers from the State Grid Ningxia Electric Power Company are working on the construction of the "Ningxia Power to Hunan" Zhongning Converter Station. Photo by Wang Peng (Xinhua News Agency)
The potential of loads to participate in grid regulation is fully released. In the past, the peak electricity demand in summer was mainly to put pressure on the supply side to make power plants generate more electricity, while the regulation capacity on the demand side has been in a "dormant" state. When the supply and demand of electricity is tight, waking up the massive load-side resources and rationally allocating electricity demand will also help maintain the balance of power supply and demand and ensure the safety of the power grid.
As an important way to activate demand-side resources, the virtual power plant is an intelligent power dispatching system that aggregates scattered resources such as charging piles, air conditioners, distributed photovoltaics, and energy storage equipment, unifies and coordinates energy consumption and power intake and output, and forms an "invisible power plant" based on digital technology. Take Suzhou, Jiangsu as an example. The city has now built a virtual power plant management platform. According to the calculation of the Urban Energy Strategy Center of the State Grid (Suzhou) Urban Energy Research Institute, on the premise that the virtual power plant has completed the infrastructure construction, relying solely on the valley filling response mode, it can contribute 20,000 kWh/day of energy to Suzhou stably, thereby providing at least 55 million kWh/year of flexible adjustment resources. Some institutions predict that by 2030, the total installed capacity of my country's virtual power plants will reach 55 million kilowatts, exceeding the total installed capacity of two Three Gorges power stations.
New technologies, new business forms and new models continue to emerge, which not only alleviates the pressure of power peak in summer, but also puts forward new requirements for the competent departments. Under the background of power market reform, only by formulating a reasonable price mechanism and trading system to fully reflect the value of time, space and attributes of electric energy can the real potential of power system in regulation be released.
(Author: Wang Yichen), original title: What does it take for electricity to meet peak demand in summer in a stable and orderly manner?
Source: Economic Daily
