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since the beginning of this year, my country's new energy installed capacity has maintained rapid growth, and the proportion of power generation has reached a record high, which continues to provide strong momentum for my country's green transformation and development. public data shows that in the first half of the year, the country's new installed capacity of renewable energy power generation was 134 million kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 24%, accounting for 88% of the country's new power installed capacity; the country's renewable energy power generation reached 1.56 trillion kilowatt-hours, a year-on-year increase of 22%, accounting for about 35.1% of the total power generation.

the scale of new energy power generation in my country continues to expand, and the pace of energy transformation has significantly accelerated. in order to accelerate the construction of a new power system that is clean, low-carbon, safe, sufficient, economical, efficient, coordinated in supply and demand, flexible and intelligent, it is necessary to further enhance the grid's ability to accept, configure and regulate clean energy. as an important part of the power system, the power supply side urgently needs to be upgraded to support the stable operation of the power grid.

focusing on the new situation and new tasks, the "action plan for accelerating the construction of a new power system (2024-2027)" (hereinafter referred to as the "plan") clearly proposes actions to improve the friendly performance of new energy systems. it will promote the construction of new power systems to achieve practical results from three directions: building a number of system-friendly new energy power stations, implementing a number of computing power and power coordination projects, and building a number of smart microgrid projects.

the plan points out that a number of system-friendly new energy power stations should be built. source and storage resources should be integrated, dispatching mechanisms should be optimized, and market rules should be improved to improve the system-friendly performance of wind power and photovoltaic power stations in typical scenarios. a number of new energy power stations that have been equipped with new energy storage but not effectively utilized should be upgraded, and a number of system-friendly new energy power stations that enhance the power supply guarantee capability should be built to improve the reliable output level and increase the new energy confidence output to more than 10%.

ye xiaoning, deputy director of the new energy research institute of the state grid energy research institute, said that new energy has become the main installed power source in my country and is developing towards the main power source. as the penetration rate of new energy continues to increase, the "double high" (high proportion of new energy and high proportion of power electronic equipment) characteristics of the power system are obvious, and new energy is urgently needed to better play its role in ensuring and increasing energy supply. "therefore,promoting the improvement of the friendly performance of new energy systems is an inevitable choice to accelerate the construction of new power systems to adapt to the needs of energy transformation.on the one hand, system-friendly new energy power stations can help build large new energy bases and supporting facilities, and ensure the safety of power supply; on the other hand, system-friendly new energy power stations are conducive to improving the reliable output level of new energy and ensuring the safety of power operation. "

liu hanyuan, chairman of the board of directors of tongwei group, believes that this has created a good opportunity for the rapid development of energy storage. "under the new requirements, energy storage will not only play a supporting role in the future, but will become an independent and important component of smart grids and new power systems, maintaining the balance between power generation and consumption, and becoming an important industry under the market mechanism."

data from the national energy administration show that since 2024, the dispatch and utilization level of new energy storage has continued to improve, and the regulatory role of new energy storage has continued to increase. according to statistics from power grid companies, the equivalent utilization hours of new energy storage in the state grid corporation's operating area in the first half of 2024 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. the equivalent utilization hours of new energy storage in the china southern power grid's operating area in the first half of 2024 reached 560 hours, which is close to the full-year call level in 2023.

"compared with pumped storage, lithium battery energy storage has the advantages of high system efficiency, fast response speed, great flexibility in site selection, low construction difficulty and short construction period," liu hanyuan said. "at present, the construction cost of lithium battery energy storage system has dropped to less than 1,000 yuan/kwh, and is expected to drop to 500 yuan/kwh in the future. the economic benefits of large-scale application will be further highlighted."

in recent years, advanced science and technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence have gradually been applied in the energy field, and the integrated integration of computing power and green electricity has become a general trend.

the plan proposes to implement a number of computing power and power coordination projects. coordinate the development needs of data centers and the endowment of new energy resources, scientifically integrate source, load and storage resources, and carry out coordinated planning and layout of computing power and power infrastructure. explore the "green electricity aggregation supply" model of local power supply, aggregated trading, and local consumption of new energy. integrate and regulate resources, improve the level of coordinated operation of computing power and electricity, increase the proportion of green electricity in data centers, and reduce the demand for grid security capacity. explore the stable green electricity supply model of solar thermal power generation, wind power, and photovoltaic power generation. strengthen the recycling and utilization of waste heat resources in data centers to meet the heating needs of surrounding areas.

zhao chuhong, vice president of yuanjing intelligence, believes thatthe development of electricity and computing power complement each other. intelligent computing power can promote the efficiency of renewable energy power plants, assist in energy management, enhance power dispatching capabilities, balance and stabilize power grid operations, and build new power systems.

there is electricity when there is "wind and light", and there is no electricity when there is no "wind and light" - this is the most important feature of new energy. against the background of the continuous and rapid expansion of the scale of wind power and photovoltaic power generation, the intermittent, random and volatile nature of wind and solar power generation poses challenges to the safe and stable operation of the existing power system, and computing power is a new way to alleviate this problem. today, virtual dispatchers and auxiliary dispatchers have been applied in the distribution networks of zhejiang and jiangsu, which can realize independent and autonomous first-time instructions and emergency handling of faults, helping to improve the flexible adjustment capabilities of the power grid. in the future, in the process of building new power systems, the application scope of computing power will become more and more extensive, and it will become an important support for the smooth operation of my country's power system and power grid.

ye xiaoning said: "as all sectors of society pay more attention to the coordinated operation of computing power and electricity, by promoting the transfer of data centers to new energy-rich areas with lower electricity costs and optimizing the time and space distribution of data center power demand, we can further promote the high-level consumption of new energy."

the plan states that a number of smart microgrid projects will be built. localities are encouraged to build smart microgrid projects in accordance with local conditions based on application scenarios. at the end of the power grid and in areas not covered by the large power grid, a number of smart microgrid projects with complementary wind, solar and storage will be built to improve the local power supply level. in areas with good new energy resource conditions, a number of smart microgrid projects with coordinated source, grid, load and storage will be built to improve the self-peaking and self-balancing capabilities of microgrids, increase the proportion of self-generation and self-use of new energy power generation, alleviate the regulation and absorption pressure of the large power grid, and actively support the development of new business forms and new models.

peng peng, secretary general of the china new energy power investment and financing alliance, told china energy news: "the impact of the access of high-proportion wind power, photovoltaic and other volatile power sources on the power grid cannot be completely solved by high-voltage dispatch alone. we also need to pay attention to the distribution network side and build smart microgrids. these microgrids are like capillaries, which can achieve self-balance within a certain area. when the self-regulation ability is insufficient, they will interact with the large power grid."

ye xiaoning analyzed from another perspective: "the development path of new energy has changed from large-scale centralized to centralized and distributed, and local consumption is an important mode of new energy utilization. from the perspective of the characteristics of new energy itself, local consumption can reduce the impact of its volatility on the safe and stable operation of the system, and can also reduce the demand for system regulation capabilities."

so far, chongqing, changzhou, jiangsu province and other places have successively issued documents to support the construction and development of smart microgrids. among them, changzhou proposed that by the end of 2026, the city will have built 30 new smart microgrid pilot demonstration projects with promotion value; through pilot demonstration construction, explore new smart microgrid construction and operation management models with local characteristics, and provide systematic guidance for rapid and effective large-scale promotion.

"at present, various regions are mainly promoting the implementation of relevant projects in a pilot manner. there are many models of smart microgrid projects. for example, in areas not covered by large power grids, microgrid projects that complement wind, solar and storage can be developed, while in areas rich in new energy, microgrid projects that coordinate source, grid, load and storage can be built.the development of smart microgrid projects should be adapted to local conditions and different models should be selected based on local electricity usage habits and application scenarios.peng peng further stated.