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In recent years, China's power system has accelerated its transformation to adapt to large-scale, high-proportion renewable energy. Faced with the challenges of low-carbon energy transition, infrastructure interconnection, network supplementation, and strengthening of the industrial chain have become necessary choices. In the future, distributed intelligent power grids will be further developed, focusing on key technologies and business models to promote more coordinated development of power generation, grid, load, and energy storage.

On May 25, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area back-to-back DC power grid project officially went into operation, and is expected to support no less than 188.3 billion kWh of "West-to-East Electricity Transmission" this year; on June 30, the largest pumped storage power station in East China—the Zhejiang Changlongshan pumped storage power station—went into full operation. This giant "power bank" undertakes the tasks of peak regulation and valley filling for the power grid; on July 1, the 2080-kilometer Baihetan-Jiangsu ultra-high voltage DC project went into operation...

Since the beginning of this year, the construction of China's power infrastructure has been progressing in an orderly manner. The 11th meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs pointed out that it is necessary to strengthen the construction of network-type infrastructure such as transportation, energy, and water conservancy, focusing on interconnection, network supplementation, and strengthening of the industrial chain, and striving to improve network efficiency. As an important driving force for economic operation and a key link in energy transformation, what is the progress of interconnection, network supplementation, and strengthening of the industrial chain in the current power sector? What aspects should be focused on next? A reporter conducted an interview.

The foundation for power supply security is constantly being strengthened, and infrastructure interconnection, network supplementation, and strengthening of the industrial chain have become necessary choices.

In recent years, China's power infrastructure has maintained moderately advanced development, accelerating the transformation of the power system to adapt to large-scale, high-proportion renewable energy.

Power generation capacity and the scale of "West-to-East Electricity Transmission" continue to expand. Currently, China's total power generation capacity exceeds 2.4 billion kilowatts, and the installed capacity of wind power, photovoltaic power, hydropower, and biomass power generation has ranked first in the world for many consecutive years; 33 AC/DC ultra-high voltage lines have been built nationwide, and the scale of "West-to-East Electricity Transmission" exceeds 290 million kilowatts.

The level of rural power supply guarantee has been significantly improved. In 2020, the goal of all counties having access to the large power grid and all villages within the large power grid coverage area having access to power was achieved. Rural power supply capacity and reliability have continuously improved.

The capacity for power technology innovation has rapidly improved. Currently, China has established a complete industrial chain for clean energy equipment manufacturing, including hydropower, nuclear power, wind power, and solar power generation. In the first half of the year, China's total exports of photovoltaic products amounted to approximately US$25.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 113.1%.

Despite the constantly strengthening foundation for power supply security, supply tightness has still appeared in some periods and regions. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's electricity load and consumption are expected to continue to grow, requiring further strengthening of power supply security capacity; at the same time, during the low-carbon energy transition, challenges such as the new power system being in its early stages of development and insufficient adaptability to the connection and consumption of large-scale, high-proportion renewable energy exist. To address these shortcomings, infrastructure interconnection, network supplementation, and strengthening of the industrial chain have become necessary choices for the power sector.

Relevant officials from the National Energy Administration introduced that for power infrastructure construction, interconnection mainly includes the development of ultra-high voltage transmission channels; network supplementation mainly includes optimizing and improving the main grid layout, strengthening urban power grid transformation and upgrading and the construction of strong local power grids, developing distributed intelligent power grids, and improving power infrastructure in rural and remote areas; strengthening the industrial chain mainly includes strengthening the safety and intelligence level of power infrastructure, making the power system more flexible and intelligent, and promoting coordinated interaction between power generation, grid, load, and energy storage. "Accelerating the interconnection, network supplementation, and strengthening of the industrial chain for power infrastructure is a necessary requirement for ensuring national energy security and achieving the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals as scheduled."

Taking interconnection, network supplementation, and strengthening of the industrial chain as the focus of construction is also conducive to leveraging investment. In June, the State Grid Corporation announced that it will invest more than 500 billion yuan in power grids this year, reaching the highest level in history, and is expected to drive more than 1 trillion yuan in social investment.

Improving the intelligence level of the power grid to ensure reliable, stable, and low-cost power supply.

In Taiping Town, Xinxing County, Yunfu City, Guangdong Province, a "white house" stands. This is the "intelligent brain" of the Southern Power Grid's 10-kilovolt distributed power grid—an energy storage switching station. It allows the distributed power grid to flexibly switch between shutdown, grid-connected operation, and off-grid operation modes, while also acting like a large "power bank" that can store 2 megawatts of electricity. According to reports, last year, the local area built this medium-voltage distributed power grid of "source (hydropower) network load storage", which can achieve full consumption of small hydropower and reduce the amount of abandoned hydropower by about 43%.

The 11th meeting of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs proposed the development of distributed intelligent power grids. How should we understand distributed intelligent power grids? What is its role?

Relevant officials from the National Energy Administration introduced that the distributed intelligent power grid takes the power grid as its basic platform and actively adapts to the development of large-scale distributed renewable energy by improving the intelligence level of the power grid.

On the one hand, on the power generation side, it can support distributed power sources connecting to the grid, meeting electricity demand locally, and continuously providing reliable power supply to users.

Du Zhongming, president of the Electric Power Planning and Design Institute, introduced that the development and utilization of renewable energy in China has shown a pattern of both centralized and distributed development. The "large-scale clean energy base + large power grid" approach mainly solves the problem of "electricity coming from afar", but long-distance transmission faces constraints in terms of investment costs, land, and the environment. To promote the large-scale and high-proportion development of renewable energy, it is also necessary to rely on distributed power sources, giving full play to their advantages of being close to the load and consumption locally, realizing "electricity from nearby."

On the other hand, on the load side, it can support the connection of various load entities such as electric vehicle charging piles, new energy storage, and virtual power plants, meeting the diverse "plug-and-play" connection needs.

"Renewable energy output has characteristics such as intermittency, fluctuation, and randomness. As the proportion of renewable energy continues to increase, the difficulty of maintaining the balance of the power system is constantly increasing, and the problem of a lack of flexible regulation resources in the traditional power grid is becoming increasingly prominent." Du Zhongming said that by finely regulating user electricity consumption through distributed intelligent power grids, it is equivalent to creating another "power plant", which will become a key means of ensuring reliable, stable, and low-cost power supply for the new power system.

"It is currently the peak period for electricity prices. It is recommended to charge during the low-price period at 12 o'clock." At 10 am, Mr. Zhang, a teacher at the University of Science and Technology of China Hangzhou Advanced Institute, originally planned to charge his electric vehicle. After adopting the suggestions provided by the charging application, he saved about 70% on electricity costs. Last year, the State Grid Hangzhou Power Supply Company put into operation a "photovoltaic storage charging integration" intelligent collaborative project on the campus, including distributed photovoltaics, energy storage power stations, 3 fast-charging piles, 20 slow-charging piles, and a set of photovoltaic storage charging intelligent control system.

Data provided by the National Energy Administration shows that in recent years, China's distribution network structure has been further optimized, the level of intelligence has been significantly improved, and the capacity to accept distributed power sources has steadily improved, fully ensuring the flexible connection of more than 100 million kilowatts of various distributed power sources.

The development of distributed intelligent power grids also requires efforts in key technologies and business models.

Experts interviewed believe that the development of distributed intelligent power grids requires concerted efforts in various aspects, including improving the "hardware" of key technologies and the "software" of business models.

At the key technology level, Du Zhongming believes that it is urgent to research and develop coordinated control technologies adaptable to massive distributed power sources and diversified load access, intelligent grid scheduling and operation technologies, and key technologies for the digital and intelligent upgrading of distributed intelligent grids.

By the end of June this year, the national stock of pure electric vehicles reached 8.104 million, and the installed capacity of distributed photovoltaic power generation reached 127 million kilowatts, equivalent to the installed capacity of more than five Three Gorges power stations. "The charging load of electric vehicles has considerable randomness. The photovoltaic power generation during the day can meet most of the electricity demand. At night, photovoltaic power generation has no output, and the surge in electric vehicle charging loads adds to the pressure. The electricity balance and safe and stable operation of the system during the evening peak will face a huge test." Du Zhongming suggested building a technical support system integrating power distribution and power consumption, and opening up the "last mile" connecting the distribution network to users.

In terms of business models, it is necessary to improve the pricing mechanism and market rules for "over-the-fence power sales" (i.e., market transactions of distributed power generation). "'Over-the-fence power sales' helps promote the on-site consumption of renewable energy, but the current standards for collecting 'grid fees' are still unclear. How to balance the demands of various parties involved in the transaction and grid enterprises, and improve the electricity price mechanism to support the self-generation and on-site utilization of distributed clean energy power generation needs further exploration." said Du Zhongming.

Relevant department heads of the National Energy Administration told reporters that next, the National Energy Administration will take the construction of a new power system as a guide, promote the upgrading of the form, technology, and function of the traditional power grid, significantly improve the power supply guarantee and flexible interaction capabilities of distributed intelligent power grids, and achieve more coordinated development of power generation, grid, load, and energy storage.

First, give full play to the role of planning and strengthen the planning and top-level design of distributed intelligent grids. Second, in regions with good demand response resource conditions and rich renewable energy resources, use distributed intelligent grids as support, and promote the consumption of distributed renewable energy electricity through demand response in a targeted manner. Third, accelerate the research of distributed intelligent grid technology and gather the strength of research institutions, universities and enterprises to achieve breakthroughs in core technologies.