Building a large national clean energy base

As a "three bases and one channel" and a large clean energy base planned and constructed by the state, Xinjiang's promotion of high-quality development of the new energy industry is of great practical significance for closely promoting high-quality economic development and serving the overall situation of national development.

What are the characteristics of new energy project construction and promotion in the autonomous region this year? How to balance the quality and efficiency of new energy development and effectively promote the high-quality development of new energy industry? On June 1, at the "Xinjiang promotes high-quality Development" series theme conference held by the Information Office of the Autonomous Region People's Government, the Development and Reform Commission of the autonomous Region, the Energy Bureau and the Xinjiang Regulatory Office of the National Energy Bureau, and the relevant responsible comrades of the State Grid Xinjiang Power Co., Ltd. answered questions from reporters.

Refine and improve supporting policies to promote coordinated development of the system

Q: The construction of new energy projects is related to Xinjiang's green and low-carbon transformation, energy use structure adjustment and industrial development. What are the characteristics of the autonomous region's new energy project construction this year?

A: Since the beginning of this year, on the basis of comprehensively sorting out the implementation of new energy projects, the autonomous region has adhered to target orientation and problem orientation, adhered to system thinking, supported by new loads, focused on local and nearby consumption, and relied on system adjustment capacity. We have studied and formulated policy documents to promote the coordinated development of new energy and related industries, accelerate the high-quality development of pumped storage, establish and improve new energy storage supporting policies, and do a good job in the construction of integration projects of source and network load and storage, so as to promote the coordinated development of the power supply side, the power grid side, the load side, and the regulation side.

Give play to Xinjiang's advantages in energy and resources to build a national large-scale clean energy base -- Officials of relevant departments in Xinjiang answer reporters' questions on accelerating the high-quality development of the new energy industry

Fukang City, China Power Construction new energy 600,000-kilowatt photovoltaic energy storage supporting project construction site. Photo provided by Changji Development and Reform Commission

First, adhere to the integration of source and load development. We will give full play to the advantages of new energy resources in the region, exchange resources for industries, and promote development with industries. Actively undertake the industrial transfer in central and eastern China, introduce new material industries such as basalt fiber and biomass whisker, focus on high-quality incremental load layout of new energy projects, promote the coupled development of new energy and energy storage, carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), coal chemical industry, petrochemical industry and other industrial clusters through green electricity substitution, and actively expand the demonstration scale of hydrogen production from new energy. Vigorously cultivate local photovoltaic silicon, wind power and power transmission and transformation equipment and other upstream and downstream industry chains, forming a cycle of load driven power supply, innovation chain driven industry chain mode.

Second, adhere to the synchronous progress of the source network. At present, our district actively strives for the construction of the third channel, the fourth channel, Ruoqiang-Qinghai Huatugou 750 network project, and continuously improves the trans-regional allocation and absorption capacity of new energy at the same time, based on the smooth flow of the power system "capillaries" in Xinjiang, accelerating the construction of 127 220 kV and 110 kV power grid projects, and newly started 70 projects. Actively strengthen the backbone power grid in the region, provide support for the construction of a new power system with new energy as the main body, and strive to meet the demand for load growth and the need for new energy collection and delivery. At the same time, strengthen the reward and punishment mechanism, implement the grid-connected leader plan, make it clear that new energy projects with fast construction progress enjoy the new energy parity online target price policy, and give priority to support grid-connected. Explore a new mode of cooperation between power grid enterprises and social capital, invest in the joint construction of new energy supporting delivery projects, and strive to effectively shorten the construction cycle of the power grid and meet the needs of new energy grid connection.

Give play to Xinjiang's advantages in energy and resources to build a national large-scale clean energy base -- Officials of relevant departments in Xinjiang answer reporters' questions on accelerating the high-quality development of the new energy industry

Third, we will continue to coordinate the distribution of sources and reservoirs. In order to overcome the impact of the volatility and intermittency of new energy output on the safe and stable operation of the power system, ensure the large-scale and high proportion of new energy access, and improve the level of new energy friendliness, we have stepped up efforts to promote the layout and construction of pumped storage and new energy storage facilities, and strive to improve the regulation capacity of the power system to ensure safe and stable operation.

Promote the "green certificate" to improve the level of green electricity consumption

Give play to Xinjiang's advantages in energy and resources to build a national large-scale clean energy base -- Officials of relevant departments in Xinjiang answer reporters' questions on accelerating the high-quality development of the new energy industry

Employees of Bachu County Power Supply Company of State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd. look at solar panels at a power generation company in Xinjiang, capital of China, April 10, 2019. Photo by Wang Kang

Q: Recently, the Autonomous region issued the "Notice on Accelerating the Coordinated Development of New Energy and related Industries", which stipulates that business entities can make up the amount of renewable energy consumption by purchasing "green certificates". What is the significance and role of "green certificate" for the development of new energy?

A: The green power certificate is generally referred to as the "green certificate", which is the electronic certificate of green power issued by renewable energy power generation enterprises. In August 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Bureau of Statistics, and the Bureau of Energy jointly issued a notice that clearly regarded the "green certificate" as the basic certificate for the identification of renewable energy power consumption.

In general, a "green certificate" corresponds to 1000 degrees of renewable energy electricity, and the generation or transaction of each green certificate means that 1000 degrees of green electricity has been generated online or consumed by power users. Therefore, the "green certificate" is the proof of the green attribute of renewable energy power, and it is also the only proof that renewable energy power generation enterprises carry out green power production and the majority of power users carry out green power consumption.

The issuance and trading of "green certificates" is of great significance to promote the high-quality development of renewable energy and improve the level of green electricity consumption. First, it is conducive to promoting the development and construction of renewable energy projects. By selling "green certificates", power generation enterprises can obtain green environmental benefits beyond the value of basic electricity energy, which is conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of the majority of investors to build renewable energy projects through market behavior. Second, it is conducive to promoting the consumption and utilization of renewable energy. At present, the development of renewable energy in our region has entered a new stage, the total installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic power generation exceeds one-third of the total installed capacity of the whole Xinjiang power supply, expand the scope of "green certificate" issuance and trading, cooperate with the renewable energy consumption responsibility weight system, and expand the consumption share of green power from the user side, which can better promote the high level of consumption and utilization of renewable energy. Third, it is conducive to leading green consumption.

At present, the National Energy Administration is combining the new situation and new requirements to further improve the green power certificate system, clarify its authority, uniqueness, versatility and dominance, and expand the scope of "green certificate" issuance and trading market. It is clear that "the excess consumption of renewable energy electricity and the green certificate make up the target task" is also to further promote "green certificate" and green electricity trading, guide the autonomous region's power users to expand green electricity consumption, and play a greater role in promoting the development and utilization of renewable energy in Xinjiang and promoting the whole society to better consume green electricity.

Establish an efficient coordination mechanism for network and source to fully provide new energy network connection services

Q: The autonomous region has vigorously promoted the development of new energy industry. What are the key measures of State Grid Xinjiang Power Co., Ltd. in new energy network connection services?

A: State Grid Xinjiang Power Co., Ltd. earnestly implements the work deployment of the autonomous region Party Committee and the government, comprehensively does a good job in new energy network connection services, and has completed 45.63 million kilowatts of new energy network connection approval since 2022. We establish a new energy development mechanism for network and source efficient collaborative service, regularly organize and hold plant and network symposiums, understand and master the project construction progress of power generation enterprises, announce the development space of new energy, and form a new energy development situation of network and source efficient collaborative.

At the same time, optimize the work process, efficiently serve the approval of new energy network connection, establish a collaborative linkage mechanism at the provincial and local levels, take the initiative to serve, intervene in advance, and agree on the network connection technology plan in advance, and reduce the new energy grid connection links from the original 34 to 19, further improving the approval efficiency.

We also comprehensively apply the new energy cloud platform to realize the reporting of the application line for new energy projects, the acceptance of time limits, and the whole process tracking, which greatly improves the communication efficiency between the power grid company and the power supply enterprise. In addition, give full play to the role of the power grid resource allocation platform, comprehensively strengthen the planning and construction of Xinjiang's backbone grid, seize the opportunity of the national "14th Five-Year Plan" mid-term grid rolling adjustment, and promote the integration of 750 kV Mu Lu Nan and other projects into the national power plan.