"New energy + energy storage" should seize the opportunity of "carbon neutrality"



The proposal of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" will accelerate the leapfrog development of new energy sources such as wind power and solar power generation. At the same time, the high proportion of renewable energy will put forward higher requirements for the flexible adjustment capacity of the power system, bringing new opportunities to the development of energy storage.

New energy by 2030

New storage or more than 34GW

On September 22, 2020, China pledged to the world at the United Nations General Assembly that "China will increase its nationally determined contribution, adopt more powerful policies and measures, strive to reach the peak of carbon dioxide emissions before 2030, and strive to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060" (hereinafter referred to as the "30·60 double carbon goal"). On December 13, 2020, China further elaborated on the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals at the Climate Ambition Summit, proposing that by 2030, China's carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will be reduced by more than 65% compared with 2005, and non-fossil energy will account for about 25% of primary energy consumption. The total installed capacity of wind power and solar power will reach more than 1.2 billion kilowatts.

Data released by the National Energy Administration show that in 2020, the country's new wind power installed capacity of 71.67 million kilowatts, solar power generation of 48.2 million kilowatts, the total of new installed capacity is about 120 million kilowatts. Previously, the National Energy Administration announced that from January to November 2020, the installed capacity of wind power was 24.62 million kilowatts, and the installed capacity of solar power was 25.9 million kilowatts. This means that the new installed capacity of wind power and solar power in December 2020 alone will reach 47.05 million kilowatts and 23.3 million kilowatts respectively. By the end of 2020, the total installed capacity of wind power and solar power will exceed 530 million kilowatts.

The National Energy Administration has released the target of 120 million kilowatts of new wind power and solar power in 2021, and if energy storage is configured according to 5% of new energy installed capacity, then the new energy side energy storage scale will increase by 6GW in 2021.

According to the goal of more than 1.2 billion kilowatts of wind power and solar power installed in 2030, it is expected that in the next 10 years, the total annual increase of wind power and solar power will be at least 67 million kilowatts, in order to achieve the goal of more than 1.2 billion kilowatts. If calculated according to 5% of the configured energy storage ratio, in 2030, the scenery new energy will add more than 34GW of supporting energy storage.

The China Investment Association and the Rocky Mountain Institute predict that under the goal of "carbon neutrality", solar and wind power will account for 70% of the total installed power capacity in China by 2050. Accordingly, electrochemical energy storage will increase from 189MW in 2016 to 510GW, with an average annual growth rate of 26%.

The proposal of the "30·60 dual carbon target" will accelerate the leapfrog development of new energy sources such as wind power and solar power generation, and the high proportion of renewable energy will put forward higher requirements for the flexible adjustment capacity of the power system, bringing new opportunities to the development of energy storage. The energy storage device can realize load clipping and valley filling, increase the power grid peak regulation capacity, and also participate in the system frequency regulation and voltage regulation to improve the security and stability of the power grid. Accelerating the effective integration of energy storage into all aspects of the power system's power generation, transmission and use is of great significance for ensuring the reliable supply of electricity and the efficient use of new energy, and achieving the "30·60 double carbon goal".

"New energy + storage" has many problems

One is insufficient flexibility resources.

Due to the imbalance of China's resource endowment and energy consumption load, coupled with the time-space mismatch of new energy, the large-scale access of scenery to the power grid, its volatility and intermittent impact on the power grid has been increasingly amplified. The power grid needs more flexible resources to support the safe, stable and efficient operation of the power system due to the huge pressure of peak regulation and absorption. At present, the flexibility of China's power system is poor, which is far from meeting the requirements of the rapid growth of the scale of photovoltaic power grid. China's flexible regulation of power, including fuel units, gas units and pumping units accounted for much lower than the world average level. In particular, in the three North areas, where new energy is rich, flexible adjustment accounts for less than 4%. The biggest risk to the operation of a high-proportion renewable energy power system is the lack of flexible adjustable resources, the obvious lack of frequency and peak regulation resources, and the prominent security and stability problems.

The newly released "Guidelines for the Safety and Stability of Power Systems" (GB38755-2019) requires that power supplies should have primary frequency modulation, rapid voltage regulation, and peak regulation capabilities. With the increasing proportion of photovoltaic wind power generation, the frequency modulation demand of the power grid is increasing. By the end of 2020, 18 provinces and cities have issued relevant documents to encourage or require new energy distribution of energy storage. Hunan, Hubei, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei and Guizhou have clearly stipulated the energy storage ratio, and the proportion of energy storage configuration ranges from 5% to 20%. Although Liaoning, Henan and Xizang do not require specific energy storage configuration proportions, the relevant documents clearly give priority to new energy configuration energy storage projects in the process of reviewing new energy projects.

At present, new energy configuration energy storage projects are generally considered to be new energy distribution energy storage devices, especially chemical batteries. However, there are many kinds of flexible resources, including flexible thermal power, pumped storage power station, gas power station, fuel power station, energy storage, and adjustable load, etc., which should be coordinated and optimized from the perspective of the system to participate in the operation and regulation process of the power system.

Second, the market mechanism and related incentive mechanism are not sound.

Affected by the lack of institutional reform, the imperfect market mechanism and the low degree of marketization, China's new energy power generation has always been a problem of absorption. At present, energy storage has some problems, such as low technical and economic efficiency, independent and decentralized location, low utilization rate, limited cost channels and profitability.

Due to the differences in the scale of new energy development, power grid structure, and the degree of peak resource gap in different places, the strong distribution of energy storage has brought greater cost pressure to new energy enterprises. Although the cost of electrochemical energy storage shows a downward trend year by year, it is still as high as 0.6-0.8 yuan /kWh, which is much higher than the cost of 0.21-0.25 yuan /kWh of pumped storage power stations. In addition to installation and operation costs, additional costs such as financing costs and project management fees are also high. Due to factors such as subsidy decline, fund arrears, and affordable Internet access, the profit space of new energy projects is gradually compressed, and the lack of a reasonable mechanism for allocating energy storage and clear investment recovery channels brings limited returns, and the enthusiasm of enterprises to build is low, leading to the contradiction between new energy and power grid enterprises in some provinces.

The third is the lack of relevant standards for electrochemical energy storage.

The electrochemical energy storage industry has been developing for more than ten years, but the relevant standards have not been improved, the energy storage system from design, transportation to installation, operation, acceptance and late operation and maintenance, as well as the post-disaster treatment of the energy storage system, battery recycling, etc., there are no very perfect standards and policies to support.

New energy distribution and storage should grasp four key points

First, strengthen the coordinated planning of energy storage and "source-network-load".

The Government should make overall plans for the development of all flexible resources. If the development is rushed and indiscriminate, the result will only be disorderly competition and waste of social resources.

Strengthen the coordinated planning of energy storage and "source - network - load", and promote the coordinated development of "source - network - load - storage". According to the needs of different regions for flexibly adjusting resources, development positioning and characteristics, define the scale and layout of energy storage development, achieve coordinated development of "source - network - load - storage", reasonably determine the scale of energy storage development, facility layout, access scope and construction timing and rolling adjustment, and guide the rational layout and orderly development of energy storage.

Second, accelerate the construction of electricity market.

Should further accelerate the construction of power medium and long-term power market, spot market, auxiliary service market and possible capacity market, so that all kinds of power resources can realize their economic value in market transactions, in order to promote new energy in a wider range, full power market consumption, and ultimately increase the proportion of new energy generation.

It is necessary to establish a marketization mechanism that can fully reflect the value of energy storage, evaluate the scale of energy storage configuration and the value of energy storage services in a reasonable and scientific way, design market rules for the transition stage of marketization and the full marketization stage, and finally form a market-oriented long-term mechanism of "who benefits and who pays". We can start by allowing energy storage system operators to provide diversified services as independent market players, so that they can participate in various services such as peak regulation, frequency modulation, and black start. In addition to widening the peak-valley price difference, the price mechanism of energy storage can be formulated according to the capacity electricity price, electricity price, auxiliary service price, and the impact on power quality as the evaluation standard of electricity price. At the same time of the introduction of the corresponding price policy, it is also necessary to adjust and amend its practice.

Third, promote the construction of energy storage cloud platform.

View energy storage services with Internet thinking, promote the construction of energy storage cloud platform, innovate the system and mechanism of energy storage operation with the development model of sharing economy and platform economy, fully tap the utilization potential of energy storage cloud, and actively explore new business models such as comprehensive energy services, green electricity trading, demand response, and energy hosting. Through equipment sharing, resource sharing and service sharing, the utilization value of energy storage equipment is maximized to achieve optimal allocation and efficient utilization of energy storage equipment resources.

Finally, develop and improve energy storage related standards.

Further improve energy storage planning and design, equipment testing, grid-connected testing, safety operation and maintenance, fire protection and other technical standards, and establish a threshold for energy storage implementation. Promote the coordinated development of energy storage technology innovation and standardization, solve the key problems of energy storage facilities participating in system operation, and effectively ensure the high-quality development of China's energy storage industry.