As an important technology and basic equipment supporting the new power system, the energy storage industry has entered the fast lane of development——
"Super Power Bank" is ready to go (Economic Focus · First-line Look at Energy Storage ④)
core reading
The increase in installed capacity, the improvement of technical equipment, and the decline in application costs... In recent years, energy storage technologies and equipment, including pumped storage and new energy storage technologies, have promoted the development and consumption of new energy and improved the flexibility of the power system. , played a positive role.
In the future, it is necessary to promote the efficient application and high-quality development of energy storage step by step through further efforts in technology research and development, improvement of market mechanisms, and assurance of safety levels.
In the mountain canyons, State Grid Xinyuan Anhui Tongcheng Pumped Storage Power Station is stepping up construction, with a designed annual power generation of more than 2.1 billion kWh, which can meet the electricity consumption of the whole society in Anqing, Anhui for 2 months;
Underground caves, 100MW advanced compressed air energy storage national demonstration project was connected to the grid for power generation in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province. The self-reliance rate of the core equipment of the project is 100%, which can save 42,000 tons of standard coal per year;
In Zhangbei Grassland, State Power Investment Corporation’s iron-chromium flow battery energy storage power station test is busy. It can store all 6 hours of photovoltaic power generation, and it can operate normally even at minus 40 degrees Celsius, and the battery life can reach more than 20 years;
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Despite the use of different technologies and different equipment, these "super power banks" can change the traditional operation mode of the power system.
Charging when new energy is booming or when power consumption is low, and new energy output is small or discharging when power consumption is peak, can not only smooth unstable new energy power generation, help its development and consumption, but also provide peak regulation in conjunction with conventional thermal power, nuclear power and other power sources Frequency regulation and other services to improve the flexibility of the power system.
How is the current development of the energy storage industry?
What challenges do you still face?
The reporter conducted an interview.
Increase in installed capacity and upgrade of technical equipment
Generally speaking, in addition to pumped storage, energy storage in the form of output power is called new energy storage.
"The response time of pumped storage is at the minute level, and it has the advantages of mature technology, high efficiency, large capacity, and long life. However, it is restricted by factors such as high requirements for site selection and long construction period." Energy Storage Special Committee of China Energy Research Society Chairman Chen Haisheng said.
The new type of energy storage has flexible site selection, short construction period, and fast response speed, but it is currently constrained by factors such as cost, maturity, and safety.
Different energy storage technology routes have both advantages and disadvantages, but it does not affect its "blossoming".
With the goal of reaching carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the energy storage industry has entered the fast lane of development and has become an important support for the construction of a new power system.
According to the latest data released by the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance, by the end of 2022, pumped storage accounted for 77.6% of the power energy storage projects in operation in my country, and new energy storage accounted for 21.4%.
Among the new energy storage, lithium-ion batteries accounted for the largest installed capacity, reaching 93.9%.
The installed capacity increased significantly.
According to data provided by the China Electricity Council, by the end of 2022, the total installed capacity of pumped storage in my country will reach 45.79 million kilowatts, more than 2.2 times that of the end of 2012, ranking first in the world.
In 2022, my country will put into operation 28 pumped storage units, totaling 8.8 million kilowatts.
It is initially estimated that by the end of 2023, the total installed capacity of pumped hydro storage will exceed 50 million kilowatts.
Technical equipment has been continuously improved.
Li Sheng, president of the General Institute of Hydropower and Water Conservancy Planning and Design, introduced that my country's pumped storage has reached the world's advanced or leading level in dam construction, reservoir basin seepage prevention, high head pressure pipelines, complex underground caverns, etc., and the units are moving toward large capacity. , high water head, high speed and variable speed.
The relevant person in charge of the Science and Technology Department of the National Energy Administration stated that the energy density of lithium-ion batteries for energy storage has more than doubled compared with 10 years ago. Energy technology is developing rapidly. Flywheel energy storage has broken through the key technologies of large-capacity flywheel and high-speed motor, and sodium-ion batteries with low cost and rich raw materials have also emerged.
Application costs have steadily declined.
With the scale development and technological progress of the energy storage industry, its application cost has declined steadily.
Chen Haisheng introduced that in the past 10 years, the cost of new energy storage has dropped by an average of 10% to 15% per year.
Among them, the cost of lithium-ion batteries and compressed air energy storage has dropped rapidly, and they are gradually approaching pumped storage. Yuan to 0.3 yuan, and it is expected to drop by 20% to 30% in the next five years." According to the report issued by the General Institute of Hydropower and Water Conservancy Planning and Design, the average static total investment per unit kilowatt of approved pumped storage power stations in 2021 is 5367 yuan.
Diverse application scenarios to meet different needs
Photovoltaic power generation on the roof during the day, energy storage batteries absorb low-peak electricity at night, and "feed back" to the factory area during peak power consumption. In Jiangsu Haiji New Energy Company, this integrated solar-storage system can save a lot of costs for the factory area every year.
"Wuxi's industrial low-peak electricity price is only about 0.28 yuan per kilowatt-hour, while the peak electricity price is about 1.15 yuan per kilowatt-hour. Energy storage can save 500,000 to 600,000 yuan in electricity bills for sea-based new energy every year by using such a peak-valley price difference." Li Xiangchao, a staff member of the State Grid Wuxi Power Supply Company, did the math.
This is just one of many application scenarios for energy storage.
Through the integration and development of power system sources, grids, and loads, energy storage helps to improve the level of clean energy utilization and the operating efficiency of power systems.
Chen Haisheng introduced that on the power supply side, energy storage can improve the friendliness and capacity support of new energy grid integration, help the delivery of a high proportion of renewable energy bases, promote the development and consumption of large-scale wind power photovoltaic bases in the desert Gobi desert, and large-scale offshore wind power, and improve Conventional power conditioning capability;
On the power grid side, energy storage can provide various services such as peak regulation and frequency regulation, improve the system's ability to resist emergencies and recovery after failures, improve the level of safe and stable operation of the power grid, and at the same time enhance the ability to guarantee power supply in weak areas of the power grid, delay and replace Investment in power transmission and transformation facilities to improve the system's emergency support capabilities;
On the user side, energy storage can be used in distributed energy supply systems to improve energy quality and reduce energy costs. At the same time, through user-side energy storage, charging and swapping facilities, and smart power facilities, etc., users can improve their flexible adjustment capabilities.
According to data released by the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance, in 2022, among the new energy storage projects newly put into operation, the newly installed capacity on the grid side is still the largest, accounting for about 47%; in addition, the power side accounts for 45%. Side accounted for 8%.
At present, my country's North and Northwest regions are dominated by new energy distribution and storage, new energy distribution and storage, grid-side energy storage and user-side energy storage applications are relatively balanced in East China, and thermal power plants are the main distribution and storage in the southern region .
Different energy storage technologies are suitable for different application scenarios due to their different performance characteristics.
Huang Bibin, deputy director of the New Energy and Statistics Research Institute of the State Grid Energy Research Institute, analyzed that the location of pumped storage power stations often needs to find a place with a large difference in terrain, but the capacity benefit is strong and the scale of a single station is large, which is suitable for large-scale and systematic projects on the grid. Level applications; the volume of a new energy storage single station can be large or small, with strong environmental adaptability, and can be flexibly deployed in various application scenarios such as power supply, power grid, and user side, and can be used as an incremental supplement for pumped storage.
Accelerate the improvement of the mechanism to ensure the level of safety
Accelerating the development of large-scale, industrialized and market-oriented energy storage has become the consensus of the energy industry.
According to the "Pumped Storage Industry Development Report 2021", during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the number of pumped storage power stations will exceed 200, and the scale of existing and under construction will jump to 100 million kilowatts. It is estimated that by 2025, my country's pumped storage The installed capacity of the power station will reach 62 million kilowatts, which is equivalent to the total installed capacity of nearly three Three Gorges power stations.
In terms of new energy storage, according to the person in charge of the Science and Technology Department of the National Energy Administration, it is estimated that by the end of 2025, the installed capacity will reach more than 30 million kilowatts, with an average annual growth rate of more than 50%, effectively supporting the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system.
Although the market prospect is broad, there is still a lot of potential for the development scale and quality of energy storage——
Technology research and development still needs to work hard.
Although my country has reached the world's leading level in technologies such as lithium-ion batteries and compressed air energy storage, other new energy storage technologies such as sodium-ion battery energy storage and flywheel energy storage are still in the application demonstration stage or the initial stage of large-scale application.
Chen Haisheng believes that the innovation capability of energy storage technology has been significantly improved, and progress must be made in terms of high safety, low cost, high reliability, and long life, and core technology and equipment must be independently controllable.
The market mechanism needs to be improved.
"New energy + energy storage" is an important application scenario for new energy storage.
A person in charge of a new energy power station told reporters that if the power station is equipped with energy storage at a ratio of 20% and a duration of 2 hours, the overall investment will increase by about 20%, and the internal rate of return will decrease by about 4 percentage points. At present, it still faces greater investment pressure. , hoping to steadily promote the rationalization of new energy storage costs and encourage the release of multiple values of energy storage.
"It is still necessary to further improve the market mechanism, accelerate the improvement of relevant supporting policies and implementation rules for energy storage power stations to participate in the power market, and ensure that new energy storage is better integrated into the power market; encourage various business entities to spontaneously allocate energy storage resources through price signals, and guide society. Capital participates in the construction of new energy storage; improve the new energy storage business model as soon as possible, and promote the reasonable competition of various flexible resources such as new energy storage, flexible coal power, and pumped storage." The relevant person in charge of the China Electricity Council suggested.
The level of safety must be guaranteed.
Under the current technical level, safety issues are factors that cannot be ignored in the healthy and stable development of large-scale new energy storage.
"The safety risk assessment process of energy storage modules, battery cabinets, etc. needs to be standardized. It is necessary to further clarify and refine the safety responsibilities of the government, energy storage producers, integrators, project owners and other subjects in the industrial chain, and strengthen the safety management of the whole process. "Huang Bibin suggested that it is also necessary to strengthen the capacity building of energy storage product testing and certification, improve the safety standard system of electrochemical energy storage, and speed up the formulation and revision of energy storage quality and safety related standards.
In addition, some experts said that to accelerate the development of energy storage in the future, we must pay attention to the scientific arrangement of development scale, construction layout and construction sequence, and avoid "one size fits all" proportional allocation of energy storage.
In view of the low frequency and low utilization rate of some new energy distribution and energy storage, it is necessary to strengthen the dispatch and application of new energy storage and improve the utilization rate of new energy storage facilities that have been built.
According to the person in charge of the Science and Technology Department of the National Energy Administration, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, we will continue to adhere to innovation leadership and diversified development, emphasize market leadership, safety and efficiency, encourage innovation demonstrations, and actively promote innovation in new energy storage technologies.
At the same time, combined with the actual needs of the new power system, aiming at improving the reliability of end users' electricity consumption, improving the stability of the power system and the technical economy, and adapting measures to local conditions, step by step, promote the efficient application and high-quality development of energy storage.
Our reporter Ding Yiting (People's Daily)
As an important technology and basic equipment supporting the new power system, the energy storage industry has entered the fast lane of development——
"Super Power Bank" is ready to go (Economic Focus · First-line Look at Energy Storage ④)