What are the considerations for China's deployment of power demand side management?

(Economic Watch) What are the considerations for China's deployment of electricity demand-side management?

Beijing, May 5 (ZXS) -- China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on 19 May publicly solicited opinions on two newly revised documents in the field of electric power, and one major commonality between the two is worth paying attention to: both focus on power demand-side management.

The so-called electricity demand-side management refers to strengthening the management of electricity consumption in the whole society, comprehensively adopting reasonable and feasible technical, economic and management measures, optimizing the allocation of power resources, implementing demand response, saving electricity, substituting electric energy, green electricity, intelligent electricity consumption, and orderly electricity consumption in the electricity consumption link, and promoting the safe carbon reduction, efficiency and consumption reduction of the power system.

China began to introduce electricity demand-side management in the 90s of last century, and continuously improved it in practice, issuing two versions of the power demand-side management measures in 2010 and 2017 respectively. One of the documents solicited for comments this time is the "Electricity Demand Side Management Measures (Draft for Comments)", which has been revised after more than 5 years.

Experts interviewed by the China News Agency believe that the revision is in line with the new situation and new tasks facing China's economic and social development and energy development.

Cai Yiqing, director of the Power Demand Side Management Promotion Center in the industrial field, pointed out that in recent years, with the rapid development of a high proportion of new energy and the rigid growth of power demand during peak hours, the pressure on China's power supply and demand balance has been increasing, coupled with the frequent occurrence of extreme weather and the recovery of enterprise production capacity, it is necessary to tap the potential of demand-side adjustment to alleviate the tense situation.

Compared with the 2017 version of the document, the new version of the Measures for the Management of Electricity Demand Side (Draft for Comments) enriches the connotation of power demand side management, and demand response has become one of the key points. In another document, "Measures for the Management of Electric Power Loads (Draft for Comments)", which was also open for public comments, demand response was also identified as an important measure.

This means that when dealing with short-term power shortages and difficulties in renewable energy power consumption, officials encourage economic incentives-based measures to guide power users to adjust their electricity consumption behavior according to the power system operation demand resources, achieve peak shaving and valley filling, improve power system flexibility, ensure the safe and stable operation of the power system, and promote renewable energy consumption.

For example, both documents propose that by 2025, local demand response capacity will reach 3%-5% of the maximum power supply load, with provinces with an annual peak-to-valley difference rate of more than 40% of the maximum electricity load reaching 5% or more. At the same time, it is necessary to establish and improve the demand-responsive price mechanism connected with the electricity market.

These initiatives are relevant today. With the continuous development of the steady growth policy, China's economy is expected to continue to improve, driving the growth rate of electricity consumption demand to pick up. The China Electricity Council predicts that China's electricity consumption will increase by about 2023% year-on-year in 6, with obvious characteristics of summer and winter peaks.

Zeng Ming, director of the Energy Internet Research Center of North China Electric Power University, said that the implementation of power demand-side management can effectively control peak loads by reducing power peaks and other methods, avoid the imbalance between supply and demand caused by excessive peak loads in the power system, reduce the pressure of power system operation, reduce the risk of insufficient power supply, and ensure the safe and reliable operation of the power system.

It is worth mentioning that although demand response has been written into the power demand side management method document for the first time, as early as 2013, Shanghai started the relevant demonstration as China's first power demand response pilot city. In recent years, the scope and scale of demand-response business formats mainly in the form of peak shaving and valley filling have continued to expand in China.

Zhou Fuqiu, a researcher at the Energy Research Institute of the China Macroeconomic Research Institute, said that by the end of last year, more than 20 provinces and cities in China had issued implementation rules for demand response, and the demand response resource pool cultivated in the business area of the State Grid Company exceeded 4700 million kilowatts, and the demand response capacity of the operation area of the South Grid Company exceeded 1100 million kilowatts, with obvious results.

In addition, with the steady progress of China's "dual carbon" goal, the role of power demand-side management in promoting the safety and carbon reduction of the power system has also attracted attention from experts.

Zhong Ming, a senior expert of the China Electric Power Research Institute, said that at present, China's energy conservation and emission reduction are facing challenges, and power demand-side management can guide the orderly and rational use of electricity through the implementation of differential electricity prices, peak-valley time-of-use electricity prices, and tiered electricity prices, improve users' energy utilization efficiency, achieve power and electricity conservation, and promote effective carbon reduction on the demand side.

Improving the level of consumer-side electrification is one of the important means to reduce carbon emissions. It is estimated that in the final energy consumption, the utilization efficiency of electric energy can reach more than 90%. The Measures for the Management of Electricity Demand Side (Draft for Comments) proposes to scientifically and orderly implement measures such as replacing coal with electricity and replacing oil with electricity to improve the level of electrification in key areas such as industry, construction, and transportation.

Zhong Ming pointed out that it is expected that in 2025 and 2060, China's electrification rate will reach 30% and 70% respectively, and power demand side management will help to prioritize renewable energy to meet the demand for new electricity through renewable energy, achieve the replacement of electricity mainly using renewable energy, and effectively reduce the level of carbon emissions on the consumption side. (End)