Huang Lei, a reporter from the Economic Observer Network.Under the background of the goal of "double carbon", China's power system is facing transformation. Zhou Dadi, academic adviser to the China Energy Research Association and former director of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, believes that the reform and innovation of the power system should speed up the construction of zero-carbon power.
Among them, the reform of electricity price system plays a key role. He said, for example, that the recent so-called "power shortage" phenomenon is actually a problem of straightening out electricity prices and coal prices, rather than a problem of production capacity or "lack of coal" and "lack of thermal power". Therefore, it is necessary to make reasonable structural adjustments to electricity prices in the future. "it is not that electricity prices should rise substantially, but that the structure of electricity prices should have reasonable changes," Zhou concluded.
On November 16, at the "Energy China" meeting of the National Affairs Forum, a number of industry insiders discussed hot topics such as the reform of China's power system and the construction of a new power system.
Referring to the so-called "electricity shortage" in China before, Zou Ji, CEO of the Energy Foundation and president of China, believes that it is necessary to make a calm and rational analysis, mainly because coal prices are skyrocketing, coal and electricity prices are regulated, and fuel costs and electricity prices are upside down. The rise in coal prices is not due to the overall insufficient supply of coal reserves and production capacity, but mainly due to a financial effect.
He said bluntly that the so-called "power shortage" is not caused by the goal of "double control" and "double carbon". It is a short-term instantaneous disturbance that needs to be overcome and should not affect China's adherence to the direction of low-carbon transformation.
Overcome mass inertia
Under the background of the goal of "double carbon", China's power system is facing transformation. But in this process, overcoming the inertia brought by its huge volume has become a major challenge. Zhou Dadi said that China's power system has maintained rapid growth over the past 30 years, and is now in the forefront of the world in terms of power installation, total power generation, construction and scale of power transmission system, as well as conventional power generation technology, grid operation technology and reliability. But there is a huge transformation, and many of the advantages of the past have also become a kind of resistance to the transformation from this large-scale centralized, fossil fuel-based power system to a zero-carbon power system.
But at the same time, he pointed out that the good thing is that China is now in an advanced international position in nuclear power, hydropower, new energy power generation technology and installation, as well as new energy consumption. In particular, photovoltaic, energy storage batteries and other renewable energy technology has been in the forefront of the world, it can be said that it is leading the development of new energy. At the same time, due to the rapid technological progress and large-scale manufacturing capacity of photovoltaic, wind power and energy storage systems, China has great potential for low-carbon transformation.
Zhou Dadi said that the national installed power capacity is nearly 2.3 billion kilowatts, of which renewable energy accounts for more than 40 per cent of the installed capacity. To achieve carbon peak in China, zero-carbon power is needed. For the carbon neutralization of the energy system in the future, a new type of power system with zero-carbon power as the core must be established, and the power system should strive to achieve zero-carbon from 2040 to 2045. At the same time, the development of non-fossil energy power must be accelerated.
Zou Ji believes that reshaping China's energy landscape should speed up the development of renewable energy, which can also help regional economic development. At current scale, the revenue from renewable energy power generation in western provinces is about 800 billion yuan, equivalent to 9 per cent of GDP in these areas. He said that in the future, with the increase of green power generation, the above income scale will be doubled, and wind power, photovoltaic, hydropower and other energy sources will move from west to east, from north to south, to energy-intensive coastal areas. this will form a new economic cycle and energy cycle.
Construction of a new type of power system
Li Jian, chief engineer of National Grid Energy Research Institute Co., Ltd., believes that under the background of China's "double carbon" goal, the construction of a new power system is an urgent requirement for energy transformation. in the process of achieving this goal, it is necessary to improve the flexibility and security of the power system. Li Jian said that the construction of a new power system is a long-term process in stages, with a carbon peak by 2030. China's power system should not only ensure supply, but also pay attention to emission reduction, which is an arduous and urgent task. In his view, in order to achieve a smooth transition, the greatest uncertainty is the challenges facing the transformation process.
He said that from the perspective of power supply, if thermal power, a conventional power source with high parameters and large capacity, is to be transformed into a massive and small power source dominated by new energy, it requires a large number of synchronous connection to the grid, and to centralized and distributed control at the same time. Therefore, the problems faced by the whole dispatching operation control will be more complex. From the perspective of configuration, at present, more power side and load side distribution are adopted. in the future, it is necessary to study the market-oriented mechanism to guide and promote the wide distribution of energy storage.
In his view, in the process of the change of energy structure, there may be a gap in the balance of electricity, electricity and peak regulation in the power system, which will affect the supply and security of the power system. In this regard, in this process, it is most necessary to improve the flexibility and security of the power system to cope with the potential impact of changes in energy structure on the security and stability of the power system.
He suggested that on the one hand, we should improve the level of security coordination through the control of new energy multi-level groups, and on the other hand, we should make use of digital and intelligent technology and market-oriented mechanism to give full play to the role of power grid hub platform and improve the level of system security and stability.
He stressed that in the process of building a new power system, ensuring power supply is the greatest security. If the supply is insufficient or the supply is tight, it also means that there are hidden dangers in the security of the power system itself. He stressed that it is necessary to establish a concept of system security and to co-ordinate the safe operation of the system. Only by "having grain in hand" can we have more confidence in our hearts.