G7 Jingxin Expressway Fukang (South) Service Area New Energy Charging Station (photo taken on September 14, 2021). Image courtesy of Wanbang Digital Energy Co., Ltd. (Star Charging).
Tianshan Network reporter Chen Rose
In the first quarter, Xinjiang handled 6231 new energy vehicles exempted from vehicle purchase tax, an increase of 495.7% year-on-year, and the ensuing supporting infrastructure construction became the focus of everyone's attention.
New energy vehicle charger is not convenient? Is travel guaranteed on long distances? How does the construction speed of the charging pile match the growth rate of the car? With these questions in mind, the reporter investigated the construction of new energy vehicle infrastructure in Xinjiang.
Status quo:
Fast growth rate and wide application
On April 22, Li Chuangxin, customer manager of sangong power supply station of the third power supply center in the urban area of the State Grid Urumqi Power Supply Company, and his colleagues completed the charging pile meter access for 2 new energy car owners within one day. Since the second half of last year, he has clearly felt that the demand for new energy charging pile installation has risen sharply.
"So far this year, I have completed the power connection for about 100 customers' charging piles, and I receive several installation work orders on average every day. Especially after holidays, you can receive up to 10 installation work orders a day. Li Chuangxin said.
Palhati Yushanjiang, who lives in the Shayibak District of Urumqi City, bought a new energy vehicle in March this year, and through online application, within 5 days, his family's charging pile was completed and can be used normally.
"After submitting the application, the power staff came to our community to conduct an on-site survey, and after determining that the installation conditions were met, the installation was completed quickly." Palhati said.
Li Chuangxin said that the State Grid Urumqi Power Supply Company completed about 500 charging piles last year, and as of March 25 this year, the company has installed about 700.
In addition to the sharp increase in the demand for private charging pile installation, the pace of construction of charging pile operators has also been accelerating.
In 2018, Xinjiang Huataiyi Innovative Energy Technology Co., Ltd. joined hands with Tlaidian New Energy Co., Ltd. to establish the Xinjiang Office of Tlaidian to lay out the Xinjiang charging pile market.
"Up to now, we have cooperated in the construction and operation of 73 public fast charging stations in Urumqi, Altay, Changji and other places, with a total of 615 DC charging piles." Ma Mingze, head of operations of Xinjiang Huataiyi Innovative Energy Technology Co., Ltd., said.
It is understood that since last year, the company's construction of public charging piles has accelerated significantly. As the largest localized charging operator in Xinjiang, since its inception, the charging power of the e-Xinjiang charging platform operated by the company has accumulated output of 5.74 million kWh, which is equivalent to saving 2.55 million liters of fuel and reducing carbon emissions by 5867 tons.
According to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, as of March this year, Xinjiang has 3589 public charging piles, 295 charging stations and 2 replacement power stations.
In April, Xinjiang's first electric heavy-duty truck replacement power station was officially put into use in Urumqi Ganquanbao Economic and Technological Development Zone (Industrial Zone), which marked a breakthrough in Xinjiang's commercial new energy vehicle replacement technology in the application field.
With the rapid growth of new energy vehicles in Xinjiang, the application mode of supporting infrastructure has also achieved multi-point blossoming.
"At present, a number of operators have built various types of charging piles throughout Xinjiang, and have basically achieved full coverage of charging pile counties and counties in Xinjiang." Liu Tao, director of the Intelligent Electricity Division of the Marketing Department of the State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd., said.
According to incomplete statistics, 14 charging piles were installed in Xinjiang in the first quarter of 2020, 125 in the same period of 2021, and 843 in the first quarter of 2022.
Employees of the Urumqi Power Supply Company's Third Power Supply Center inspect charging equipment at a new energy charging station (July 6, 2021). Photo by Liu Dong
Pain point:
It is difficult to plan for entering the household
Chen Lei, a citizen of Urumqi who purchased a new energy vehicle for oil and electricity in 2017, lived in an old residential area, did not have a fixed parking space, could not install a private charging pile, and could only use his own external extension line for charging.
The reporter found in the interview that consumers and operating companies agree that the difficulty of entering the household is the first problem hindering the installation of charging piles. What's the hard part?
In 2017, the General Office of the People's Government of the Autonomous Region issued the Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure, which encourages users with fixed parking spaces to give priority to the construction of charging facilities in parking spaces, and property service companies should do a good job in relevant cooperation and guarantee work.
However, in reality, the newly built residential areas can basically meet the conditions for direct meter connection, but some old communities have problems such as no fixed parking spaces, no reserved installation conditions, insufficient substation capacity in the community, and potential safety hazards in fire protection.
"When residents collect the materials for installation in accordance with the requirements of the documents, they often cannot obtain the certification materials of the property's consent to install charging piles due to parking spaces, fire protection and other reasons, resulting in difficulties in the installation of charging piles for residents." Liu Tao said. He suggested that the relevant departments of the autonomous region should further clarify the responsibilities of all parties involved in the construction of residential charging facilities, and strengthen supervision and control to ensure the implementation of responsibilities.
At the same time, charging pile construction and operation enterprises are also calling for accelerated research and development of special plans for charging and replacing infrastructure.
Since Entering the Xinjiang market in 2017, Wanbang Digital Energy Co., Ltd. (Star Charging) has been mainly building charging infrastructure in units with new energy vehicle scenarios in the field of public transportation and special transportation, and at the same time building a backbone charging network for urban new energy vehicles.
Liu Xing, head of the Regional Business of Star Charging in Xinjiang, said that the number of new energy vehicles in Xinjiang is not high, if the rapid construction of public charging stations, large investment and small returns of enterprises, will cause a surge in operational pressure of enterprises, so the company decided to start with the application scenario of new energy vehicles with more concentrated vehicles.
"We suggest that the government can plan in advance, introduce relevant policies, and support and encourage the construction of charging piles in public service places such as public parking lots, logistics parks, and scenic spots at the business end; introduce corresponding measures in the aspects of car purchase, traffic and charging parking at the user end to promote the construction of charging infrastructure in an orderly manner." Liu Xing said.
Liu Tao said that the current uneven distribution of charging and replacing facilities has caused waste of resources to a certain extent, and has also adversely affected the safe operation of the power grid and the construction of the distribution network. He suggested that government departments at all levels in the autonomous region should speed up the introduction of an overall plan for the construction of charging and replacing facilities, coordinate the construction layout of charging and replacing facilities, and guide the healthy and orderly development of the industry.
Foreground:
The direction is clear
On April 25, the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Releasing Consumption Potential and Promoting the Sustained Recovery of Consumption, which proposes to vigorously develop green consumption and promote the construction of supporting facilities such as charging piles (stations). The construction of charging piles has ushered in an unprecedented development outlet.
Ma Mingze said that as an important part of the new infrastructure, charging piles are an important part of the future intelligent transportation. Whether the charging pile can meet the charging needs of new energy vehicles, there is a key indicator is the "vehicle-to-pile ratio", the lower the ratio, the more sufficient the supply of charging piles, and the more convenient charging.
According to incomplete statistics, as of now, the ratio of electric vehicles to piles in Xinjiang is about 17:1, which is much higher than the national average of 3.1:1, and there is still a lot of room for the construction and development of charging and replacing facilities in Xinjiang.
The "Guiding Opinions on Further Accelerating the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles and Industrial Development" issued by the People's Government of the Autonomous Region in January this year put forward the goal of charging infrastructure construction: from 2022, 100% of the parking spaces in newly built residential areas will be equipped with charging facilities or reserved construction and installation conditions; in 2025, the ratio of charging interfaces between public institutions such as party and government organs at all levels in the region and the number of new energy vehicles will not be less than 1:1, and large public buildings in cities will be equipped with parking lots. The proportion of parking spaces in social public parking lots to construct charging facilities or reserve construction and installation conditions shall not be less than 10%, and no less than 150 urban (intercity) public charging and replacement power stations shall be completed and put into operation, and demonstration construction of hydrogen refueling stations shall be carried out.
Today, these goals are being achieved step by step.
Liu Xing has been on a business trip to the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains for the past two months, and he has just finished negotiating the project in Aksu, and rushed to Beitun City to carry out the finishing work of the smart parking lot project, which can meet the charging needs of more than 150 vehicles at the same time after completion and operation.
"This year, it can be clearly felt that the construction of charging piles around the world has entered the fast lane." Liu Xing said that in the near future, the company also has a project in cooperation with the autonomous region will be put into operation, and the construction progress has been completed by about 70%.
Last year, 12 new energy charging stations in the expressway service area were officially completed and put into use, achieving a breakthrough of zero electric vehicle charging piles in the Xinjiang expressway service area. Star Charging is negotiating with the relevant departments of the autonomous region to accelerate the construction of new energy charging stations in the expressway service area.
The autonomous region's smart car networking service platform undertaken by the State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd. has been officially launched, and 221 charging piles and 97 charging stations of the State Grid Vehicle Networking Platform have been connected in the form of interconnection.
Liu Tao said that the State Grid Xinjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd. will actively build a green travel and transportation demonstration circle in the Urumqi metropolitan circle, the northern Xinjiang urban belt and the southern Xinjiang urban agglomeration, explore new models for the construction and operation of charging and replacing infrastructure, continuously expand the scale of charging and replacing infrastructure construction; promote the construction of urban and rural charging and replacing facilities; carry out pilot applications of new technologies and new formats, study and improve the trading and dispatch mechanism for electric vehicle consumption and storage and discharge of green electricity, and guide the orderly development of new energy vehicles and charging facilities.
■ Comment on the longitude and latitude
The construction of charging facilities should be moderately advanced
Rose Chen
Is the charging infrastructure built first, or is it built after the number of new energy vehicles reaches a certain number? This question is as difficult to answer as "chicken or egg first".
In January this year, the people's government of the autonomous region issued the "Guiding Opinions on Further Accelerating the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles and industrial development", which clearly proposed to "moderately advance the construction of charging infrastructure in the whole region". This sets the tone for the construction of charging infrastructure in the autonomous region.
Moderately advanced, we must plan first. In April this year, the state successively made arrangements for strengthening infrastructure construction and promoting consumption, all of which involve charging infrastructure. The general direction has been clear, and all relevant departments should seize the time to quickly carry out research, formulate special layout plans that meet the needs of local development in combination with the actual conditions of various localities, guide the overall construction direction, and the planning should match other corresponding plans, and there can be no situation of left and right hand fighting.
To moderately advance, it is necessary to increase policy support. As a kind of new infrastructure, charging infrastructure has a part of the social welfare attributes. Under the premise that the ownership of new energy vehicles is not so high, state-owned enterprises can assume social responsibility and build intercity rapid charging and replacement power stations in the main highway service areas with large traffic to meet the intercity and inter-provincial travel needs of new energy vehicle owners. This can also set an example and boost consumer confidence in new energy vehicles. In the actual implementation process, it is necessary to firmly adhere to the goal and not shrink back or slow down construction because the temporary effect is not satisfactory.
Moderately ahead, we must have the courage to solve problems and increase the transformation of old residential areas. In promoting the construction of charging facilities in residential areas, we must not forget the demand of residents in old residential areas for new energy vehicle charging. All relevant departments should clarify their responsibilities, adapt and transform the old residential areas, and let the people of all ethnic groups enjoy the convenience of green travel fairly through the construction of shared charging facilities and the upgrading of substation capacity.
All in all, when the country is vigorously promoting green consumption, all parts of Xinjiang should accelerate the change of concepts, make layout planning in advance, introduce relevant policies, and moderately advance the construction of charging infrastructure.