Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Opinions on Further Improving the Price Formation Mechanism of Pumped Storage", which provides a policy guarantee for the construction of a new power system with new energy as the main body under the requirements of the goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" from the perspective of promoting the accelerated development policy of pumped storage power stations. The State Grid Corporation of China actively promotes the scientific layout and dispatch of pumped storage power stations, promotes the clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient utilization of energy, accelerates the formation of green production and consumption methods, and helps the construction of ecological civilization and sustainable development。
Efficient operation and consumption of clean energy
Alpine valleys, turquoise waves. Between the green waters and green mountains, pumped storage power stations dot them, guiding the turbulent water flow to operate flexibly between the mountains.
On April 19, the National Energy Administration issued the "Guiding Opinions on Energy Work in 2021", which clearly proposed to carry out a new round of medium- and long-term planning for pumped storage in the country, and steadily and orderly promote the experimental demonstration of energy storage projects. The State Grid Co., Ltd. proposed that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, it will strive to build more than 20 million kilowatts of new energy concentrated development areas and power load centers, with an investment scale of more than 100 billion yuan。
On the banks of the Tuotuo River in Xihe Village, Shenxi Township, Wutai County, Shanxi Province, the State Grid Xinyuan Shanxi Xilongchi Pumped Storage Power Station is a beautiful landscape in the mountains. In the past "May Day" holiday, Zhu Qinglong, director of the transportation and inspection department of the Xilongchi Pumped Storage Power Station, played dozens of rounds with the random fluctuations of "wind and light" and successfully completed the task of new energy consumption.
State Grid Xinyuan Zhejiang Tianhuangping Pumped Storage Power Station.
"Generally speaking, Shanxi Province has strong winds in winter, and it is more difficult to absorb wind power at night. In recent years, new energy in Shanxi Province has developed rapidly, and the proportion of photovoltaic power generation and wind power has increased significantly. During the 'May Day' holiday, Shanxi Province has strong winds, good light conditions, and large demand for new energy power generation, but the holiday electricity load is low, and it is necessary for pumped storage power stations to absorb a large amount of new energy. Zhu Qinglong said that during the "May Day" holiday, they faced photovoltaic power generation and wind power "joint force" at noon, and wind power in the evening, and the task of new energy consumption was extremely urgent. On May 1 alone, they pumped water five times and generated seven times. "The four units of the power station are all running, and they dare not stop for a moment." Zhu Qinglong said that they had completed the spring overhaul before the holiday, ensuring the reliable and effective output of the unit.
During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, the power supply structure of Shanxi Province was further optimized, and by the end of 2020, the installed capacity of power generation in Shanxi Province reached 103.8 million kilowatts, and the installed capacity of new energy power generation was 32.827 million kilowatts, accounting for 31.6% of the province's installed capacity, accounting for 20.39 percentage points higher than that of the end of 2015。
A set of data shows the key role of pumped storage power plants in promoting new energy consumption. During the "May Day" period, the State Grid gave full play to the role of pumped storage, and the number of pumped water, power generation and comprehensive utilization hours of pumped storage units in North China, Central China and East China increased significantly, helping the utilization rate of new energy to reach more than 95% (East China continued to maintain full consumption)。 Especially in north China, on May 5, the daily power generation of photovoltaic power reached a record high, reaching 43.23 million kilowatts and 340 million kWh, the pumped storage units were frequently started and stopped, the average number of pumping and power generation was the largest in each region, and the number of pumping times, power generation and comprehensive utilization hours increased by 160.32%, 95.77% and 100.15% respectively.
A giant "charging treasure" with shared capacity
"Hurry up and get ready! The crew is about to top! In the communication with the power grid dispatching and control center, this sentence often echoed in Zhu Qinglong's ear.
Due to seasonal changes, holidays and different demand for electricity consumption during day and night, there are peak periods and trough periods for electricity consumption, and the peak-to-valley difference of electricity objectively exists. Coupled with the intermittent and volatile new energy is connected to the grid, the power grid system needs to strongly adjust the power supply to cooperate with wind and photovoltaic power generation, maintain power balance, and maintain the stability of the system frequency, so as to ensure the safe and stable operation of the power system.
"Pumped storage units can be started in 2-3 minutes, quickly responding to grid demand and completing peak shaving tasks." Zhu Qinglong introduced that the pumped storage unit starts and stops quickly, the working conditions change flexibly, can achieve peak valley filling, frequency regulation phase regulation, emergency accident backup, in the rapid tracking of load, accident backup and ensure the quality of power plays an extremely important role, with the natural advantages of power grid peak regulation, is known as the power grid "regulator", "voltage regulator" and "battery".
Pumped storage power stations can play a role on a larger scale through grid dispatch. A few days ago, the East China Branch of the State Grid took the lead in exploring a pumped storage capacity sharing model. In view of the new energy output characteristics and complementary needs of the Shanghai-Anhui power grid, the East China Branch of the State Grid explored a joint dispatching model, and promoted the signing of an optimal dispatching framework agreement between the State Grid Shanghai Electric Power Company and the State Grid Anhui Electric Power Co., Ltd., established a pumped storage capacity sharing model, coordinated the dispatch of pumped storage resources, and ensured the safe and stable operation of the power grid.
State Grid Xinyuan Anhui Xiangshuijian Pumped Storage Power Station。
"The Shanghai-Anhui power grid has strong complementarity, with Shanghai's electricity consumption peak being prominent, while Anhui's late peak electricity consumption is prominent. Due to the different peak regulation needs, the two provinces can share pumped storage power stations and flexibly adjust the peak-to-valley difference of the power grid. Lu Jianyu, deputy director of the Hydropower and New Energy Division of the East China Branch of the State Grid, explained that for the power grid, high-quality regulated power supply is a scarce resource. With the large proportion of new energy access, the power grid has an increasing demand for high-quality regulated power supplies. Pumped storage power stations are high-quality regulating power sources that can enhance the balance and regulation capabilities of the power system, but not every province has the conditions to build. "Shanghai's topographic conditions do not meet the conditions for building a pumped storage power station, but its neighboring Anhui Province has the conditions, and the peak regulation needs of the two sides can be perfectly staggered, so everyone can sit down and talk about it and maximize the limited resource advantages of the pumped storage power station." This model can be promoted in more regions of the country to ensure the security of large power grids. Lu Jianyu said.
Market regulation promotes the healthy development of pumping and reserves
On May 7, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Opinions on Further Improving the Price Formation Mechanism for Pumped Storage (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). The "Opinions" clearly form the electricity price in a competitive way, incorporate the capacity electricity price into the transmission and distribution price recovery, and at the same time strengthen the connection with the construction and development of the electricity market, gradually promote the entry of pumped storage power stations into the market, focus on improving the scientificity, operability and effectiveness of the electricity price formation mechanism, give full play to the role of electricity price signals, and inject a cardiotonic agent into the development of the pumped storage industry。
State Grid New Source Liaoning Pushihe Pumped Storage Power Station on the reservoir.
Zhu Qinglong came to the Xilongchi Pumped Storage Power Station as soon as he graduated from university, and has been working for 14 years now. "When I first started working in 2007, the Xilongchi pumped storage power station was still under construction, and I watched it grow from operation to now, as if watching my own children grow up. Now that the state has come up with such a good policy, I believe that pumped storage power stations can play a greater role, attract more social capital to join, and achieve more long-term and healthy development. Zhu Qinglong is full of hope for the future.
Hou Qingguo, chairman of the board of directors and secretary of the party committee of State Grid Xinyuan Holdings Co., Ltd., said that the National Development and Reform Commission has timely improved the pumped storage price formation mechanism, and the new mechanism clarifies the functional positioning of pumped storage in the new power system, incorporates the pumped storage electricity price into the transmission and distribution price supervision, and further improves the fair and reasonable electricity price system, creating more favorable conditions for the accelerated development of pumped storage power stations, giving full play to comprehensive benefits, and helping to achieve the goal of carbon peak carbon neutrality.
"Constantly improving the pricing mechanism of pumped storage power stations and breaking through barriers to power supply, power grid and users can achieve a win-win situation for all parties." Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Energy Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University, pointed out that with the introduction of the "Opinions" and the future high proportion of renewable energy access, the development demand for pumped storage power stations will continue to grow, and the scale of operation will be greatly improved.
According to statistics, as of the end of 2020, the total installed capacity of China's pumped storage power stations will reach 31.49 million kilowatts, but it only accounts for 1.43% of China's total installed power supply, which cannot meet the needs of the rapid development of new energy and the peak regulation and frequency regulation of the power grid. As an important regulating power supply and energy storage facility, pumped storage power stations have an urgent development need.
On May 12, the State Grid Xinyuan Hebei Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station successfully passed the acceptance of water storage in the Upper Reservoir, laying a solid foundation for the start and commissioning of the follow-up unit. With a total installed capacity of 3.6 million kilowatts, Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station is currently the world's largest pumped storage power station under construction and installed capacity, and is an important project to support and serve the supply of all-green electricity for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, ensure the reliable operation of the Zhangbei Rouzhi Project, and promote the effective consumption of new energy in North China. It is estimated that the Fengning Pumped Storage Power Station can consume 8.8 billion kWh of excess electricity per year, generate 6.612 billion kWh of electricity per year, save 480,800 tons of standard coal per year, and reduce carbon emissions by 1.2 million tons, equivalent to afforestation of more than 240,000 mu.
The "golden age" of pumped storage has arrived. It is estimated that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the annual commissioning scale of China's pumped storage power stations will be about 5 million to 6 million kilowatts, and the scale of new construction will be 30 million to 40 million kilowatts within five years.
In the future, the State Grid will increase its efforts to open up and cooperate, accelerate the development of pumped hydro storage, and make greater contributions to the construction of a new power system with new energy as the main body and help achieve the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.