This year's government work report of the two sessions proposes to develop new energy storage and smart microgrids, and China is more firm and clear in the strategic direction of the development of the new energy storage industry. As one of the representatives of new quality productivity in the energy field, China's energy storage industry will continue to lead the industry to achieve high-quality development through innovation-driven, and support the construction of new power systems and new energy systems.
In 2023, the mainland's new energy and new energy storage industries will continue to maintain rapid growth and become an important force in ensuring power supply. By the end of 2023, the total installed capacity of grid-connected wind power and solar power generation in China will reach 1.05 billion kilowatts, accounting for 36% of the total installed capacity, and wind and photovoltaic power generation will account for more than 15% of the total electricity consumption of the whole society. In 2023, the new installed capacity of new energy storage will be about 22.6 million kW/48.7 million kWh, an increase of more than 260% from the end of 2022, and the cumulative installed capacity of projects completed and put into operation will reach 31.39 million kW/66.87 million kWh by the end of 2023. New energy storage has increasingly become a key technology for the construction of a new energy system and a new power system in the mainland, and has become an important part of promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of energy production and consumption.
However, the new energy storage industry in mainland China is still in the early stage of commercialization, and the market mechanism and business model are not yet mature, especially the low utilization rate of new energy power generation side distribution and storage projects has received widespread attention. A large number of energy storage power stations have been built but not used, and some projects have not been connected to the grid due to various reasons, making it difficult to play the due value of flexible adjustment.
Therefore, in view of the pain points of new energy storage grid-connected access, the National Energy Administration recently officially issued the "Notice on Promoting the Grid-connected and Dispatching Application of New Energy Storage" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), and the National Energy Administration issued the "Notice on Promoting the Grid-connected and Dispatching Application of New Energy Storage"), aiming to standardize the grid-connected access management of new energy storage, optimize the dispatching operation mechanism, ensure the reasonable and efficient utilization of new energy storage, and support the construction of new power systems. The "Notice" plays an important role in promoting the development of new energy storage in the mainland.
There have been a number of policies that have mentioned the grid connection and dispatch of new energy storage. In the 2021 "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage", it is proposed that power grid enterprises should actively optimize the dispatching and operation mechanism, study and formulate dispatching and operation procedures and invocation standards for various types of energy storage facilities, clarify the attribution of dispatching relationships, functional positioning and operation methods, and clarify the process of energy storage filing and grid connection. According to the "New Energy Storage Project Management Specification (Provisional)", power grid enterprises should clarify the grid-connected commissioning and acceptance process in accordance with the requirements of relevant standards and specifications, optimize the dispatching and operation mechanism, and scientifically prioritize the use of new energy storage to ensure the utilization rate of new energy storage. In 2022, the Notice on Further Promoting the Participation of New Energy Storage in the Electricity Market and Dispatching Application made a more detailed elaboration, clarifying that new energy storage can participate in the power market as an independent energy storage, and proposing to adhere to a market-oriented approach to optimize the operation of energy storage dispatching.
The promulgation of this "Notice" is a continuation and improvement of the existing policy system, and at the same time focuses more on grid connection and dispatching, which will help promote new energy storage to better support the construction of new power systems, solve the current problem of "build but not use", and give full play to the performance advantages and application value of new energy storage in new power systems.
In terms of overall requirements, the "Notice" proposes to accurately grasp the positioning of new energy storage functions and clearly accept the scope of new energy storage for power system scheduling. The definition of new energy storage maintains the continuity and stability of the policy, and the functional positioning is further clarified, "it can play a variety of functions such as peak regulation, frequency regulation, voltage regulation, backup, black start, and inertia response in the operation of the power system". For the first time, the "Notice" divides the new energy storage that can be dispatched into two categories: dispatching and calling new energy storage and new energy storage for self-use of power stations, including independent energy storage power stations, new energy equipped energy storage, thermal power combined frequency modulation energy storage, and user-side energy storage with the ability to accept dispatching instructions, etc., which improves the overall controllable energy storage capacity of the power grid.
In terms of operation management, the "Notice" mainly standardizes the management of new energy storage grid-connected access, optimizes the new energy storage dispatching mode and strengthens the operation and management of new energy storage, and puts forward the requirements for grid connection and dispatching for power grid enterprises, power dispatching agencies, and new energy storage projects, and puts forward the main goals of efficient utilization, fairness and reasonableness and safety guarantee.
The formulation of relevant implementation rules is the basis for improving the effective utilization rate of new energy storage, including the detailed rules for grid connection of new energy storage, the grid-connection process, relevant standards and grid-related test requirements. Power grid enterprises and power dispatching agencies should actively promote the implementation and implementation of relevant work, and provide clear guidance and basis for the grid connection of new energy storage projects in different scenarios.
Equality and mutual benefit, consensus and ensuring the safe operation of the power system are the principles of grid connection and dispatching of new energy storage. The power dispatching agency is responsible for formulating the dispatching and operation procedures for new energy storage, including scientific dispatching methods, priority call principles, and settlement methods for accident emergency dispatching, so as to ensure the fairness of the use of new energy storage. The "Notice" focuses on "actively supporting the development of joint call modes such as new energy + energy storage, aggregate energy storage, and optical storage and charging integration, giving priority to the use of new energy storage pilot demonstration projects, and giving full play to the value of various energy storage".
As the main body involved in grid-connected scheduling, the new energy storage also bears the responsibility and obligation of operation management. The new energy storage should complete all grid-related tests within the specified time after grid connection. In the event of an accident (incident) that endangers the safety of the power system and other necessary circumstances, the new energy storage shall be directly called by the power dispatching agency. The new energy storage shall submit the operation information in a timely manner according to the requirements of the power dispatching agency, and obey the assessment and implementation rules formulated by the relevant departments.
In terms of technical requirements, the "Notice" clarifies the requirements for new energy storage grid-connected access technology and dispatching operation technology, proposes to encourage the transformation of existing new energy storage technologies, and promote the innovation of new energy storage intelligent regulation and control technologies.
In terms of safety assurance, the premise of the new energy storage grid connection is to ensure the safe and stable operation of the power system. Therefore, in addition to carrying out performance tests and grid-related tests, it is also necessary to formulate detailed optimization of the grid-connection process, simplify the grid-connection procedures, greatly shorten the confirmation time of grid-connection conditions, operation and maintenance procedures, operation procedures, accident plans and emergency management measures, outage and maintenance plans, etc., and report to the power dispatching agency on a regular basis. With the increase of the proportion of new energy storage grid-connected, the detection and evaluation of system safety should be carried out regularly throughout the life cycle, and at the same time, the development of new energy storage technology for ontology safety and the integration of safe and reliable digital and intelligent systems is also an important direction for the development of the new energy storage industry.
The power control system or coordinated control system is a necessary device for the new energy storage to receive dispatching instructions. The new energy storage should have the ability to automatically adjust the active power and reactive power in accordance with the dispatching instructions, access the AGC, AVC and other systems of the power dispatching agency to which it belongs, and have information security protection measures to meet the basic requirements of accepting grid dispatching.
In terms of technical requirements, the existing new energy storage is encouraged to carry out technical transformation, and after meeting the technical conditions for grid connection and dispatching, the power dispatching agency should carry out the grid connection and dispatching of the project in a timely manner. This clause is mainly to encourage the upgrading and transformation of existing energy storage power stations and improve the utilization rate of energy storage projects. At the same time, it will help to change the "formalism" of some new energy compulsory distribution and storage projects that blindly pursue low prices and ignore safety and quality issues, promote new energy storage to actively improve quality and energy efficiency, and pay attention to the use value of the whole life cycle.
The R&D and application of new technologies are also supported in the Notice, mainly including multi-scenario intelligent dispatching technology, and active grid support technology based on new energy storage. The development of new energy storage grid-connected and dispatching technologies will help expand more abundant energy storage application scenarios, and better play the important supporting functions of new energy storage for the power system when the proportion of new energy power generation is further increased.
In terms of coordination and guarantee, the coordination and safeguard measures proposed in the "Notice" include strengthening the management of new energy storage projects, doing a good job in new energy storage grid-connected services, promoting the use of new energy storage in a market-oriented manner, and strengthening the supervision and management of new energy storage grid-connected dispatching. Among them, promoting the use of new energy storage in a market-oriented manner will help stimulate the initiative and competitive vitality of new energy storage projects to participate in the power market, and promote new energy storage in different application scenarios to play a role in participating in the electricity spot market, ancillary service market, capacity market, demand-side response, etc., activate revenue channels and improve revenue levels.
The provincial-level energy authorities, together with relevant units, will strengthen the construction of a new energy storage project management system。 Power grid enterprises and power dispatching agencies are responsible for providing grid access services and technical guidance to new energy storage, adhering to the principle of fairness and non-discrimination. All localities will accelerate the improvement of the relevant rules for the participation of new energy storage in the electric energy market and ancillary service market, and enrich the market-oriented business model of new energy storage. The dispatched agencies of the National Energy Administration and the provincial-level energy authorities shall strengthen the supervision and management of the grid-connected and dispatching operation of new energy storage in accordance with their respective responsibilities。
In terms of implementing the recommendations, industry experts believe that we need to continue to work on the following aspects:
First, all localities have introduced policies in combination with the actual situation to meet the needs of local industrial development. The specific policies of each province, city and region need to be analyzed according to the local energy structure, power grid situation, and distribution of energy storage power stations. There is a large gap between different provinces and cities in mainland China in terms of new energy resources, power grid structure and energy storage industry development process, so the grid connection and dispatch rules should not be blindly aligned, and the local peak and frequency regulation demand, power grid security guarantee, new energy storage grid connection scale and other factors should be fully considered. For example, the scale of new energy distribution and storage in some areas is large, but the quality of power stations cannot be guaranteed, so it is necessary to carry out statistics on the upgrading and transformation demand and market space of existing energy storage power stations, and reasonably consider the future development layout of new energy storage based on the existing energy storage scale.
Second, enterprises improve the level of energy storage technology to meet the requirements of grid connection and dispatching. In recent years, the level of new energy storage technology has been continuously improved, and the cost has continued to decline. Lithium-ion batteries are the main new energy storage technology, accounting for as much as 95% of the market share in the mainland, and other new energy storage technologies are also accelerating the construction of demonstration projects. However, the safety of lithium-ion batteries is still an important factor affecting the development of the industry, and every safety accident will cause major property losses and even personal injury accidents, and adversely affect the development of the industry. Therefore, enterprises should attach great importance to the improvement of the safety performance of energy storage systems, and actively promote the development and application of intrinsically safe energy storage technologies (especially at the cell level).
Third, the power grid and dispatching agencies formulate implementation rules and adhere to the principle of fairness and reasonableness. At present, the new energy storage on the grid side is deployed near nodes where load-intensive accounting, new energy intensive access, and peak and frequency regulation are difficult, and the actual deployment situation is relatively good. In the future, it is necessary to actively develop the secondary "dispatching response" platform represented by industrial and commercial microgrids and virtual power plants, and develop the complementary matching of distributed energy system and large power grid architecture. Power grids and power dispatching agencies should fully consider the market value of new energy storage projects when formulating relevant implementation rules and management processes, and adhere to the market-oriented approach to optimize the operation direction of energy storage dispatching. In addition, the power grid and dispatching agencies should play an active guiding role, help new energy storage projects carry out reasonable construction planning based on the actual demand of the power grid, increase the proportion of grid connection and dispatch of projects, give full play to the energy storage function, and avoid waste of resources.