Under the influence of multiple factors such as economic pressure, new energy consumption, and new power systems, the power grid has entered a new round of large investment era.
In the past two years, after experiencing power shortages across the country, the construction of coal-fired power units has begun to drive on the fast track, but at the same time, the construction of new energy represented by the wind and solar base still maintains a fast speed.
According to the information of the National Energy Administration, in 2023, the construction of large-scale wind power and photovoltaic bases in the mainland will be progressing smoothly, with the first batch of 45.16 million kilowatts completed and connected to the grid as of the end of November, and the second and third batches have been approved for more than 50 million kilowatts, and construction is under construction one after another.
Since most of the wind and solar bases are located in the western region, which is far away from the economically developed load concentration area, the power absorption capacity is limited. A large number of new energy power generation installations are connected to the grid, and only by relying on ultra-high voltage transmission can the consumption problem be solved. Therefore, UHV construction has entered a new period of rapid development.
As early as the beginning of this year, the State Grid announced the scale of power grid construction in 2024. According to the State Grid, in 2024, it will continue to increase the construction of a strong power grid with digital intelligence, promote the green and low-carbon transformation of energy, and promote the construction of UHV projects from Aba to Chengdu East. Focusing on application scenarios such as digital distribution network, new energy storage regulation and control, and vehicle-network interaction, we will build a number of digital and intelligent strong power grid demonstration projects, and the total investment in power grid construction is expected to exceed 500 billion yuan.
Although the figure of 500 billion yuan is huge, it is in line with the approximate scale of State Grid investment in the past two years. In 2022, the State Grid's power grid investment will be 509.4 billion yuan, exceeding 500 billion yuan for the first time. At the beginning of 2023, Xin Baoan, chairman of the State Grid, revealed that the investment in the power grid in 2023 will exceed 520 billion yuan, a record high.
In addition to the State Grid, China Southern Power Grid, another major power grid group, also maintains a large scale of investment. In 2021, China Southern Power Grid Corporation issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Power Grid" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), proposing that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China Southern Power Grid Corporation will plan to invest about 670 billion yuan in the overall power grid construction to accelerate the construction of digital power grids and the process of modernizing power grids, and promote the construction of new power systems with new energy as the main body.
In the huge grid investment, UHV investment is undoubtedly the main force. In 2023, the investment in the UHV main network will increase significantly, and the construction of "four straight and two crossing" has started, which is the year with the most lines started in history.
In addition to the backbone network represented by UHV, the release of the "Guiding Opinions on the High-quality Development of Distribution Networks under the New Situation" also marks the acceleration of distribution network investment.
The "Opinions" put forward that on the basis of enhancing the ability to ensure supply, we should promote the transformation of the distribution network from the traditional "passive" one-way radiation network to the "active" two-way interactive system in form, and change the function from a single power supply and distribution service subject to an efficient allocation platform for source, grid, load and storage resources.
By 2025, the grid structure of the distribution network will be stronger and clearer, the power supply and distribution capacity will be reasonable and abundant, and the carrying capacity and flexibility of the distribution network will be significantly improved, with about 500 million kilowatts of distributed new energy and about 12 million charging piles.
By 2030, the flexible, intelligent and digital transformation of the distribution network will be basically completed, and the multi-level coordination of the main distribution microgrid, the aggregation and interaction of massive resources, and the plug-and-play of multiple users will be realized, effectively promoting the integrated development of distributed smart grids and large power grids, and better meeting the development needs of distributed power generation, new energy storage and various new business formats.
Source: Smart Grid Think