A few days ago, the Henan Provincial Development and Reform Commission issued the "Henan Provincial Industrial Enterprises Source-Grid-Load-Storage Integration Project Implementation Rules (Draft for Comments)", "Henan Province Incremental Distribution Network Source-Grid-Load-Storage Integration Project Implementation Rules (Draft for Comments)", "Henan Province Rural Areas Source-Grid-Load-Storage Integration Project Implementation Rules (Draft for Comments)" Three "Source-Grid-Load-Storage Integration Projects" Draft for Comments.
"Yujian" Henan opens the provincial "partition wall electricity sales"
"Selling electricity through the wall" is a popular term for distributed generation to achieve market-based transactions, which allows distributed energy projects to sell electricity directly to surrounding energy consumers through the distribution network, rather than selling it to the grid at a low price and then buying it back from the grid at a high price. This model can make energy consumers become "production and investment consumers", and at the same time, it can also promote the transformation of power grid enterprises to platform-based service strategies.
"In fact, we didn't expect that the provincial policy on 'selling electricity through the wall' would be released from Henan Province first. Chen Bing, who has been engaged in photovoltaic project investment for a long time, told reporters that the three documents issued by the Henan Provincial Development and Reform Commission put forward a series of key suggestions for four types of source-grid-load-storage integration projects for industrial enterprises, incremental distribution networks, family workshops and the development of whole villages.
According to a reporter from China City Daily, these proposals include allowing industrial enterprises to build facilities outside the red line of the plant, investing through third-party investment and selling electricity to electricity consumers, installing anti-backflow devices for rural photovoltaic projects to avoid transmitting power to the main grid, and allowing the integration of source, grid, load and storage projects developed throughout the village to participate in market transactions. Among them, the two major breakthroughs of the source-grid-load-storage integration project of industrial enterprises "can be built outside the red line of the plant" and "can be invested by a third party and sold to electricity enterprises" have basically realized the "sale of electricity through the wall" in essence.
In the view of many distributed photovoltaic practitioners, in recent years, the proportion of new energy installed capacity has been increasing, and what follows is how to fully absorb new energy. "Selling electricity through the wall" can not only help the consumption of new energy, but also increase the income of distributed projects and promote investment in new energy projects.
"Henan Province encourages distributed photovoltaic projects to implement "selling electricity through the wall", which has played a positive role in the development of the entire industry. Chen Bing said.
However, according to Peng Peng, secretary-general of the China New Energy Power Investment and Financing Alliance, Henan Province's "wall-to-wall electricity sales" policy is not quite the same as what the industry has previously conceived and expected.
"The core of the policy introduced by Henan Province this time is to encourage distributed power to be fully consumed on the low-voltage side and not to transmit power to the large power grid. In particular, the industrial and commercial distributed power generation can supply electricity to the surrounding industrial enterprise area. The whole village is allowed to send electricity back to the large power grid, but it needs to participate in the electricity market transaction. Peng Peng said that the document is clear, in addition to the electricity of the whole village, the electricity of other projects can only be used by themselves, and anti-backflow devices should be installed, and the power transmission is not transmitted to the large power grid.
In the past six years, the process of "selling electricity through the wall" has been slow
In fact, "selling electricity over the wall" is not a new term.
In 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Program of Market-oriented Trading of Distributed Power Generation, which proposed that distributed generation project units are allowed to conduct electricity trading with nearby power users in the distribution network.
But for a long time, the pilot did not go well. In May 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA) announced the first batch of 26 pilot trading projects, all of which are wind power and photovoltaic projects, distributed in 10 provinces including Jiangsu, Anhui and Hubei, of which Jiangsu has the most, with a total of 6 pilot projects. To this end, Jiangsu Province has specially formulated the "Jiangsu Province Distributed Generation Market-oriented Trading Rules (Trial)". In 2021, Shandong Province and Zhejiang Province also successively issued documents to encourage the local development and utilization of distributed renewable energy power and carry out market-oriented transactions.
Despite the continuous favorable policies, compared with the rising momentum of new energy installations, the development of "selling electricity through the wall", which can solve the "difficulty of consumption and integration", is still slow.
An unnamed head of the new energy investment enterprise told reporters that one of the reasons for the slow development of the "wall sales" has had an impact on the interests of power grid enterprises, before the power grid enterprises in some areas will require industrial and commercial users to "choose one of the two" between the power grid and the pilot power sales company, many users still choose the power grid after weighing the pros and cons.
In addition, some industry insiders have analyzed that the unclear mechanism of "network fees" of power grid enterprises, the unclear sharing of power transmission and distribution costs, and the failure to reflect the value of ancillary services have hindered the development of "selling electricity through the wall".
However, in recent years, the development of wind power and photovoltaic industries in mainland China has been accelerating, and the problem of power consumption has intensified. In August 2022, the National Energy Administration issued the "National Energy Administration's 2022 Plan for Deepening the Reform of "Streamlining Administration, Streamlining Administration, Improving Services" and Optimizing the Business Environment Key Tasks and Division of Labor, proposing to improve the market trading mechanism, support distributed generation to participate in nearby market transactions, and promote distributed generation to participate in green power trading.
Policies are frequently issued to deepen the reform of the electricity market
The real large-scale development of "selling electricity through the wall" will be realized in 2023.
In January 2023, Zhejiang Province's "wall-to-wall electricity sales" entered the substantive stage, and the market activity gradually improved. In February of the same year, the Guangdong Provincial Energy Bureau, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Guangdong Provincial Rural Revitalization Bureau issued the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Transformation and Development of Rural Energy in Guangdong Province to Help Rural Revitalization", pointing out that it will explore the construction of a comprehensive energy system with multi-energy complementarity and source-load interaction in county-level industrial parks and agricultural industrial parks, adopt a contract energy management operation model, guide enterprises, social capital, village collectives and other parties to participate, build a micro-energy network for the efficient use of new energy, and provide users with comprehensive energy services such as electricity, heating and cooling. Improve supporting policies and mechanisms, promote the development of comprehensive energy services for incremental power distribution enterprises, and innovate and develop new energy direct power supply and "power sales through the wall" and other models.
In February last year, the Development and Reform Commission of Changsha City, Hunan Province issued a notice on the "Changsha New Energy and Renewable Energy Development Guarantee Plan", pointing out that in accordance with the relevant regulations, the "network fee" standard for distributed generation market-oriented transactions should be implemented as soon as possible, and the development and utilization of distributed new energy should be promoted in an orderly manner, and the work of "selling electricity through the wall" should be actively pursued. Priority should be given to carrying out pilot projects for the integration of power source, grid, load and storage in surrounding areas such as industrial parks, large-scale production enterprises and big data centers according to local conditions. Promote direct transactions between wind power and photovoltaic projects and power users in a timely manner, and encourage both parties to sign long-term power purchase and sale agreements。
In April last year, the first "one-to-many" distributed photovoltaic power generation market-oriented trading pilot project in China, and also the first rooftop distributed photovoltaic power generation market-oriented trading pilot project traded to other third-party power users by market-oriented means in the load center, was put into operation in Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu Province. The total installed capacity of the project is about 12 megawatts, and the average annual power generation is expected to be 12.23 million kilowatt hours, which can be directly sold to power consumers in the same 110 thousand volt substation to achieve nearby consumption. The implementation of this project is regarded as a "breakthrough" in the mainland, which provides a replicable and reference experience for the large-scale promotion of the "wall-to-wall electricity sales" model.
On December 19 last year, Shandong Province issued the "Shandong Provincial Power Market System Construction Work Division Plan", which proposed to improve the market-oriented trading mechanism of distributed power generation, encourage distributed photovoltaic, distributed wind power and other entities to trade directly with surrounding users, and Shandong distributed photovoltaic project "wall sales" ushered in a breakthrough.
At the beginning of December 2023, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology issued the "Shanghai Action Plan for Promoting the High-quality Innovation and Development of the New Energy Storage Industry (2023-2025) (Draft for Comments)", proposing to build an energy storage development model covering the integration of wind, solar, storage, hydrogen and other sources, grid, load and storage integration and multi-energy complementarity in the Lingang New Area, and carry out the pilot trial of the new model of "selling electricity through the wall".
"From the continuous introduction of policies, we can see the determination of the local government to solve the problem of new energy consumption. Industry insiders told reporters that the current power grid (transmission and distribution) investment is designed according to the maximum load of users, although the "wall sales" transaction has reduced the amount of electricity purchased online, but the power grid investment has not decreased. Therefore, the "sale of electricity through the wall" has actually caused a shortage of income for power grid enterprises. According to the current policy, this part of the shortfall will be solved through electricity price adjustment, which also means that users who do not participate in the "wall-to-wall electricity sales" will share more transmission and distribution costs. In order to better implement the "wall-to-wall electricity sales" project, it is still necessary to further clarify the core issues such as the distribution of benefits between the two parties to the transaction and the power grid enterprises.
"The key issue for the next step is to balance market demand and renewable energy development goals, and to introduce more specific and effective management rules on this basis. Peng Peng told reporters that how to make the calculation of "network fees" and the sharing of rights and responsibilities more clear is the key to future development.
In addition to the "network fee", some analysts believe that the increased costs of power grid enterprises should also include power metering costs, trading platform operation and maintenance service costs, platform use or access service fees, etc., to ensure that power grid enterprises can cover the costs in the project and obtain reasonable benefits. This requires long-term, dynamic monitoring and evaluation by the state in the pilot project.
"In the long run, it is also necessary to formulate corresponding rules to urge the transaction entities of 'selling electricity through the wall' to fairly bear the costs associated with power balancing services provided by various flexible resources, so as to balance the interests of all parties. Peng Peng said.
■China City Daily reporter Kang Kejia
![#Aeration block#Lightweight partition panel#Tile glue#Rainbow waterproofing#Seam agent[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)