Analysis on the Deep Causes of Wind Power Integration Problems

As of the end of 2012, China's clean energy installed capacity exceeded 300 million kilowatts, accounting for 28% of the total installed capacity. Among them, wind power grid-connected power generation reached 63 million kilowatts, and annual power generation exceeded 100 billion kilowatt-hours. Wind power became China’s third-largest power source, surpassing nuclear power at one stroke. In a few years, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation also increased from the basic gap to 7 million kilowatts.

Recent media reports have reported that wind power generation in China only accounts for 2% of total electricity consumption, and there is still huge room for improvement compared with 20% of countries such as Denmark. However, if it is deduced from this, due to the lack of support from the Chinese power grid, it is wrong to cause the backward connection of new energy sources in China and poor grades.

On the one hand, China is the world’s largest producer of electricity, and China’s wind power is still ranking first in the world. This proportion is only more than 3% in the United States. According to the “12th Five-Year Plan for Wind Power Development” issued by the National Energy Administration in July 2012, by 2015 and 2020, the installed wind power capacity in China will reach 100 million and 200 million kilowatts, and wind power generation will account for the total 3% and 5% of electricity generation.

On the other hand, Denmark’s land area is less than 50,000 square kilometers, which is not comparable to the vast territory of China. In the face of complex national conditions, China spent five years in the wind power development process in the United States and Europe for 15 years and achieved catch-up.

According to the data, as of the end of 2012, the grid-connected capacity of the State Grid Corporation of China was 56.76 million kilowatts, which was 58.5 times that of 2005, with an average annual growth rate of 78.8%. The photovoltaic grid-connected capacity was 3.33 million kilowatts, and the average annual growth rate since the 12th Five-Year Plan reached 372%. From 2006 to 2012, the utilization hours of wind power in the operating areas of the State Grid Corporation reached 1917, 2015, 2004, 1993, 2095, 1928, and 1903 hours respectively, roughly the same as those in Europe and the United States.

The power grid is a platform for all types of energy conversion and efficient deployment. In the consumption of wind power, cross-region consumption shows a strong vitality. On April 26, 2012, the wind power generation capacity of Mengxi Power Grid accounted for 28% of the total, of which one-third of wind power was absorbed by North China Power Grid. On May 14, 2012, the daily generation of wind power generated by Mengdong Power Grid accounted for 72% of the total, of which one-half of wind power was absorbed by the power grids of the three northeastern provinces.

In recent years, the State Grid Corporation of China actively promotes the development of distributed power supply. On October 26, 2012, the State Grid Corporation of China issued the "Opinions on the Implementation of Distributed Photovoltaic Power Grid-connected Services" to the public. On February 27, 2013, the company also released to the public "to do a good job of distributed power supply interconnection." Service Work Opinions." From the research of the subject, the formulation of standards, and the implementation of specific service measures, the State Grid Corporation of China has carried out many tasks in recent years and has been openly accepting social supervision.

Huang Qili, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, believes that reviewing the history of the past few years, it can be said that the achievements made by the rapid development of wind power in the country have not come by easily. The State Grid Corporation of China has played a leading role and supported it.

Liang Zhipeng, deputy director of the New Energy and Renewable Energy Division of the National Energy Administration, pointed out at a conference that the State Grid Corporation of China is a firm driving force for the development of new energy.

What are the root causes of the new energy grid connection problem?

Although our country's new energy integration achievements are gratifying, there have also been some problems. This is an objective fact. According to the data from the National Energy Administration, in 2012, the total amount of wind-removal electricity in the country was about 20 billion kilowatt-hours. The average utilization hours of wind power decreased compared with that in 2011, and the number of hours of wind-power utilization in individual provinces (regions) dropped to about 1,400 hours.

Why is that?

An analysis article of China Electric Power reported that "it can't be a problem in a certain link or a certain department or unit, but it can only be a systemic and global problem." The "Annual Notification of Wind Power Integration and Consummation of Related Work" pointed out that "a large number of wind curtailment and power restriction exposures are issues of energy management in China."

However, there are individual media who have hit the board to the power grid companies and believe that power grid companies have no incentive to acquire new energy and invest in new energy access projects.

In this regard, Wang Bingjun, director of Inner Mongolia Energy Development Bureau, has a clear understanding. He believes that the term "full-scale guaranteed acquisition" in the "Renewable Energy Law" feels very vague. Under this premise, even if the grid company has made many efforts to absorb wind power, it will still be criticized by the outside world. When he was a big man, he did not have any legal or policy basis to defend his case. If the "full-scale guaranteed acquisition" is clarified and the wind power access quota system is implemented, then the grid company will complete the task in accordance with the regulations and will not have to accept any external accusations. Now it is that all parties feel very aggrieved. Therefore, the problem of wind power consumption is not a problem for the grid companies, nor is it a problem for wind power companies, but a problem at the policy level.

Based on this, we should give up groundless accusations and return to rational reality. The reporter's investigation found that there are three significant problems in the integration of new energy sources.

The first is that power construction is disorderly, excessively fast, and there are many approvals for power grid projects and the cycle is long, and grids are struggling to deal with them. This point, even the new energy investors did not deny it. In order to evade the approval of the NDRC, some wind power companies have divided a 400,000 kilowatt wind farm into eight phases to circumvent the need for approval of the NDRC's policies for 50 MW wind farms, which makes grid companies at a loss. In addition, the first phase of Gansu Jiuquan Wind Power Base was approved in April 2009, and the 750-kilovolt grid transmission project was approved in March 2010, which was nearly one year before and after.

Second, the current peak-shaving capacity of the power grid is insufficient. Wind power has remarkable randomness and intermittency. After large-scale grid-connected networks, it is necessary to increase fast peaking power (pumped storage, gas-fired power stations, etc.) to ensure grid security. Among the countries with the largest installed capacity of wind power in the world, the proportion of fast peaking power in Spain has reached 34%, which is 1.7 times that of wind power; in the United States, it is as high as 47%, which is 13 times that of wind power. The power supply structure in the “Three North” region of China is single, and the proportion of fast peaking power supply is less than 2%, and it is difficult to meet the requirements for more large-scale construction of wind power.

The third is that the ability to absorb power across the grid needs to be improved. Take Northern Europe as an example, Nordic power markets have been established between Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. When there is no wind, Denmark imports hydropower from neighboring Norway, and when wind power is surplus, Denmark will sell wind power to other countries. This depends on strong multinational power grid support. The annual operating hours of wind power generators in Jilin Province in China have decreased from 2,163 hours in 2008 to 1,420 hours in 2012. One of the main reasons is that delays in the transmission of wind power from the ultra-high voltage channels have not been achieved.

The problem of the integration of new energy in China is all realistic and requires all parties to make solid efforts. If the problem is simply attributed to the fact that the reform of the power system is not in place, the failure to achieve grid splitting is indeed the wrong answer.

According to Tao Guangyuan, European energy manager and executive director of the Sino-German Renewable Energy Cooperation Center, if we simply split the national grid into five regional grids, plus the Southern Grid, a total of six regional grids, the future power will be huge and unstable. The transmission of wind and solar power in the west and north, and the consequent operation of the smart grid including regulated power, energy storage, and flexible electricity, requires a very reliable and efficient technology and economic mechanism in the region. Interim regulation and control is a serious problem that cannot be evaded when large amounts of renewable energy are connected to the grid in the future. If the above problems do not have an effective solution, then under the situation where renewable energy is booming, several regional power grids formed after the splitting may face more serious difficulties than the current unified power grid.

How to promote the development of China's new energy industry?

In recent years, the development of new energy in our country has been characterized by large scale and high degree of concentration, and it is a consensus to accelerate its development.

How to break through? The reporter investigated and found that suggestions in various aspects mainly focused on the following points:

First, we must build a strong smart grid as an important guarantee for the development of new energy. This is not only conducive to promoting the development of large-scale renewable energy power generation bases, but also conducive to the development of distributed power supply.

Solving the problem of large-scale long-distance transmission of wind power and solar power is an urgent task for the development and utilization of clean energy in China. In the long run, by 2020, China's wind power capacity will exceed 200 million kilowatts and photovoltaic power generation will exceed 50 million kilowatts. Most of these power sources are concentrated in the western and northern regions. In the near term, under the existing grid conditions, after the first batch of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” to be approved for wind power project production, Mengdong, Mengxi, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Gansu, Xinjiang, and Weibei will appear more than 15% of the Discard the wind.

The calculation shows that by increasing the trans-regional and inter-provincial transmission capacity building, the national wind power consumption in 2015 will increase from 65 million kilowatts to 100 million kilowatts. Liang Tiecheng, vice chairman of the Inner Mongolia People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the National Development and Reform Commission, appealed that regardless of Mengdong or Mengxi, wind power is still subject to the passage, and the rate of abandoned winds is still relatively high. The development of UHV power grids should be accelerated.

Experts generally believe that in order to develop new energy, in terms of development, we must adhere to the combination of large-scale centralized development and distributed development to increase the efficiency of development and utilization. In operation, we must rely on large power grids to make full use of differences in load characteristics in different regions to maximize the comprehensive benefits of multiple energy development. In dissipating, it is necessary to break through the constraints of limited local capacity in clean energy-enriched regions, to eliminate clean energy power generation nationwide, and to reduce discarded winds. To achieve the above objectives, we must adhere to the overall coordination and speed up the construction of a cross-regional DC transmission project of the "Three Chinas" UHV synchronous grid and the connection of energy bases to the load center in Central and Eastern China.

Second, we should improve relevant laws and improve the policy support system.

"At present, China's incentive policies for clean energy development focus on the power generation link, and consider the lack of transmission links and conventional power auxiliary services, and have not yet established a complete pricing and compensation mechanism," said Yan Fulong, general manager of Liaoning Electric Power Co., Ltd.

Some experts suggested that the compensation mechanism for renewable energy development funds should be improved, and the cost of all renewable energy access networks should be shared across the country. For example, in the Qaidam Basin in Qinghai Province, the local load level is only 400,000 kilowatts, but the grid-connected solar installation has passed over one million kilowatts. At present, the cost of renewable energy grid connection is mainly borne by Western grid companies according to the principle of land ownership.

It is also necessary to improve supporting policies to ensure the rapid and sustainable development of wind power. In accordance with the principle of “near-to-far and far-reaching”, “the first province, the later region, and then the whole country” will arrange wind power to absorb the market and coordinate the construction of wind power and other power sources. Some experts have proposed the introduction of tariff mechanisms for supporting wind power stations across provinces and regions, clarifying the compensation standards for providing auxiliary services for new energy, and establishing a reasonable investment recovery mechanism for pumped-storage power stations. This view is not without reason. Although power grid companies have the responsibility to accept new energy access to the Internet, it is obviously not the direction of marketization if power companies continue to “bleed” to protect the interests of the entire industry chain.

In addition, we also need to plan clean energy, other power sources and grid construction in a unified manner, rationally arrange clean energy development and construction timing, and ensure the scientific development of clean energy.

Third, clean energy such as wind power and solar power generation has significant intermittent and random nature. It should pay attention to its impact on grid security and strengthen grid-connected management.

At present, China’s wind power development focuses on large-scale and centralized access, which makes security more challenging. Fans produced before 2009 in China generally do not meet the requirements for safe and stable operation of power grids, and do not have basic functions such as low-voltage ride-through. In 2012, many large-scale wind turbine generators from the “Three North” region experienced gridlocked accidents, which revealed problems such as the unsatisfactory performance of wind turbines in the development of wind power in China and the failure to implement safety control measures.

Xie Changjun, deputy general manager of China Guodian Corporation, suggested that “the state should strengthen the guidance and control of the scale of the fan manufacturing industry, formulate and earnestly implement relevant national standards and industry standards, increase the testing and testing of wind turbine generators, and improve the access threshold for complete machine development. More attention will be paid to the operation and management of wind turbines and statistical analysis of data to promote the technical progress of wind turbines and improve the quality of equipment."