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Awkward energy storage: why did we lose to overseas?

iconSep 9, 2020 10:33

SMM Network News: in April 2020, the Inner Mongolia Energy Bureau proposed to give priority to supporting power plant projects with energy storage for a period of 1 hour or more, and the configuration capacity reached 5% or more of the project construction scale.

In June 2020, the State Grid Shanxi Company proposed that the new photovoltaic power generation project should be equipped with 15% Muay 20% energy storage and implement the consumption agreement.

There are many similar policies. Shandong, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Tibet. Coincidentally, volatile power sources such as photovoltaic and wind power are required to configure energy storage, and some people even call 2020 the first year of the development of new energy storage. But on the other hand, except for a few areas such as Xinjiang and Qinghai, most provinces do not mention follow-up compensation measures such as financial subsidies and participation in electricity market transactions.

According to BNEF statistics, the domestic energy storage cost of about 0.55 yuan / kWh, in 2020 is slightly lower than that of overseas, but there are few voluntary investors because they can not get a reasonable return from application and peak regulation and frequency modulation. Many inverter enterprises have put forward the concept of "integration of light and storage" after the promulgation of the "531 New deal", but the practical application is widespread overseas. Only a few enterprises such as Sunshine Power supply, Kehua Hengsheng, Ningde era and so on have large-scale energy storage applications in China, and most projects are forced to be promoted by administrative orders, which is in sharp contrast to a large number of voluntary installation and construction overseas.

Why is there such an awkward scene? Where is the domestic energy storage lost? Soapy photovoltaic grid takes you to find out.

1 Why is it necessary to allocate energy storage compulsorily?

According to the documents issued by various provinces, the main purpose of the allocation of energy storage is to solve the difficult problem of new energy consumption and reduce the rate of abandoning wind and light. But for most provinces, the problem is not long-term and not serious. According to the information introduced by the relevant person in charge of the National Energy Administration during the online news conference in the third quarter of 2020, the consumption of clean energy continued to improve in the first half of the year, with the utilization rate of wind power and photovoltaic power reaching 96.1% and 97.9% respectively, up 0.8 and 0.3 percentage points from the same period last year. Thus it can be seen that the energy storage of renewable energy allocation is more of a preparation in advance.

Is it reasonable to control the abandonment rate by energy storage? According to the information learned by Soapy Photovoltaic Network, when enterprises invest in photovoltaic projects, there is often a certain expectation of light abandonment rate. If for this reason, force the relevant enterprises to install energy storage, but increase the initial investment, on the contrary, it will dispel the investment enthusiasm of the relevant enterprises. Qin Haiyan, director of the Beijing Jianheng Certification Center, believes that the development situation of wind power and photovoltaic this year is not optimistic, and if the new energy consumption capacity is still assessed in accordance with the original method, it is not in line with the actual situation, and many areas may change from green to red. This will mislead the national and regional control policies on the scale of wind power construction. He said bluntly that moderately relaxing or canceling the assessment of Electroweb power cuts this year and increasing the annual grid-connected capacity of wind power and photovoltaic are the most effective measures to boost investment in renewable energy.

2 how does China need to be encouraged to store energy?

It must be pointed out that the current domestic energy storage related policies and market mechanisms are relatively lagging behind, and the application scenarios are extensive, but most of them are lack of profit models, and the income of owners' investment in energy storage can not be guaranteed. It is the fundamental reason that the domestic energy storage application process is slow and the owners are unwilling to allocate. Wu Jiameang, vice president of Sunshine Power, previously said publicly that energy storage can participate in peak regulation and frequency regulation, making the volatile power supply more stable and Electroweb-friendly, but its value is difficult to reflect. "who on earth should pay for new energy storage? We believe that we should comprehensively consider the power generation side, Electroweb side and user side, establish a mechanism of "who benefits who pays", ensure policy stability and sustainability, and guide the healthy development of the energy storage industry. "

How are things overseas? In the United States, for example, you can not only enjoy tax breaks by installing energy storage systems, but also participate in transactions in the PJM electricity market. According to the trading time, there are real-time market and balanced market, day-ahead market and long-term market trading mechanism; according to the trading variety, there are energy market, capacity market, auxiliary service market and other trading mechanisms to help energy storage users get reasonable returns. In Australia, more and more families are using the government's next-generation battery energy storage subsidy scheme to install solar power generation systems, which is described as one of the largest battery energy storage development programs in the world. As for Japan and Britain, they have also proposed multiple subsidy schemes for domestic energy storage projects.

(3) the integration standard of energy storage system needs to be improved.

It is understood that the whole life cycle of an energy storage system includes many links, such as design, transportation, installation, operation, acceptance, operation and maintenance, battery recovery and so on. At present, the standard system of domestic energy storage system is not perfect, which can not guarantee the quality and safety of energy storage products, which directly affects the healthy and rapid development of energy storage industry.

Ji Zhenshuang, deputy director of Beijing Jianheng Certification Center, said that there are many related standards for energy storage battery equipment in China, but the lack of system-level standards and imperfections are more common. Another technical expert also pointed out that, taking the Lithium Ion Battery Standard for Electric Energy Storage (GB/T 36276-2018) as an example, the system safety requirements and test methods such as thermal runaway above the battery cluster level are missing, and there is a lack of detailed specifications or instructions on the requirements of key components such as shell, protective grounding, terminals and cables. In addition, there is also a lack of understanding of the fire risk of lithium-ion energy storage system in the Code for Design of Electrochemical Energy Storage Power Station (GB51048-2014). There is no basis for fire safety in the process of installation, operation and management of lithium-ion energy storage power station, and I do not know who is responsible for the fire safety of energy storage.

Wu Jiaxiang told Soapy Photovoltaic Network that the current system integration design, EMS, BMS, daily management technology and other energy storage standards are all vacant, and the grid-connected acceptance standards of the energy storage system are not perfect. "some areas require photovoltaic to be equipped with compulsory energy storage, but Electroweb has not clearly stated how energy storage will participate in the dispatching, and the frequency of dispatching, the number of charges and discharges, and the depth of Discharge are more or less qualified. The absence of standards has led to the current energy storage system to make up for the number of fish and dragons mixed situation."

(4) the cost of energy storage is still on the high side.

It takes a good blacksmith to make steel. A number of institutions, including BNEF, believe that in the short term, the kilowatt-hour cost of domestic energy storage projects is still higher than 0.3 yuan / kWh, and there is still a big gap between the ideal price in the industry and the ideal price in the industry. On the one hand, we should promote the timely introduction of subsidy policies by the competent government departments to expand the scale of market application, on the other hand, energy storage enterprises also need to strengthen research and development to reduce the cost of system kilowatt-hour electricity through technological innovation and scheme innovation.

The high cost of equipment (battery, PCS, EMS, etc.) is one of the reasons why energy storage applications are difficult to be popularized on a large scale, and the impact of non-technical costs can not be ignored. According to the person in charge of the relevant enterprises, the high costs of power station development, land, access, grid-connected acceptance and financing not only exist in photovoltaic projects, but also energy storage projects can not be avoided. In addition, photovoltaic relies on national financial subsidies to achieve large-scale application and reduce cost and increase efficiency, but energy storage does not have such treatment, so it is difficult to rely entirely on enterprises to achieve large-scale application. I hope the relevant departments will pay attention to it.

5 how do Chinese energy storage enterprises deal with it?

Apart from waiting for the introduction of subsidy policies, improving technical standards, reducing non-technological costs and strengthening research and development, do energy storage companies have any other ways to break the situation? We believe that at least the following three points are included.

First, promote the large-scale application of 1500V and other efficient technologies. At present, 1500V system voltage is commonly used in photovoltaic power stations, which speeds up the process of parity. However, the 1000V voltage level is mostly used in domestic energy storage systems, and the advanced technology needs to be improved. Wu Jiaxiang said that after the energy storage system is raised to 1500V, the energy density and power density can be increased by more than 35%, the system cost can be reduced by more than 5%, and the system efficiency will be increased by more than 0.3%. Since 2017, Solar Power has applied 1500V energy storage solutions on a large scale in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other overseas markets, accounting for more than 80%. The technology is very mature. It is suggested that relevant domestic enterprises should apply it boldly, "just as 1500V was applied in photovoltaic power stations at the beginning."

The second is to increase the applicable scenarios and expand the scope of application. Wind power, photovoltaic and other renewable energy with energy storage is a good direction, but it is by no means the only way out for the development of the industry. Electric vehicles, buildings, virtual power plants, household energy storage and other scenarios are also promising. From overseas experience, after carrying energy storage, every power enterprise and individual may become a power producer and marketer and a third-party independent auxiliary service provider, participating in Electroweb peak regulation and frequency regulation. With the continuous promotion of domestic electricity reform, the above scenario is likely to become a reality.

Third, relevant enterprises strengthen the ability of system integration. Wu Jiaomang was particularly saddened when talking about this issue, saying bluntly that at present, many energy storage systems are extensively piled up by battery manufacturers, and there are greater security risks. In fact, the integrated design of energy storage system is a very complex work, which involves many fields, such as electrochemical energy storage, power electronics, fire safety and so on.

As the world's leading energy storage system integrator, Sunshine Power has established a professional energy storage system research and development team, specially set up energy storage battery PACK, energy storage converter, energy storage system integration product line, adhere to comprehensive coordination and linkage from key components to the system level, to ensure the safety and reliability of the energy storage system, and won the world's highest safety standard system-level UL9540 certification. This is also the reason why the solar power storage system is widely used in Europe and the United States and other high-end markets, and there has not been a single safety accident.

Summary

As an important way of peak regulation and frequency regulation, energy storage should be applied on a large scale, rather than forced by local governments and power companies to be installed by renewable energy enterprises. In order to solve this awkward situation, we still have a lot to do. I would like to thank third-party organizations such as Jianheng Certification and leading enterprises such as Sunshine Power supply for their continuous investment. I also hope that more enterprises will participate in it in the future, so that storage can bring additional benefits to new energy projects.

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