Technicians inspect equipment at a pumped storage hydropower station in Zhouning county, East China's Fujian province, in August. Currently, pumped storage hydropower makes up 77.6 percent of China's total power storage projects. [Photo/Xinhua]

Building installed storage capacity to increase grid stability, bolster country's carbon ambitions

As China continues to move toward a more sustainable energy mix with a gradual increase in its clean energy proportion, energy storage will be of great importance to the country's high-quality development of the manufacturing sector, said political advisers and national legislators.

Liu Hanyuan, a national legislator and chairman of Tongwei Group, a new energy company specializing in solar cell manufacturing, suggested carrying out further exploration of pumped storage stations, as China's power storage industry is experiencing rapid growth with renewables taking up an increasing share.

With increasing demand for more flexible adjustment power capacity, the government should come up with a batch of pumped storage projects over the coming few years, especially small and medium-sized pumped storage projects close to the load center with a shorter construction period, he said.

Pumped storage hydropower is the most common type of energy storage in use today. It saves excess power by pumping water from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir at night when electricity demand is low and releasing it to generate power during the day when demand is high.

Pumped storage hydropower currently makes up 77.6 percent of the country's total power storage projects. Its installed capacity reached 45.79 million kilowatts by the end of 2022, ranking tops worldwide, according to figures released by the China Electricity Council.

Liu Yong, secretary-general of the energy storage department under the China Industrial Association of Power Sources, added that energy storage facilities will ensure the steady operation of the power grid while meeting the demand for the ever-growing power generated by renewable energy.

Fluctuating power output by renewable energies, including solar and wind power, will have negative impacts on the operation and scheduling of the power grid. The application of energy storage, however, ensures the steady operation of a new type of power system in the country, he said.

In addition to supporting the efficient use of a high proportion of new energy sources, Ouyang Changyu, head of the State Grid Energy Research Institute, said that energy storage will play a bigger role in ensuring a stable supply of electricity during extreme weather such as high temperatures and cold snaps.

An energy storage system based on pumped storage and supplemented by electrochemical and other energy storage methods will further facilitate the country's ambition to achieve a carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, he said.

New energy storage refers to electricity storage processes that use electrochemical, compressed air, flywheel and supercapacitor systems but not pumped hydro.

The development of new types of power storage like lithium-ion batteries has been on a fast growth track. The latest data from the National Energy Administration showed that as of the end of 2022, the installed capacity of new energy storage projects put into operation nationwide had reached 8.7 million kW, with an average energy storage time of about 2.1 hours, an increase of over 110 percent from the end of 2021.

The government plans to further accelerate the development of new types of power storage in the years to come, advancing from the initial stage of commercialization to large-scale development by 2025, with an installed capacity of more than 30 million kW.

The country has vowed to realize full market-oriented development of new energy storage by 2030, as part of efforts to boost renewable power consumption while ensuring stable operation of the electric grid system, said a statement released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration.

Zhong Zheng, vice-president and chief financial officer of Midea Group, a Chinese home appliance maker based in Foshan, Guangdong province, said new types of power storage have unique advantages such as improved regulation performance, fast construction and exemption from geographical restrictions when compared with traditional pumped-hydro storage energy.

 It will be of great importance to the high-quality development in the manufacturing sector as China demands more flexible adjustment power capacity, she said.

According to the country's energy outline during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, China's total installed power capacity will reach 3 billion kW in 2025, with the flexible power supply reaching 720 million kW. Currently, the country's flexible adjustment power capacity is only about 50 million kW, which is far from the target.

However, Zhong said new types of energy storage are still in the early stage of commercialization and face problems such as lower rates of utilization.

She suggested electricity tariffs for new energy storage should enjoy the same policy as that of hydro-pumped power storage to promote more new types of energy storage and ensure profits for investors. She also suggested government departments strengthen regulations in terms of the development of lithium resources, as such resources are in high demand

Zeng Yuqun, founder and chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd, the world's largest electric vehicle battery supplier, echoed her ideas, adding that the government should strengthen the test evaluation and demonstration of electrochemical energy storage systems and step up efforts in building a battery energy storage integrated system with large capacity, high safety and high reliability.

Zeng, also a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said while the domestic battery energy storage industry has been growing rapidly in recent years, the quality of products varies a lot, which brings new safety and reliability challenges to the grid-connected operation of the large capacity battery energy storage system.

Under the circumstances, it is necessary to strengthen the evaluation and demonstration of the electrochemical energy storage system and build a national electrochemical energy storage experimental verification platform, he said.

According to Wu Wei, assistant professor of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy of Xiamen University, the ever-decreasing battery costs in recent years, thanks to technological advances, have also lowered the cost of new types of energy storage.

The cost, according to Wu, is expected to further decline in the years to come.

Domestic companies, from solar module manufacturers to traditional energy companies, are also actively laying out plans in the energy storage-related business

State Grid Corp of China, the largest power provider in the country, said it had constructed 23 pumped-storage hydropower stations during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period with a total installed capacity of 30.93 million kW and a total investment of almost 180 billion yuan ($26.15 billion).

It vows to further step up construction in the years to come, with the installed capacity for its new type of energy storage up to 100 million kW by the end of 2030, to support the large-scale application of energy storage in the country.

The National Development and Reform Commission said earlier it will introduce a plan for new energy storage development for 2021-25 and beyond, while local energy authorities should also make plans for the scale and project layout of new energy storage systems in their regions.

Source: By Zheng Xin, chinadaily.com, Apr. 13, 2023 [https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202304/13/WS643757f7a31057c47ebb9da9_1.html]