An energy storage conference to clarify the future of industry development

China's "dual carbon" goal is to achieve more than 1.2 billion kilowatts of wind power and photovoltaic installed capacity by 2030. This means that in the 10 years from 2021 to 2030, the total annual growth of wind power and photovoltaic power will exceed 70 million kilowatts. The industry's expectation is that the annual average may reach 120 million to 150 million kilowatts, far higher than the target figure.

Today, China ranks first in the world in terms of cumulative installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic power generation. However, there are still significant problems in the development of new energy.

Due to its unique resource characteristics, the intermittent and unstable nature of wind power, photovoltaic and other new energy power generation has brought about absorption issues, which increasingly highlight the challenges to the power system. The impact of large-scale new energy access runs through all aspects of the power system, from production, transmission to consumption, and poses challenges to the safe and stable operation of the power system, especially in terms of difficult prediction, control, and scheduling.

The key to solving this problem is energy storage. The development and application of energy storage technology is conducive to achieving load balancing in new power systems dominated by new energy, suppressing fluctuations in new energy grid connection, and promoting the consumption of renewable energy.

Energy storage has inevitably stood at the forefront of energy development.

Intensive introduction of policies to double the growth scale

According to data from the National Energy Administration, by the end of 2022, the installed capacity of new energy storage projects in China had reached 8.7 million kilowatts, with an average energy storage duration of about 2.1 hours, an increase of more than 110% compared to the end of 2021.

There are five main reasons for the sustained and rapid growth of the installed scale of new energy storage in China: first, the proposal of the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goal has created good opportunities for the rapid development of energy storage; The top level design supporting the development of industrial technology has been continuously improved, laying a policy foundation for the rapid development of new energy storage; The advantages of new energy storage characteristics and traditional energy storage technologies can complement each other, providing more options for the construction of new power systems; Fourth, technological breakthroughs and economic improvements have further created favorable conditions for the rapid development of new energy storage; Fifth, local governments and various market entities are highly motivated to develop and construct new energy storage, injecting vitality into the rapid development of new energy storage.

New energy storage technologies can generally be divided into chemical energy storage and physical energy storage. The former includes lithium ion batteries, liquid flow batteries, sodium ion batteries, and hydrogen energy storage; The latter mainly includes compressed air energy storage, flywheel energy storage, and gravity energy storage.

Over the past year, energy storage technology has made significant progress. From the perspective of the proportion of new installed technologies in 2022, lithium ion battery energy storage technology accounted for 94.2%, still in an absolute dominant position. The proportion of new compressed air energy storage and liquid flow battery energy storage technologies respectively reached 3.4% and 2.3%, significantly accelerating the growth of the proportion. In addition, various energy storage technologies such as flywheel, gravity, and sodium ions have also entered the engineering demonstration stage.

Currently, energy storage is mainly applied in three fields: on the power generation side, energy storage can participate in scenarios such as renewable energy grid connection, power peak shaving, system frequency modulation, and auxiliary dynamic operation. On the grid side, energy storage can play a role in supporting power supply assurance, improving system regulation capabilities, and supporting a high proportion of new energy exports. On the user side, energy storage can be used to improve the level of spontaneous self use of electricity, carry out peak valley price arbitrage, manage capacity electricity bills, and improve power quality.

Due to its huge imagination, energy storage not only attracts enterprises in the industry to enter the market, but also attracts many cross-border players to rush in. In the past year, more than 20 listed companies have invested in cross-border energy storage. Such as Mingyang Intelligent, Midea Group, Chuanyi Technology, Yongtai Energy, Anfu Technology, etc.

The intensive introduction of policies has confirmed the heat of energy storage from the side. In recent years, nearly 30 provinces in China have issued new energy storage plans or new energy allocation and storage documents for the "14th Five Year Plan", vigorously developing "new energy+energy storage".

The National Energy Administration recently stated that it will attach great importance to and promote the improvement of new energy storage prices and market mechanisms, and promote the diversified, market-oriented, and industrialized development of new energy storage. In the next step, the National Energy Administration will actively work with relevant departments to improve new energy storage support policies, guide local governments to strengthen the planning, layout, and scheduling of new energy storage, actively carry out pilot demonstrations, improve supporting policy mechanisms, strengthen collaboration between production, education, research, and utilization, and promote coordinated development across the entire industrial chain.

Opportunities outweigh challenges, and energy storage can be expected in the future

However, the development of new energy storage still faces many problems: the pricing mechanism for new energy storage has not yet been established, business models need to be explored, new energy allocation and storage standards are lacking, regulatory difficulties are high, and national legal support is insufficient.

In addition, there are also problems at the level of different energy storage scenarios. For example, energy storage technology can basically meet the requirements of the minute and second scale, while medium and long-term energy storage technology still has some gaps in technology and security issues.

In order to accelerate the construction of new electric power systems with new energy as the main body, promote the coordinated development of energy storage and new energy, and establish a platform for exchange and cooperation in the energy storage industry, the China Electric Power Enterprises Association will hold the "2023 China Energy Storage Conference" (hereinafter referred to as the "Conference") at the China International Exhibition Center (Chaoyang Pavilion) in Beijing on March 29, 2023, along with the "2023 China International Clean Energy Expo" (hereinafter referred to as the "Expo").

With the theme of "Energy Storage Security and Collaborative Development", this conference will invite industry authorities, power grid companies, power generation groups, research institutes, equipment manufacturing enterprises, industry organizations, and other units to release the latest research results and statistical data on energy storage at home and abroad, share research on energy storage business models and market mechanisms, expand energy storage application scenarios, and promote the diversified application of technologies such as electrochemical energy storage, cascade power station energy storage, and compressed air energy storage, Explore new models and formats for energy storage, such as aggregate utilization and shared utilization, and comprehensively promote the collaborative development of technology research and development, demonstration applications, and standard formulation in the energy storage industry.

In addition, the conference will also hold two parallel forums, "Coordinated Development of Energy Storage and New Energy" and "Energy Storage Standard Construction and Safety Prevention and Control", to discuss hot topics respectively.

A feast for energy storage is about to start, and industry insiders are expected to seek common development.