A few days ago, China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage announced that the complete set of pumped storage core control system independently developed by China has been safely started more than 1,500 times, with a cumulative operation time of more than 17,000 hours. This means that the four types of core control subsystems of pumped storage power stations have been fully localized, which will effectively enhance the safety of China's energy industry chain.
As the key equipment of the pumped storage power station, the core control system of the pumped storage unit is composed of four major systems: computer monitoring, speed regulation, excitation and relay protection, which is known as the "brain" of the power station.
At present, pumped storage power stations are the green, low-carbon, clean and flexible power supply for the power system with the most mature technology, the best economy and the most large-scale development conditions. China's pumped storage capacity has reached 49 million kilowatts, ranking first in the world, and has become an important force to ensure energy safety and reliability. However, for a long time, the main components of the core control system of the pumped storage power station unit are imported equipment, and the key technology has the problem of "stuck neck".
Since February 2021, China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage Co., Ltd. has set up a joint R&D team to carry out scientific research and research on the core control system of pumped storage, such as component comparison and adaptation, technical function research and development, control logic optimization, and commissioning test, and has successively completed 40 major technological innovations, of which 21 technologies have filled the domestic gap, realizing the full localization of the four categories of core control systems of pumped storage units, and the performance of the whole set of equipment has reached the international leading level.
The R&D team selects two pumped storage power stations in Guangzhou and Huizhou as platforms to develop "component-level" localized equipment for the four core control systems of pumped storage, and strives to achieve that all the key technical components in the whole set of equipment are domestic. Gong Yu, head of the R&D team and deputy general manager of the maintenance and test branch of China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage Company, introduced that the four types of core control systems of pumped storage units cover 206 kinds of equipment such as core controllers and regulators, and nearly 120,000 components.
Take the scientific research on DC demagnetization switch in the excitation system as an example. "There are only four or five smaller manufacturers of DC demagnetization switches in China, mostly for subway applications, and there are no products directly applicable to 300 MW pumping storage units, so we can only take the road of independent development and joint research. Chen Qiang, who is responsible for this research and testing branch of China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage Company, said that the R&D team cooperated with Shanghai Lixin Company to control and repeat the production process according to the characteristics of the pumping and storage unit, from the selection of switch insulation materials, mold production, to the control and repeated tests of the production process, and finally got the DC demagnetization switch that meets the standard in one year.
Chen Qiang introduced that the mechanical life of the conventional DC demagnetization switch is about 1,000 times, while the pumping and storage unit requires at least 20,000 times, and puts forward very strict requirements for the switch volume, magnetic retention, modular assembly, etc. "This is a key core technology research, in the pumped storage generator set full load test, the domestic switch test data qualified, marking the success of the localization of the excitation system. He said.
At present, China Southern Power Grid is successively deploying "domestic brains" in more than 30 units of its seven pumped storage power stations that have been put into operation. "The operation test has proved that the new system fully meets the operating needs of the unit, and the performance is better than that of imported equipment in many aspects. Gong Yu said.