How to break the energy storage dilemma ......
Text: Ne-Salon New Energy Gathering Group
At the beginning of 2024, a rumor spread in the energy storage circle: the central state-owned power group, represented by the five large and six small, will no longer continue to invest in or carry out projects related to lithium battery energy storage. Here's why:The yield of energy storage projects is too low!
This news instantly received strong attention from the industry, after all, large storage is the main domestic energy storage market, and the downstream customers of large storage power generation are "five big and six small" ("five" refers to China Huaneng, China Guodian, China Huadian International, China Datang, China Power Investment Corporation, and the "six small" are SDIC Power, China General Nuclear Power, Three Gorges Corporation, China Resources Power, China Energy Conservation, and China National Nuclear Corporation). Some people said that Huaneng Group has even stopped projects that have been approved.
However, after verification by all parties, the rumor has been confirmed to be untrue. State Power Investment recently publicly stated:There is no relevant document to stop the project, and all investment plans such as wind power, photovoltaic energy storage, and hydrogen energy in 2024 will be ranked according to the rate of return, rather than as long as the previous IRR is 7%-7A 5% requirement can be invested
Although the news of "five big and six small completely abandoning energy storage" has refuted the rumor, this rumor has really caused panic in the industry. The reason for this is nothing more than that there is indeed a "lack of confidence" sentiment in the industry. The energy storage industry is full of gunsmoke, and the yield is indeed low. Energy storage is in a relatively awkward situation
1. The "embarrassment" of energy storage - ideal fullness! Realistic skinny!
In 2017, Qinghai Province issued the "2017 Wind Power Development and Construction Plan", requiring wind power projects included in the planning year to build power storage devices according to 10% of the scale. This is the originator of compulsory distribution and storage of new energy. In 2020, local policies will be introduced one after another, and compulsory distribution and storage will gradually become popular. With the soaring installed capacity of new energy, the energy storage market is gradually becoming hot.
Energy storage, the encyclopedia's explanation: the process of storing energy through a medium or device, and releasing it when needed. It has many functions such as increasing the proportion of new energy consumption, ensuring the safe and stable operation of the power system, improving the utilization rate of power generation, transmission and distribution facilities, and promoting multi-network integration. The existence of energy storage facilities can perfectly solve the problem of the volatility of new energy power generation. It seems that the prospect of energy storage is infinitely bright, but why is it in an embarrassing situation now?
The explanation given by professionals is that although the mandatory distribution and storage has allowed energy storage to take a ride on the development of new energy to achieve a leap in scale, these energy storage equipment configuration has not been fully utilized, can not play their due role, and cannot dispatch power output to the power grid on demand. As a result, these energy storage devices have become the cost of new energy construction, and cannot bring real benefits.
In November 2022, the China Electricity Council released the "Investigation Report on the Operation of New Energy Distribution and Energy Storage". The report points out that the actual operation effect of electrochemical energy storage projects is poor, and the average equivalent utilization coefficient is only 122%。The utilization coefficient of new energy distribution and energy storage is only 61%, and 15 percent for thermal power plants3%。The scale of new energy distribution and storage is large, but the utilization efficiency is even lower. There is data that suggests that the situation will not improve in 2023 and even in 2024.
From what we have learned, the annual utilization rate of new energy distribution and storage projects within Huaneng Group is less than 7%. A Huaneng insider revealed, "Such a large-scale distribution and storage, so many costs, in the end have become a pile of bricks." ”
2. Why energy storage is "built but not used".
The Electricity Market Research Center explains this phenomenon: at present, although many provinces in China regard energy storage as a resource for new energy power generation projects, most of the policies do not clearly stipulate the actual utilization and operation effect of energy storage, and focus more on configuration rather than application. As a result, the operating efficiency of the energy storage system is not fully utilized.
On the other hand, the proportion of energy storage allocation in various places is usually between 10% and 20%.This "one-size-fits-all" configuration requirements lack science in capacity and type, and sometimes even exceed actual needs. At the same time, the policy does not fully consider the local affordability of new energy storage costs, especially in economically underdeveloped areas, where energy storage facilities are often left unused after they are completed.
At the same time, the current mechanism for new energy storage in China to participate in the power market is not perfect, and the cost of new energy distribution and storage is high, with energy storage accounting for nearly 20% of the total investment cost of new energy projectsThe profitability conditions of energy storage marketization are insufficient
Tian Qingjun, senior vice president of Envision Group, said: "The strong allocation of new energy storage has indeed heated up the energy storage market in the past two years, but in fact, this forced combination is not optimistic about the future of the energy storage industry. The mandatory deployment of energy storage leads to a very low utilization rate of energy storage equipment, and as a result, these equipment become idle assets, because everyone pays more attention to the lowest quality than the highest quality, so that energy storage cannot play its due role. The mandatory deployment of energy storage has led to the proliferation of a large number of cheap and low-quality energy storage devices, which have low utilization rate and poor availability when dispatched.
3. Conclusion
An industry insider concluded: the factors that lead to the low utilization rate of energy storage at this stage involve planning, trading, equipment quality, operation and other links, and the factors are related to each other and affect each other, and it is difficult to improve the status quo by solving only a single problem.
Ne-Salon believes that it is necessary to further strengthen scientific planning and promote the rational layout and orderly construction of energy storage on the power side. At the same time, we will improve the market mechanism, broaden the profit channels of energy storage on the power supply side, establish an incentive mechanism, and stimulate the initiative of energy storage utilization. Only in this way can it be possible to bring the energy storage industry out of the predicament.
We believe that one day,Energy storage can not only be "built", but also "used".……*Ne-Salon New Energy G