Power Generation Side Application

Generation-Side Storage and Application

In July 2021, the National Energy Administration issued a notice "Encouraging Renewable Energy Generation Enterprises to Increase Peak-Shaving Capacity and Grid Connection Scale," proposing that "to encourage power generation enterprises to marketize their participation in peak-shaving resource construction, peak-shaving capacity shall be built at a proportion exceeding 15% of the grid scale beyond the guaranteed grid connection by power grid enterprises, with a duration of over 4 hours, and preferential grid connection shall be given to projects with a proportion of over 20%."
In July 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Types of Energy Storage," which further clarifies that "for energy storage projects on the power generation side, in combination with actual system requirements, a number of energy-friendly new energy power station projects with energy storage should be arranged, optimizing operation through energy storage coordination to ensure the efficient consumption of new energy and provide capacity support and some peak-shaving capabilities for the power system."

Most provinces "require" new energy generation projects to build energy storage stations ranging from 10% to 20% of their capacity and lasting from 2 to 4 hours; energy storage allocations is a prerequisite for new energy indicators, and self-increase of the proportion is encouraged in indicator competition.
In addition to the above storage requirements, some provinces have introduced subsidy policies for new energy storage projects from both investment and operation perspectives.
Over 30 provinces nationwide have issued "14th Five-Year Plan" documents or storage allocations documents, with the new energy storage construction targets of each province exceeding 60 million kilowatts, doubling the target set by the National Energy Administration for the 14th Five-Year Plan.
Under this system design, storage station costs are the main focus, with almost no economic benefits. After most storage stations are accepted and connected to the grid, their utilization rates are extremely low.

In recent years, China's development of new energy represented by wind and solar power has achieved remarkable results, with installed capacity ranking among the top globally, and new energy is becoming an important part of energy supply. Several provinces have explicitly stated that new energy must be accompanied by energy storage for use, and energy storage has become an important part of new energy planning.

Wind and solar energy project developers consider forced storage as pure cost expenditure, with lithium batteries being the mainstream technology route. After the completion and grid connection acceptance of storage projects, the actual operation rate is less than 5%.
There are significant issues with the safety and lifespan of lithium batteries.

With a lifespan of over 20 years, it perfectly matches the generation cycle of new energy (wind and solar) power stations.
The lowest levelized cost of storage, calculated over the entire lifecycle, provides a crushing advantage compared to lithium battery storage in terms of cost.