There is no way to develop distributed energy

Distributed energy supply is regarded as an energy source that can be used in parallel with large-scale centralized power supply because of its characteristics of energy saving, environmental protection, and high reliability of energy supply.

The emergence of smart grids, the efficient use of clean fuels such as natural gas, and the enormous pressure of urbanization and industrialization, and the resurgence of renewable energy sources, have made the development of distributed energy more like arrows.

However, whether the key equipment or grid-connected technology will contribute to the development of distributed energy will be a curse.

Apply a current buzzword, the development of distributed energy, and cherish it.

Flexible and reliable

In the eyes of Yan Jun, a researcher at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, distributed energy is characterized by the word “flexible”: it is suitable for a variety of energy sources and adapts to various fields.

It is not only suitable for natural gas, coalbed gas, coke oven gas and other energy, but also easy to use new energy sources such as solar energy, geothermal energy, and biomass. At the same time, in addition to industrial processes such as metallurgy, chemical engineering, and electronics, food, and pharmaceutical industries, distributed energy can also be used in large-scale public buildings, commercial buildings, and in remote urban and rural areas.

“Compared with traditional energy supply systems, the installed installed capacity per 100 megawatt of distributed energy supply system can save more than 800,000 tons of standard coal per year. According to the installed capacity of 50 million kilowatts in 2020, distributed energy supply Each year, 40 million tons of standard coal can be saved, CO2 emissions can be reduced by more than 100 million tons per year, and SO2 emissions can be reduced by more than 1.2 million tons.” In Jun Jun’s view, the figures may best explain the problem.

According to reports, in the United States, there are already more than 6,000 distributed energy stations in operation, and their power generation capacity accounts for more than 25%; Japan has more than 13,000 distributed energy stations in operation and its power generation capacity accounts for more than 13.4%. At present, China's natural gas consumption accounts for about 3.9% of total primary energy consumption, of which only 10.9% of natural gas is used for power generation.

Fan Wei, vice president of the National Energy Distributed Energy Technology Research and Development (Experimental) Center and Huadian Electric Power Research Institute, has a clear view that the transition from fossil fuels and complementary to renewable energy will be realized in the future; buildings will only be used as energy users. It will be transformed as an energy producer; centralized energy stations will be transformed towards home-based and home appliances; and a single energy service will also be transformed into a fusion of energy and information.

Development conditions have matured

“At present, more than 40 distributed energy demonstration projects have been completed in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. According to the 'Twelfth Five-Year Plan', China will build 1,000 distributed energy pilot projects.” Professor at Shanghai Bolu Energy Technology Co., Ltd. The senior engineer Wu Ji thinks that the conditions for the development of distributed energy in our country have matured.

First, China's unconventional gas resources are abundant and are growing rapidly.

At present, China's CBM has entered a large-scale commercial mining phase. According to the national policy, its production is expected to exceed 40 billion cubic meters per year by 2020; gas projects for further processing of coke oven gas are advancing; abundant shale gas Already in planning and development, it is possible to reach the scale of coalbed methane.

Secondly, the natural gas long-distance transmission network covering the entire country, such as the West-East Gas Pipeline, Sichuan Gas in Shanghai, North Gas South, and Air Sea Land, has been basically completed.

Although China’s current primary energy consumption is dominated by coal, the share of natural gas is very small, “but in the next ten years, the share of natural gas will expand two to three times. In addition, considering the growth in the absolute amount of energy, the future ten Natural gas will have a huge space for development in the year," said Wu Hao.

Referring to the key equipment for the development of distributed energy in China, he believes that in recent years, China has established a preliminary technological basis by introducing foreign technologies, digesting, absorbing, and redeveloping, and has the ability to continue independent research and development to achieve leapfrog development.

It is reported that at present, China has built 30 or 40 demonstration projects in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Changsha, and some of them are running and have accumulated rich experience. On the basis of the introduction of foreign technologies, related equipment manufacturing companies have independently developed and localized various types of generator sets and waste heat utilization equipment, including gas turbines, gas engines, waste heat utilization equipment, heating and cooling equipment, and energy storage equipment. Power electronic equipment, some localized equipment has entered the international market. At the same time, under the support of major national projects such as 863, 973, and other major projects, universities and scientific research institutions have carried out basic research on various key topics and achieved a large number of results.

In addition, the development of urbanization in China provides a broad market space for distributed energy. It is estimated that by 2015 and 2030, the urbanization rate in China will reach 52% and 65%. The infrastructure construction of the densely-developed urban areas that has been nurtured in this process provides a good opportunity for the development of distributed energy. Wu Hao said that China’s building energy consumption accounts for over 27% of total energy consumption, and it is still increasing at a rate of 1 percentage point per year. At present, large and medium-sized cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai are carrying out energy restructuring through distributed energy planning to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction targets. It is predicted that 80% of the newly added natural gas will be built in new towns or new urban areas in the Old City during the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period.

At the same time, the industrial sector and central heating (cold) also provide a broad market for distributed energy. Over the years, to meet their own needs, industrial companies have built a large number of self-provided thermal power plants or distributed heating boilers, and about 85% of coal-fired thermal efficiency is less than 70%. Therefore, in the industrial sector or regional centralized energy supply systems, combined heat and power generation of gas turbines and gas-steam combined heat and power cogeneration has opened up a broad path for the development of medium and large-scale distributed energy sources.

Lack of standards and thresholds

However, if you want to see the infinite scenery on the top of the mountain, there are still many mountains to climb.

In the view of Wu Hao, the development of distributed energy in China still faces various constraints such as design technology, equipment development technology, and grid-connected power generation technology.

First of all, the current system load forecasting technology is still not mature, resulting in improper equipment selection and operation strategy is not optimal. The multi-energy matching technology is still in the research and development stage, making it difficult to rationally match energy sources and optimize the distributed energy system. Distributed energy supply technology currently lacks standards and barriers to entry.

Second, most of the core distributed energy devices such as internal combustion engines and gas turbines rely on imports, resulting in high costs; while the immature technology of storage devices such as batteries also restricts the development of distributed energy; at the same time, distributed generation of energy sources does not Network and internet technology are still difficult.

In addition, he also believes that the three development models of distributed energy are also problematic. Among them, the main investors are mostly property owners. Often due to price problems, the owner may save energy without saving money, while other investors have no incentive because of unclear earnings.

Fan Wei analyzed from the top-level design point of view that there is a lack of coordination among the four water supply plans, heating plans, power plans, and gas plans in China's cities. Water, electricity, and gas have their own governance, resulting in the duplication of energy infrastructure. The construction situation is serious and the efficiency is not high, ie heavy energy production and light energy management. This leads to the single and decentralized use of renewable energy and clean energy in the single-building construction, and it cannot achieve the scale and integrated application of renewable energy and clean energy.

In his view, the country should first do a good job of regional energy planning, change the thinking and setting that in the past simply increased the supply of resources to meet the growing demand, and treat the saved resources as an alternative resource.

At the same time, we should also pay attention to basic technological innovation, accelerate the localization of key technologies for distributed energy, formulate relevant equipment investment subsidy mechanisms, increase investment in research and development of key technologies, promote localization of gas turbines and gas-fired internal combustion engines, and reduce project investment costs and operation and maintenance costs. .

He also suggested that the development of distributed energy should also be closely integrated with the user's load. The economics and feasibility of project investment can not be limited to the capacity scale, but it needs to comprehensively consider the project load characteristics, the local gas price situation, and the annual availability. The number of hours and other factors, according to the actual situation of the project users, "in line with local conditions, both large, medium and small" to develop distributed energy.