On April 1, with the roar of machine mixing, the construction site of Hunan Pingjiang pumped storage power station in Xinyuan of State Grid started the concrete pouring of the first warehouse of the anti-seepage wall, marking the main construction of the lower reservoir dam of Hunan’s largest pumped storage power station. The reporter of Securities Daily learned at the scene that in recent years, with the incorporation of photovoltaic, wind power and other new energy incremental power generation into the power grid, higher requirements have been put forward for the incremental consumption, stock optimization and peak shifting and valley filling of the power grid, and the demand for diversified and multi-level advanced energy storage business is increasing. Listed companies have been actively digging for gold in the fields of pumped storage, compressed air storage and recycled power battery storage to supplement the short board of consumption capacity of local power grids.
large central enterprise led pumped storage project
Pingjiang pumped storage power station is the largest pumped storage project with the largest volume and investment scale in Hunan. The project is located in Fushoushan Town, Pingjiang County, Yueyang City, with a total investment of 8.8 billion yuan and a total installed capacity of 1.4 million KW; It is mainly composed of upper reservoir, lower reservoir, water conveyance system, underground powerhouse, switching station and other buildings. The designed annual power generation is 1.009 billion kWh and the pumped power is 1.453 billion kwh. It is planned that the first unit will be put into operation at the end of 2025.
The on-site staff introduced the project progress and social benefits to the reporter of Securities Daily: The construction of the main project of Hunan Pingjiang pumped storage power station of State Grid Xinyuan started on August 28, 2019. Up to now, the total investment of the project has been 2.158 billion yuan, and it is estimated that 930 million yuan will be completed this year. After the completion of Pingjiang pumped storage power station, 82000 tons of standard coal can be saved every year, 150000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced, Hunan’s GDP will grow by more than 11 billion yuan, and 140 million yuan of profits and taxes will be created every year. In addition, the project will also bring tourism Social benefits in the fields of scientific research, education, employment and income generation “.
Professor Li Fuhai, vice president of the school of electrical and information engineering of Hunan University, analyzed the above cases to reporters: “In recent years, with the implementation of the national policy of encouraging wind power generation and photovoltaic power generation, the new power generation of the power grid has increased significantly. Due to the influence of season, climate, geography and other factors, the above new energy power generation has obvious seasonality and peak valley difference, which puts forward higher requirements for the consumption increment of the power grid. Pingjiang pumped storage project can provide some help for the peak shifting and valley filling, incremental consumption and stock optimization of central China power grid.”
He further added, “At present, there is an obvious price difference between daytime power consumption and nighttime power consumption. As a pumped storage project, only nighttime power consumption and daytime water discharge and power generation can obtain certain benefits. However, pumped storage has high requirements for geological conditions, large quantities, long construction period and large initial investment, which is not suitable for local state-owned enterprises and small, medium and micro enterprises. If enterprises want to deeply cultivate the advanced energy storage field, they can solidly make up for the consumption shortcomings of the power grid , we also need to explore scientific paths in combination with their respective characteristics and according to local conditions. “
listed companies flexibly carry out gas energy storage
On March 31, Dongfang Electric Corporation Limited(600875) released the annual report for 2021, giving the answer for the exploration of advanced energy storage Dongfang Electric Corporation Limited(600875) said that in 2021, the company developed and completed the air turbine, a national demonstration project of compressed air energy storage and power generation system, and has promoted the construction of China’s first new carbon dioxide energy storage verification project. The Jintan salt cave compressed air energy storage national demonstration project providing air turbine units has been successfully connected to the grid.
Salt cavern is a mine cavity left after salt mining, which is huge and well sealed. When asked whether salt caverns can be used for compressed gas energy storage, Snowsky Salt Industry Group Co.Ltd(600929) secretary Liu Shaohua told reporters: “Underground caverns will be formed after mining in thick underground salt layers or salt mounds by water-soluble mining. Salt under high temperature and high pressure has the characteristics of automatic fracture healing. After a period of time, underground salt caverns can form sealed storage, which can theoretically be used to store compressed gas and realize energy storage and peak shaving. As early as the 1960s, salt cavern gas storage tests were carried out in the United States, Canada, France and Germany to prove the use of salt caverns to store compressed gas It has the ideal effect. “
Snowsky Salt Industry Group Co.Ltd(600929) also plans to carry out salt cavern compressed gas energy storage business. Liu Shaohua added: “our salt chemical company is rich in salt cavern resources. We attach great importance to the development prospect of comprehensive utilization of salt cavern resources and have begun to study and plan relevant work. We pay special attention to the emerging business of capturing carbon dioxide for compressed air energy storage. While completing carbon emission reduction and carbon capture, we can enter the field of advanced energy storage.”
In addition to the above companies, China Energy Engineering Corporation Limited(601868) , Sineng Electric Co.Ltd(300827) , Luyin Investment Group Co.Ltd(600784) , Hainan Jinpan Smart Technology Co.Ltd(688676) and other companies also said they were providing relevant equipment for compressed air energy storage business or planning to carry out relevant projects.
Professor Li Fuhai analyzed the above case and said, “compressed gas energy storage project has the advantages of adjusting measures to local conditions, large or small. It can also make flexible use of existing resources such as Salt Caves and mines, which is more suitable for local state-owned enterprises to take the lead. Small, medium-sized and micro enterprises can also actively participate in it in combination with their own advantages and provide relevant supporting facilities and services.”
small and micro enterprises reclaim batteries and find “real gold”
How can small, medium and micro enterprises get involved in the field of advanced energy storage? Hunan gave the experience of “entering the market in a group”. At the green Xiangshan bus station in Changsha, a large “energy treasure” is charging the electric bus, which is a step-by-step optical storage and charging integrated commercial project built after recycling and reprocessing the retired power battery.
As China’s first batch of new energy vehicle power batteries enter the peak of retirement, many research institutions predict that China’s battery material recycling market space will exceed 100 billion yuan / year by 2030. Many enterprises and scientific research institutions in Hunan have targeted the power battery recycling industry, spontaneously formed the power battery recycling industry chain, and made good achievements with an annual output value of more than 15 billion yuan.
Xiong Wei, director of new energy recycling division of Changsha Institute of mining and metallurgy, introduced to the reporter: “Decommissioning does not mean scrapping, but the beginning of recycling. Decommissioned power batteries generally have 80% of the battery capacity. After testing, maintenance and reorganization, they can be reused in energy storage, distributed photovoltaic power generation, household electricity, low-speed electric vehicles and other fields. Each link requires small, medium-sized and micro enterprises with corresponding expertise to give full play to their advantages and contribute to recycling, sorting, testing, disassembly, assembly, splicing and installation 。”
In addition to the stepped energy storage and power generation of retired power batteries, small and micro enterprises such as Kaidi Zhongneng, Shunhua lithium, Hunan Bangpu, Jinyuan new materials, Jinkai cycle and so on actively participate in the fields of harmless treatment of power batteries, resource recovery and regeneration. On the third-party recycling service platform “lithium Huitong”, the retired power battery ushered in a new journey. Since its launch in March 2020, “lithium Huitong” has recovered more than 10000 tons of retired power batteries, served 2972 customers and had a transaction volume of about 150 million yuan.
Professor Li Fuhai analyzed the above case and said, “The state has issued the 14th five year plan for modern energy system, putting advanced energy storage in a very important position. In particular, it proposes to focus on promoting the construction of new power systems, accelerate the large-scale application of new energy storage technologies, and encourage user side energy storage such as electric vehicles and uninterruptible power supplies to participate in system peak shaving and frequency modulation. It can be seen that the development of advanced energy storage business requires not only large central enterprises, but also large central enterprises to stand up and play their role and take the lead in special projects Large projects also require local state-owned enterprises to adjust measures to local conditions and lead mature demonstration projects with appropriate volume. What’s more, small, medium-sized and micro enterprises and even consumers need to respond to the call and actively participate to jointly form a multi-level and diversified advanced energy storage social system, so as to make the power system more resilient and elastic. In this process, I suggest that the decision-making level timely summarize the existing mature models, successful cases and advanced experience, and on this basis, speed up the introduction of a number of standardized reference schemes for local reference and implementation, so as to promote the early completion and implementation of the modern energy system. “
