The cost of thermal power is 1/7!Virtual power plants urgently need top -level design

Text ｜ Lin Boqiang (Dean of Xiamen University China Energy Policy Research Institute)

Recently, the test of extreme high -temperature weather in many places around the world has been severely drought. The tensions of energy supply and demand caused by high temperatures are outstanding, and the energy guarantee situation has attracted much attention.

It is conceivable that the safe and stable operation of the power system in the future is facing many challenges: one is the extreme weather frequency caused by global warming, and the other is the continuous advancement of energy transformation and energy revolution under the "double carbon" target. Distributed power supply.

In this context, the flexibility of the power system is becoming more and more important, and virtual power plants are "reborn" due to the form of focusing on comprehensive energy services.

What is a virtual power plant? The concept of virtual power plants was first proposed in 1997. The main goal was to save energy and reduce emission reduction. In the early 21st century, it had attracted the attention of Europe, North America and other countries, and then promoted globally.

It should be said that the virtual power plant is a advanced power management system. Combining software systems and information communication technology, a variety of adjustable resources such as distributed power, flexible load, energy storage, and electric vehicles in the system aggregate The intelligent regulation and coordination and optimization of resources achieve the supply and demand balance of the power system and the efficient utilization of large -scale new energy power.

The virtual power plant has both the characteristics of "source -lotus". It can not only supply power to the power system, but also eliminate the power of the system, and can more flexibly realize the function of "peak -cutting valley".

Virtual power plants realize intelligent collaborative regulation by using a variety of adjustable energy integration, thereby ensuring the safe and stable output of the power grid, and providing the volatility problem brought by the power of extreme weather, new energy power, and large -scale distributed power supply to the power grid New paths and schemes.

Therefore, the virtual power plant can be said to be a smart butler of the new power system, which is a supporting guarantee for the development of renewable energy.

Virtual power plants participate in the power market with both economic and social benefits, and have broad market prospects. Virtual power plants are an old concept, but in the future, virtual power plants can realize the flexible interaction of power supplements and loads with advanced digital technology and energy Internet, and provide auxiliary services such as peak -regulating and energy storage and energy storage for power grids.

Virtual power plants have aggregated a variety of energy sources, which can reduce load during the peak period of electricity and increase load during the low valley period. Therefore, it has unique advantages in the auxiliary service market and can conduct peak adjustment and frequency adjustment service transactions. The method of participating in the demand -side response of the virtual power plant is to reduce the load on time according to the contract requirements to ensure the supply and demand balance of the power grid. In providing demand response and auxiliary service business, the price compensation mechanism can be obtained through the price compensation mechanism.

In the spot trading market, virtual power plants can flexibly allocate electricity, and use peak and valley electricity prices to make a profit margin, which not only has a large profit space, but also achieves optimization of supply and demand for power grid operations. From the economic perspective, according to the calculation of the national power grid, if the peak -cutting valley of the power system is achieved through the thermal power plant, it will need to invest 400 billion yuan in the 5%peak load, and the goal of achieving this goal through the virtual power plant will only need to invest 50 billion ~ 60 billion yuan, that is, the cost of thermal power plant is 1/8 ~ 1/7.

There are at least three potential in the virtual power plant market. First of all, the increase in the proportion of renewable energy has made the characteristics of "double high" and "double peaks" of the power grid. In addition, the backup capacity may be insufficient, resulting in a huge gap between the backup capacity of the power grid.

Secondly, my country's distributed power generation capacity is large, and the installed capacity increases year by year. At the same time, users with electric vehicles and energy storage can adjust load resources to grow year by year.

Again, with the further advancement of electrical energy replacement, the power consumption of the whole society will continue to rise, and the function of virtual power plants will play a greater role.

In addition to market promotion, the frequent favorable policies have been favorable in recent years, creating a policy environment for the vigorous development of virtual power plants. With the continuous liberalization of the power market transaction and the gradual participation in market transactions in new energy, the demand for power systems for auxiliary services such as peak -regulation and frequency adjustment will greatly increase. Virtual power plants, as market participants, can obtain revenue through power transactions and auxiliary services.

At the same time, many policy documents such as the "Fourteenth Five -Year Plan" modern energy system plan have proposed a virtual power plant demonstration that will be carried out by various resource aggregation.

With market -driven and policy support, virtual power plants are expected to achieve leapfrog growth. However, the development of virtual power plants still faces challenges.

With the development of information and communication, intelligent scheduling algorithms, and intelligent measurement, the technology of virtual power plants is becoming more mature. The development of virtual power plants is usually divided into the invitation stage, market -oriented phase, and independent scheduling stage of cross -space.

Foreign virtual power plants have entered a market -oriented stage. The domestic development stage is still in the early stage of the transition from invitational type to marketization. It is mainly based on pilot demonstration. The market participation is relatively low. And running.

The current construction of virtual power plants in my country has the following characteristics:

First, the top -level design needs to be improved. The construction of my country's virtual power plants is in the early days of development. There are no special policies at the national level, and there are few special policies at the provincial level. The auxiliary service market and the power spot market related to virtual power plants are immature, and the market conditions for virtual power plants to participate in transactions have not yet been completely formed. The industry's technical standard system has not been constructed, and the regulatory system has not been formed. The regulations, specifications and rules participating in transaction operations need to be improved. In terms of aggregating resources, my country is currently dominated by load -side resources, and has not fully released the vitality of renewable energy.

Second, the related technologies of virtual power plants need to be further developed. The related business of virtual power plants needs to meet the requirements of real -time response and reliability. The key technologies include coordinated control technology of real -time and rapid response, advanced artificial intelligence and big data technology. At present, the development of virtual power plants is limited by technology. In addition, my country's virtual power plant's coordinated control functions and strategies for regulating energy in the system need to be improved. The capacity of large -volume and wide distribution of resource distribution is insufficient, and the precise predictive ability is not enough. From data collection, power transactions to user settlement, and providing operating services and solutions for users, this set of procedures is not yet mature. Third, the business model of virtual power plant is unclear. At present, my country's virtual power plant market has low attention and participation, the auxiliary service business is small, and the power spot trading business is in the exploration stage. The timing and conditions of industry development are not mature, and it is difficult to achieve profitability. In addition, the market price mechanism is related to the survival of the virtual power plant, and the electricity price has a great impact on the profit of the virtual power plant. Without the cooperation of electricity price reforms, the expected profit space of virtual power plants may be greatly reduced, and large -scale commercial operations will be affected.

Virtual power plants are a large weapon for saving new energy power and ensuring the safe and stable operation of new power systems and realizing energy supply. It is necessary to actively promote the construction of virtual power plants, stimulate the vitality of virtual power plants, and promote the development of virtual power plants.

First, put the top -level design on the agenda as soon as possible. Use the blueprint for the development of virtual power plants as soon as possible to do a good job of top -level design. Introduce special policies and guiding documents at the national level, and actively encourage the introduction of special policies at the provincial level. Lead the construction standard system of virtual power plants, clarify the definition, scope, development planning, and implementation strategies of virtual power plants, improve the rules of virtual power plants to participate in the power market transaction, and provide policy support and basis for the construction of virtual power plants.

Secondly, actively promote the research and development of core technology. Accelerate the research and development of coordinated control technology, distributed energy controllable capable technology, photovoltaic power generation technology, energy storage technology, etc., improve the ability to regulate the resources of distributed power supply, energy storage and other resources, and improve the intelligent management capabilities of resources. Promote distributed renewable energy into the scope of aggregating resources, give full play to the advantages of the installation of large -scale distributed power supply in my country, achieve scale effects, and improve the safety, stability and economy of the power system.

Third, accelerate the improvement of market mechanisms and incentive mechanisms. The development of virtual power plants is closely related to the progress of the electric spot market and the auxiliary service market. We should solidly promote the construction of the electric spot market, and deepen the reform of the power system and the reform of electricity prices. Gradually promote the marketization of electricity prices, let the power price reflect the supply cost, and make the market mechanism fully play a role. Improve the new energy power participation market trading mechanism and stimulate the vitality of the new energy power market. Accelerate the pace of the auxiliary service market to encourage more market players to participate in the auxiliary service market transactions. At the same time, improve the interactive mechanism of virtual power plants and spot markets, capacity markets and auxiliary service markets.

"China Science Journal" (2022-09-09 The first edition of the original title "How to" rebirth "" "")

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