Smart Grid Working Group News Go back »
2012-05-24 | Beijing
23rd May, 2012, Xinhua
While the Chinese public are expecting government reform to break a perceived monopoly in the electricity sector, reports of privately owned power plants offering lower charges to local users have heated debate on China's public-private split in utilities management.
Weiqiao Pioneering Group, a conglomerate in east China's Shandong province that holds various interests ranging from garment production to electricity, has become the center of discussion after it was found to be transferring and selling its self-generated electricity to nearby factories and households at prices over 30 percent lower than those offered by the country's national grid.
Though widely welcomed by the public, doubts have been raised over the validity of the practice as, although China allows private capital in electricity generation, the following stages of transmission, distribution and sale of electricity remain under firm government control.
"According to current regulations, private power plants constructed by local enterprises should be confined to self-use. Additional power should be sold to the state grid for distribution," according to Yang Zonglin, a senior engineer with the East China Grid Company.
Critics have also pointed to risks in transmission safety and environmental concerns.But to Chinese consumers who have long grumbled about a monopoly that grants state-controlled power companies unrestrained rights to set prices, the message is simple and clear: with more competition allowed, costs and prices can be brought down.
"Aren't state-owned power companies always complaining about losses? Why is the price offered by Weiqiao is so low then?" read an entry posted on Sina.com, the popular Chinese microblogging site.
However, Lin Boqiang, director of Xiamen University's China Center for Energy Economics Research, rejected such simple logic, saying it is not rational to compare the prices.
"Of course the self-generated electricity will be cheaper, because the enterprises do not have to bear social responsibilities for additional government funds," he said, referring to the fees that are included in the government-set electricity prices for the purpose of funding public projects such as water conservation.
These charges account for roughly 7.2 percent of the price, according to China Business News.
But instead of pure price considerations, what has really bothered Chinese consumers concerning electricity as well as the similar oil pricing mechanism is a lack of transparency on the part of state-linked firms.
For example, China's power companies only make public the on-grid price and the final selling price, leaving the majority of people in the dark about transmission and distribution costs. This has triggered doubts over their profit margins, though the companies have constantly blamed financial pressures on the widening gap between the government-set electricity price and the market-oriented coal price.
Even the destination of those fees collected for government funds, a hefty sum accumulated over the years, has remained elusive to the public.
The China Business News estimated the public fees in the area totalled 280 billion yuan (44.4 billion U.S. dollars) last year.
"What is important is whether the additional fees had been used for the intended purposes," read another Weibo post.
Between state-owned companies' financial crunch and public discontent over prices, Lin said the key solution lies in making information available to let the public know the costs of supplying electricity and see whether they had benefitted or suffered in the government-set prices.
In addition to stressing this need for transparency, the energy academic said China should encourage private investment in the reform of the pricing mechanism and carry out pilot schemes in key areas first.
"Under the same requirements of social and environmental responsibilities, let's see whether private enterprises can create more values," Lin suggested.
Smart grid China: Latest 5-year plan shows why China is pulling ahead
25th May, 2012, Smart Grid News
China's 12th Five Year Plan recently released by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is, as we would expect, an ambitious initiative that affects several major industries and includes a commitment to several breakthroughs in key core technologies. Actually, ambitious may be an understatement.
The 12th Five-Year Plan in Smart Grid Major Science and Technology Industrialization Projects indicates that construction will accelerate even more than it has in the past.
According to a report from SGT Insights, the scope of China's smart grid plan includes large-scale renewable energy and connection technology, the joint operation of large-scale energy storage technology, large-scale grid interconnection, long distance transmission control technology, distribution automation, microgrids, smart meters and demand response technology.
The plan also identifies the six major industries to take part in the accelerated smart grid effort:
· Clean energy generation manufacturing, such as wind and solar power generation
· New materials industry, including photoelectric conversion materials, energy storage
materials, superconducting materials and nano-materials
· Infrastructure manufacturing, including new electrical and electronic devices,
transformers and more
· Information and communication, including instrumentation, sensors, software and more
· Alternative energy automotive industry
· Home appliances and consumer electronics
Dr. Honghang Song from MOST's high-tech department, commented "Smart grid is not only a key to develop large-scale intermittent renewables but also (has) an important supporting role for developing new energy strategy in emerging industry."
Smart grids = smart cities
30h May, 2012, Renewable Energy Magazine
Earlier in the year, Shanghai (China) will play host to another “smart” event supported by China’s MOHURD (Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development) and MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology). Smart City Asia Congress 2012 will be held from 3 to 5 July.
Today’s cities are experiencing significant transition – the urbanization. This urbanization is an unstoppable phenomenon. According to United Nations forecasts, the proportion of the human population residing in cities is expected to grow to nearly 60 percent by 2030 and to almost 70 percent by 2050.
To tackle the challenges arising from urbanization, around 102 smart city initiatives worldwide have been undertaken. Just name a few: the Amsterdam Smart City initiative, Yokohama Smart City Project in Japan, Guangzhou Knowledge City in China, Songdo IBD Smart City, and Masdar City.
As well, the investment on Smart Cities is going to skyrocket. It is essential that cities connect to share best practices and explore together in becoming pathfinders for this new wave of technologies and services.
With these developments and know-how, Shanghai, the financial centre of China, will play host to Smart City Asia Congress 2012, allowing participants to meet with 200+ decision makers and senior executives from cities, local governments, smart technology companies from China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, UAE, the United States, Germany, UK, the Netherlands and elsewhere.
Exploring opportunities - from the explosion of renewable energy
30th May, 2012, Galleon Events
According to the latest China’s 12th Five-Year-Plan (FYP) of Renewable Energy
Development, the development goals have been raised with the installed capacity of wind power from 90GW to 100GW and solar power from 5GW to 10GW. In the past two years, although the rapid growth of renewable energy has been slowed by the global economic recession, China Government will be actively supporting renewable energy development as always. The main bottleneck of renewable energy development is the integration into the grid. To provide better channels for renewable energy transmission, distribution and consumption，China will invest 2 trillion RMB (about $308 billion U.S.) to build-out the basic structure of a robust smart grid.
Since the former standards on wind farm integration lack the mandatory force of constraint from the government, the integration problem hasn’t been solved at root. Last year there have been 200+ dropout accidents of wind farm, of which 12 are large-scale ones. So as to improve the reliability and stability of wind power generation, February the Standardization Administration of China formally approved the release of the new national standard requesting more and even stricter standards on LVRT, active power control,reactive power compensation capability of wind turbine and testing of connection. It will take effect on 1st of June and push forward the integration of the industry. Overseas suppliers for advanced technology and equipment definitely shouldn’t miss this great chance to seek business in China.
Energy storage is the key solution for power grid and renewable energy, generation,transmission, distribution and user sides would all benefit from its application. However,the energy storage industry has also been facing the challenges from technologies,application and policy. Many new technologies of energy storage still need to be tested and verified in maturity, reliability and economy. To maximize the efficiency for the integration of energy storage system in utility-scale and to realize the industrialization for the industry would be the focus. We need the clear profit mechanism and related policy,
law, regulation for the healthy，rapid and stable development.
China Clean Energy Grid Integration Summit 2012 is gathering together Government,Power Grid Companies, Power Generation Companies/Investors, Power Plants and Energy Storage Plants Developers/Operators, EPC Contractors, Wind, Solar & Grid Technology and Equipment Providers and other industry associations to meet and discuss the upcoming challenges and opportunities in terms of renewable energy grid integration. They come together to evaluate strategies and technologies to secure safe,stable and reliable generation, integration, transmission, distribution and consumption of renewable energy. Renewable energy integration is a serious and urgent issue demanding more cooperation and innovations. This is a must-attend event featuring huge opportunity to win new business and increase your market share in China.