National Standard for Electrochemical Energy Storage Configured in Power Systems to Be Issued
China Energy Storage Network News: Recently, the National Technical Committee for Electric Energy Storage Standardization issued a letter to solicit public comments on the national standard Planning Guide for Electrochemical Energy Storage Stations Configured in Power Systems (hereinafter referred to as the Guide). The Guide aims to standardize the technical principles for planning electrochemical energy storage stations deployed in power systems, strengthen top-level design, highlight scientific guidance, boost the integrated development of new energy storage with all links of the power system, and underpin the construction of the new-type power system.
“At this stage, there is a lack of unified standards and specifications for energy storage planning within the new-type power system,” Zhang Donghui, Director of the System Hybrid Simulation Institute of Tsinghua Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute, told reporters. China is vigorously developing new energy sources and building a new-type power system with a rising share of new energy. As a key supporting component of the new-type power system, energy storage needs to be incorporated into power grid planning at an early stage, or treated as an important special topic in grid planning. Therefore, the release of the Guide is highly necessary and urgent.
It is understood that China has rolled out national and industrial standards on grid integration of electrochemical energy storage, including Technical Specifications for Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems Connected to Power Grids and General Technical Requirements for Electrochemical Energy Storage Systems in Power Systems. Nevertheless, energy storage planning remains vague overall, and universal analytical models are absent.
The compilation notes of the Guide also state that to meet the development needs of the new-type power system, clarify the application scenarios and functional positioning of electrochemical energy storage stations in building the new-type power system, and align electrochemical energy storage development with energy and power planning, it is imperative to standardize the principles and requirements for the planning and configuration of electrochemical energy storage stations. For the deployment of electrochemical energy storage stations, the total energy storage demand shall be determined from the perspective of the entire power system to satisfy system requirements such as peak shaving, frequency regulation and emergency power support. Wind farms, photovoltaic power stations and user-side entities shall define their energy storage configuration ideas and methodologies based on their respective scenarios such as smoothing power output fluctuations and tracking planned power curves. On the grid side, electrochemical energy storage stations shall be planned and deployed in the power grid by combining overall system demand with the layout of energy storage on the generation side and user side, so as to meet the overall requirements of the power system and advance the coordinated development of source-grid-load-storage in the power system.
The Guide specifies demand forecasting for electrochemical energy storage stations configured in power systems, as well as configuration methods for electrochemical energy storage stations on the generation side, user side and grid side. The Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage, previously issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, clearly targets the transition of new energy storage from the initial commercialization stage to large-scale development by 2025, with an installed capacity exceeding 30 GW.
Given the overall target already in place, why is demand forecasting and standardized configuration methodology still required? According to Zhang Donghui, the first step in planning electrochemical energy storage stations for power systems is demand forecasting. Planning is only carried out when there exists urgent, long-term and system-wide demand. “There remain many ambiguities and inconsistencies within the industry regarding configuration approaches, making it difficult for all stakeholders to reach consensus on energy storage planning and deployment.”
Traditional power source planning methods are basically designed for power sources with definite or relatively stable output and high controllability, such as large-scale thermal power and hydropower units. These power sources can independently support grid peak shaving, so deterministic boundary processing methods are generally adopted for planning. In contrast, new energy features stochastic and uncontrollable output. Large-scale integration into power grids requires coordination from other power sources or flexible resources. Boundary processing using conventional methods tends to lead to overly conservative or aggressive planning results.
Zhang Donghui stated that as a flexible regulation resource for power systems, energy storage is an indispensable component in the planning of new-type power systems. As China further taps the flexibility potential of existing conventional units and demand response capacity on the load side, and the economic performance of energy storage resources for regulation improves, energy storage will play an increasingly vital and core role in new-type power system planning. In the future, energy storage planning must be matched whenever new energy projects are developed. “The Guide serves as a guiding standard, and its detailed provisions are subject to further refinement and deepening.” (Reporter: Lu Qixiu)