Construction Begins on China's First Grid-Level Flywheel Energy Storage Frequency Regulation Power Station

On June 7th, Dinglun Energy Technology (Shanxi) Co., Ltd. officially commenced the construction of a 30 MW flywheel energy storage project located in Tunliu District, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province. This project represents China's first grid-level flywheel energy storage frequency regulation power station and is a key project in Shanxi Province, serving as one of the initial pilot demonstration projects for "new energy + energy storage." The station consists of 12 flywheel energy storage arrays composed of 120 flywheel energy storage units, which will be connected to the Shanxi power grid. The project will receive dispatch instructions from the grid and perform high-frequency charge and discharge operations, providing power ancillary services such as grid active power balance. With a total investment of 340 million yuan and a construction period of 6 months, it is expected to be grid-connected and put into operation in December of this year. Once completed, this project will become the world's largest flywheel energy storage power station, propelling China's flywheel energy storage technology into a new stage of large-scale commercial demonstration and expanding the technological and commercial value of flywheel energy storage.

Official Release of Energy Storage Subsidies in Xinjiang: Capacity Compensation of 0.2 CNY/kWh, Capacity Lease of 300 CNY/kW·year, and Peak Shaving Compensation of 0.55 CNY/kWh

On May 19th, the Development and Reform Commission of Xinjiang officially released the "Notice on Establishing and Improving Supporting Policies for the Healthy and Orderly Development of New Energy Storage." The notice outlines subsidy policies for new energy storage, including the following: Independent energy storage capacity will receive a capacity compensation of 0.2 CNY/kWh discharged, gradually decreasing by 20% annually starting from 2024 until 2025. For peak shaving and ancillary services, a compensation of 0.55 CNY/kWh will be provided for charging, and a compensation of 0.25 CNY/kWh will be provided for discharging (without simultaneous capacity compensation). Furthermore, it stipulates that independent energy storage systems operational in the four southern prefectures of Xinjiang must undergo a minimum of 100 complete charge and discharge cycles in 2023. The capacity lease price will be set at 300 CNY/kWh before 2025, and new energy enterprises and shared energy storage enterprises shall sign long-term lease agreements of over 10 years based on the  lease reference price of the year.

Guangdong Robust energy storage support policy: user-side energy storage peak-valley price gap widened, scenery project 10%·1h storage

On June 5, the Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Guangdong Provincial Energy Bureau issued Measures to Promote the Development of New Energy Storage Power Stations in Guangdong Province, which mainly proposed 25 measures from five aspects: expanding diversified applications, strengthening policy support, improving operation scheduling mechanism, standardizing project construction management, and strengthening coordination guarantee. To promote the integration of new energy generation with new energy storage, offshore wind power projects, centralized photovoltaic power stations, and onshore centralized wind power projects must be equipped with new energy storage facilities that are no less than 10% of the installed capacity and have a duration of 1 hour. User-side energy storage projects that utilize products recognized as meeting advanced and high-quality product standards shall be charged electricity prices based on the province-wide cool storage electricity price policy (i.e., the peak-valley ratio will be adjusted from 1.7:1:0.38 to 1.65:1:0.25, and the peak-valley price differential ratio will be adjusted from 4.47 times to 6.6 times).

The National Energy Administration approved 310 energy industry standards such as Technical Guidelines for New Energy Storage Planning for Power Transmission Configuration of New Energy Bases

On June 12, the National Energy Administration approved 310 energy industry standards such as "New Energy Base power Transmission Configuration New energy storage Planning Technical Guidelines" and 19 foreign language editions of energy industry standards such as "Code for Seismic Design of Hydropower Projects". Industry standards related to energy storage include: Specifications for Economic Evaluation of Pumped storage Power Stations, Technical Guidelines for New Energy Storage Planning for Power Transmission Configuration of New Energy Bases, Guidelines for Post-Evaluation of Fire-Pumped Storage Frequency Regulation Projects, Operation and Maintenance Regulations for Compressed Air Energy Storage Power Stations, "Technical Conditions for Carbon Plastic Composite Bipolar Plates Used in All-Vanadium Flow Batteries," and "Testing Methods for Zinc-Nickel Flow Battery Electrodes," among others.

Gansu Province Became The First Region in China to Open up The Peak-shaving Capacity Market for Energy Storage

On January 5, the Gansu Energy Regulatory Office of the National Energy Administration released the notice of the "Gansu Provincial Power Auxiliary Service Market Operation Rules (Trial)", and Gansu Province became the first region in China to open the peak-shaving capacity market for energy storage. According to the operation mode and function of grid-side energy storage, the document divides it into independent energy storage and independent shared energy storage, and the entry threshold is 10MW/20MWh and above. For peak shaving capacity market transactions, the upper limit of reporting and compensation standards is temporarily implemented at 300 yuan/(MW·day). For frequency regulation auxiliary service market transactions, the upper limit of quotations is temporarily set at 12 yuan/MW. For demand response compensation price, the lower and upper limits of peak shaving response are 0 and 1000 yuan/MWh; the lower and upper limits of the valley filling response price are 0 and 500 yuan/MWh; the lower and upper limits of the emergency peak-shaving response price are 0 and 1500 yuan/MWh; the lower and upper limits of the emergency valley filling response price are 0 and 750 yuan/MWh.

The National Standard "Safety Regulations for Electrochemical Energy Storage Stations" Was Released

Recently, GB/T 42288-2022 "Safety Regulations for Electrochemical Energy Storage Stations" under the jurisdiction of the National Electric Energy Storage Standardization Technical Committee was released. This national standard puts forward clear safety requirements for the equipment and facilities, operation and maintenance, maintenance tests, and emergency disposal of electrochemical energy storage stations, and is applicable to stations using lithium-ion batteries, lead-acid (carbon) batteries, redox flow batteries, and hydrogen storage/fuel cells, other types of electrochemical energy storage stations can use it as a reference. The standard points out that the battery room/chamber should be equipped with an automatic fire extinguishing system, which is linked with the battery management system(BMS), fire detector or flammable gas detection device, air conditioner, and exhaust system, and has the functions of remote passive command start and emergency mechanical start. The minimum protection unit of the automatic fire extinguishing system should be a battery module, and each battery module should be equipped with a detector and a fire extinguishing medium nozzle separately. The fire extinguishing medium should specifically have good insulation and cooling properties, which can extinguish battery fires and electrical equipment fires and prevent re-ignition.

Inner Mongolia Government Releases Energy Storage Support Policy

On December 19, the Government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region issued several policies (2022-2025) supporting the development of new energy storage technologies. These policies will support the large-scale development of new energy storage technologies such as lithium batteries, redox flow batteries, compressed air energy storage, and flywheels. The construction of renewable energy generation projects should be equipped with energy storage facilities according to the requirements, for new guaranteed grid-connected renewable energy projects, energy storage systems should be configured according to 15%&2h, and for new market-oriented grid-connected renewable energy projects, storage systems should be configured according to 15%&4h. The government will increase the implementation of time-of-use electricity prices, timely adjust the price difference between peak and valley electricity prices to more than 3:1, and create profit space for the development of energy storage. It will also establish a market-based compensation mechanism, and the independent energy storage stations can receive subsidies. The upper limit of subsidy is 0.35 yuan/kWh, and the subsidy will not last for more than 10 years. Independent energy storage stations will be encouraged to obtain income through market-oriented methods such as leasing and selling, but the corresponding capacity will no longer receive subsidies.

The Largest Single Liquid-cooled Energy Storage Station in China Was Connected to The Grid

On January 15, the 500MW+150MW/300MWh (energy storage) wind power project in Xinghe County, Ulanqab City was connected to the grid at full capacity, which started on May 8, 2022. Under the influence of many factors such as high technical difficulty, poor weather conditions and heavy epidemic prevention tasks, it took 8 months complete, creating the best record in the construction of wind power projects. At present, the project is the wind power grid-connected project with the largest energy storage configuration in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and it is expected that the annual power generation will reach 1.6 billion kWh, the annual output value will reach 460 million yuan, and the tax revenue will reach about 53 million yuan. The project, which is by far the largest single liquid-cooled energy storage power station in China, is considered to have laid a good foundation for the construction of a 10-million-kilowatt renewable energy base in Ulanqab City.

Changzhou Released New Energy Storage Subsidy Plan

On January 28, Changzhou City held a press conference to introduce the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a New Energy Capital" and "Changzhou's Policies and Measures for Promoting the Construction of a New Energy Capital" . The policy proposes to promote the large-scale application of energy storage, and support the integrated development of new energy sources such as photovoltaics and energy storage facilities. For new energy storage stations with an installed capacity of 1 MW and above, a subsidy of no more than 0.3 yuan/kWh will be given to investors based on the amount of discharge electricity from the next month after grid connection and operation, and the subsidy will not last for more than 2 years. Changzhou will also promote the construction of integrated demonstration projects of "PV-Storage-Charging-Repair-Swapping Service".

Chongqing Liangjiang New District: A Subsidy of 200 yuan/kWh Will Be Granted According to The Scale of Energy Storage Systems

On February 2, the Management Committee of Chongqing Liangjiang New District issued the "Special Policy for Supporting the Development of New Energy Storage in Chongqing Liangjiang New Area" to encourage the demonstration of new energy storage applications. For projects such as user-side energy storage, distributed photovoltaic+storage, and charging & swapping integration projects that have been registered and put into operation in the district, a subsidy of 200 yuan/kWh will be granted according to the installed capacity if the energy storage duration is not less than 2 hours. The maximum subsidy for a single project will not exceed 5 million yuan. For independent energy storage projects that have been registered and put into operation in the district, which participate in grid dispatching at the same time, the amount of support will be determined separately.

China speeds up Research of Solid-state Batteries, Sodium-ion Batteries And Other New Batteries

On January 17, six departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued guidance on promoting the development of the energy & electronics industry, which required the development of safe and economical new-type batteries for energy storage. Efforts will be made to tackle key problems in the industrialization of new-type energy storage batteries, and promote the large-scale application of advanced energy storage technologies. China will make breakthroughs in key technologies such as ultra-long life and high-safety battery systems, large-scale and large-capacity efficient energy storage technologies, and mobile storage for transportation applications, and accelerate the research of new-type batteries such as solid-state batteries, sodium-ion batteries, and hydrogen storage/fuel cells. China will promote intelligent production processes and equipment, advanced integration & manufacturing technologies, and performance testing and evaluation technologies. China will also improve its ability to secure key resources such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and platinum, strengthen the application of alternative materials, and promote hybrid energy storage systems based on complementary power-type/energy-type electrochemical energy storage technologies.

China's First Large-capacity Supercapacitor Hybrid Energy Storage Frequency Regulation Project Successfully Went Online

Recently, the supercapacitor hybrid energy storage assisted thermal power unit AGC frequency regulation demonstration project of Fujian Luoyuan Power Plant undertaken by XJ Electric Co., Ltd has been successfully put into operation, marking the successful application of supercapacitor energy storage assisted frequency regulation technology. This project is also the first large-capacity supercapacitor hybrid energy storage frequency regulation project in China. XJ Electric Co., Ltd. provided 8 sets of 2.5MW frequency regulation & PCS booster integrated systems and 6 sets of high-rate lithium-ion battery energy storage systems for the project. The successful implementation of this project marks the first application of the supercapacitor energy storage technology in the field of power plant frequency regulation, which fills the technical gap in related fields and has great reference value.