Greenhouse gas emissions are directly related to fossil energy consumption, and to achieve carbon neutrality, fossil energy consumption must be reduced. Therefore, the proportion of non-fossil energy in primary energy consumption has become an important indicator to quantify China’s “double carbon” process, and the main form of non-fossil energy consumption is clean electricity converted from non-fossil energy. Therefore, clean electricity is the core of energy decarbonization.

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On March 15, 2021, the ninth meeting of the Financial and Economic Commission of the CPC Central Committee proposed the concept of a new power system for the first time, “to build a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system, control the total amount of fossil energy, strive to improve utilization efficiency, implement renewable energy alternative actions, deepen the reform of the power system, and build a new power system with new energy as the main body.”

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As one of the important carriers to achieve the goal of “dual carbon”, the new power system has become a hot topic in the past year, and has caused widespread heated discussion in the power industry and even the whole society. Schneider Electric Business Value Institute believes that building a new type of power system is the trend of The Times, is the only way for the high-quality development of the energy and power industry, and is the key path for the whole society to achieve a better future of carbon neutrality. “New energy as the main body” is its core feature, the development of new power system is to adapt to the process of large-scale access to new energy.

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Bilateral fluctuation triggers qualitative change of mechanism

Clean power, represented by solar power and wind power, is characterized by natural randomness, volatility and intermittence, which requires the power system to maintain short-term power balance and long-term power balance, bringing multiple challenges to the safe and stable operation of the power system.

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From the power supply side, wind power has the inverse load characteristics of low in the day and high in the night, while photovoltaic has the characteristics of daytime and night, and it is often unable to maintain a stable output. The increase in the installed penetration rate of new energy represented by wind power and photovoltaic will greatly increase the stability risk of the power grid, and bring greater challenges to the balance of power and electricity in time and space.

From the point of view of power demand, the peak-valley load difference of China’s grid is increasing year by year. With the development of cities and the deepening of the degree of electrification, the replacement of electric energy in the industrial field will further amplify the existing peak-valley difference on the demand side. At the same time, the increase in the number of electric vehicles in the field of transportation will break the original relatively stable law of power demand based on industrial and residential electricity consumption, which will further amplify the impact of new energy access on the stability of the power system.

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In the process of new energy becoming the main energy, the operation balance mechanism and overall planning mechanism of the power system will have a qualitative change. The existing power system “power with load”, the operation logic based on planned scheduling will face fundamental challenges. Therefore, the new power system with new energy as the main body must solve the original problem of flexibility and operation stability of the power system under the condition of high proportion of new energy connected to the grid and deal with the uncertainty of source-load.