Power consumption in peak season green power becomes the key

Thermal power to green power

Thermal power generation is still one of the main power generation methods in China, accounting for over 70%.

Under the parallel situation of long-term coal prices and market-oriented prices, thermal power generation companies are often faced with a dilemma: on the one hand, the huge pressure on business operations, on the other hand, is the safety and security responsibility of the national economy and people’s livelihood.

It seems that a new path has been provided for thermal power companies under heavy pressure: from thermal power to green power, or partially to green power. This can not only reduce carbon emissions, but also give full play to the stable advantages of thermal power, and play a role in peak regulation for green power.

According to relevant documents, by 2050, non-fossil energy power generation will account for 91% of China’s power supply, and renewable energy power generation will account for 86%.

Facing the target of 86%, as the main power generation group in China, the five major power generation groups that account for half of China’s total installed capacity have started the journey of turning thermal power into green power.

Among the five power generation groups, SPIC takes the lead in the feasibility study and construction drawing design of wind farms, and is the first to actively participate in the construction of photovoltaic power plants.

The early development experience provides SPIC with advantageous conditions for the development of green power.

Subsequently, China Huaneng, DATANG INTERNATINONAL POWER GENERATION and CHD also set targets for the proportion of clean energy installed capacity in 2025, all of which are higher than 50%.

In addition, CHN ENERGY, which is the first of the top five, is also striving to achieve 70-80 million kilowatts of newly installed renewable energy by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, accounting for 40% of the total.

In the past September, three of the five power generation groups have intensively deployed green power business.

China Huaneng and Solargiga Energy jointly established a company to develop energy technology and CCUS technology, and operate energy storage, wind, hydro and solar power generation businesses to expand new energy business.

Green power has achieved remarkable results

The business combination of thermal power + green power not only reduces carbon emissions and promotes the realization of the dual-carbon goal, but also saves coal consumption and reduces losses caused by the high cost of coal use.

At present, the addition of green power business enables CHD to make up for the loss gap, SPIC to reduce losses, and to re-rank the top five power generation groups.

CHD maintains an annual investment of 20 billion to 30 billion for the development of new energy assets such as wind and solar, and is now ushering in a bumper season, becoming a positive example of thermal power conversion to green power.

For SPIC, the green electricity business has made it a jump in the ranking of the top five. A few days ago, the total half-year profit of SPIC surpassed China Huaneng for the first time in five years.

In the past five years, SPIC’s accelerated expansion of wind power photovoltaic business, the total assets of 2020-2021 increased by more than 25%, the fastest growth rate among the five power generation groups. At the same time, SPIC is also the company with the highest proportion of renewable energy + nuclear power among the five major power generation groups in China.

In 2021, the proportion of renewable energy + nuclear power installed capacity will exceed 60%, which is the closest to the target of 86%.

The transformation battle of CHN ENERGY is also worthy of attention. In 2021, CHN ENERGY will develop renewable energy and build China’s first large-scale wind power photovoltaic base projects of 13.9 million kilowatts, ranking first among state-owned enterprises.

GD POWER, a subsidiary of CHN ENERGY, lost 1.845 billion RMB last year, while its hydropower and wind power segment made a profit of 2.5 billion RMB.

In addition, the subsidiary CLPXY, as the world’s largest wind power operator, has been in good news since the beginning of 2022, signing a number of large renewable energy contracts.

In contrast, the development of DATANG INTERNATINONAL POWER GENERATION and CHD in the field of renewable energy is relatively lagging behind.

In 2021, both China Huaneng and SPIC’s newly installed renewable energy capacity will exceed 10 million kilowatts, and China Huaneng will have 6.92 million kilowatts.

Although the newly installed capacity of CHD renewable energy has increased significantly compared with 2020, there is a clear gap between China Huaneng and SPIC. And DATANG INTERNATINONAL POWER GENERATION added only 1.6225 million kilowatts.

Photovoltaic – a breakthrough for green electricity

In the layout of green power, the five major ones have mostly chosen wind power and photovoltaics according to their own conditions. In terms of effectiveness, photovoltaics are the most popular and the most effective.

Taking China Huaneng as an example, Huaneng Power had already tasted the sweetness in the photovoltaic business before it cooperated with Solargiga Energy.

In the first half of this year, China Huaneng’s photovoltaic business made a profit of 529 million RMB, a year-on-year increase of 43%, which is invaluable compared to China Huaneng’s overall loss of 3 billion RMB.

In the second half of this year, China Huaneng has stepped up its deployment in the photovoltaic field.

In July, the photovoltaic modules supervised by China Huaneng Smart Chain have been applied to the group’s projects for the first time and are oriented to the whole industry.

In August, China Huaneng launched a 10GW high-efficiency photovoltaic module manufacturing project with a total investment of 5 billion RMB. In September, a total of 547MW of PV projects in China Huaneng started.

The established leading position of China’s photovoltaics in the world has laid a strong foundation for the development of the global market.

Stimulated by the huge market potential, many central energy enterprises have extended their tentacles to the photovoltaic manufacturing sector.

Up to now, including China Huaneng and CHINA RES POWER, 12 state-owned enterprises have entered the photovoltaic manufacturing industry, covering fields such as batteries, photovoltaic modules, inverters, glass, and plastic films.

These state-owned enterprises are entering the photovoltaic manufacturing industry on a large scale. Relying on their own industrial scale advantages, the five major power generation groups have attacked green power and started a second venture, which also means that a new round of competition has begun.