The reporter from Seedao.com learned from the authoritative person of the National Energy Administration that according to the reports of various provinces, there are 219 pumping and storage projects that basically meet the approval conditions during the "14th Five-Year Plan", with a total scale of 270 million kilowatts, of which 11 projects have been approved, with a total of 14 million kilowatt.

In the view of industry insiders, accelerating the development of pumped storage is an important mechanism to ensure the large-scale and high-proportion development of new energy sources and to replace traditional energy sources safely and reliably. "2022 is the first year to start the high-quality development of pumping and storage, and the task is arduous."

The 14th Five-Year Plan approved 219 projects

It is understood that pumped storage is an important part of the energy system, and has been included in the list of major investment projects accelerated by the State Council. During the "14th Five-Year Plan", 219 projects will be approved, with a total investment of 1.6 trillion yuan. Investment, build as much as possible, and strengthen infrastructure construction. Up to now, the installed capacity of pumped storage is about 38 million kilowatts. The "15th Five-Year Plan" is expected to start construction of 80 million kilowatts, and the "16th Five-Year Plan" is expected to start construction of 40 million kilowatts, with a total investment of about 280 million kilowatts.

"Through the efforts of all parties, the owners of most of the 270 million kilowatt projects have been identified." Zhang Jianhua, director of the National Energy Administration, said at the video conference that the approval target for 2022 has been approved by investment companies, pumping and storage industry organizations, and the General Hydropower Institute. After repeated coordination, the list of work plans approved by the provinces in 2022 shows that there are 52 approved projects in 2022, 64 million kilowatts, involving 19 provinces. At present, most of these projects have completed the pre-feasibility study and entered the feasibility study stage, and the pre-feasibility study of other projects is about to be completed. Judging from the current situation, most of these projects can complete the feasibility study before the end of the year. , with approval conditions.

The reporter learned that the competent national authorities require that the approval of projects that meet the approval conditions should be accelerated, and incentive measures should be taken to link the development of follow-up projects with pumping and storage and the allocation of new energy resources to encourage projects to start construction as soon as possible. The National Energy Administration has made it clear that the owner's project has not yet been identified, and it is necessary to speed up the progress to make it clear as soon as possible. The provincial energy authorities will quickly formulate implementation plans for 2022 and the "14th Five-Year Plan" approved projects, clarify various requirements, and implement the responsibilities of all parties.

What cannot be ignored is that a few of the 219 projects approved in the "14th Five-Year Plan" may not be approved on time or even launched due to various reasons, so some qualified sites need to be added. The reporter was informed that the National Energy Administration has recently completed the compliance of the first new projects since the release of the "Pumped Storage Medium and Long-term Development Plan (2021-2035)", and 8 projects in Jiangxian County, Shanxi have been included in the key implementation projects of the medium and long-term plan. , and other provinces with project compliance needs and adjustment needs are stepping up work. In addition, relevant provinces and the General Hydropower Planning Institute are carrying out resource surveys around deserts, Gobi and deserts to solve the problem of the mismatch between the number of new energy projects and pumping and storage sites.

Equipment manufacturing, survey and design are short boards

The pumping and storage industry chain is long, including investment, survey and design, construction, and equipment manufacturing. Problems in any link will affect the entire project. The reporter learned from an interview that the New Energy Department of the National Energy Administration organized industry organizations and the General Hydropower Planning Institute to conduct in-depth research last year, and made an overall judgment and evaluation of the industry chain. Judging from the evaluation results, there are not many problems in the investment process. The major energy central enterprises are very enthusiastic, and the local enthusiasm is also very high, and the investment subjects are diversified. At the same time, China's construction force is very strong, which is conducive to stimulating employment and the economy.

At present, the shortcomings of the development of the pumped storage industry are mainly survey and design and equipment manufacturing, which have a large and highly concentrated workload. At present, the survey and design units of pumped storage mainly include 7 survey and design institutes of China Power Construction System, Northeast Institute of Water Conservancy System and Guangdong Institute. The capacity of the design units is about 50 million kilowatts per year. The reporter was informed that there are 214 pumping and saving projects currently determined by the design unit. Among them, POWERCHINA's subordinate design institutes are responsible for 184 projects, accounting for about 80%, mainly in the East China Institute, the Central South Institute, the Northwest Institute, and the Beijing Institute.

Zhou Jianping, chief engineer of China Power Construction Group, once told reporters that in order to promote the healthy and rapid development of the pumped storage industry, China Power Construction has further established a process-based, standardized and modular design system, which has greatly improved production efficiency and the quality of design results.

In addition to the heavy task of survey and design and the tight time, it is particularly noteworthy that the equipment manufacturing and supply capacity of pumped storage units needs to be improved. At present, the national maximum annual output capacity of pumped storage units is about 80 units, about 25 million kilowatts, which are concentrated in Dongdian and Harbin Electric. Since the pump storage construction period takes 6-8 years, after the large-scale approval and start of construction during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the pressure on equipment manufacturing and delivery is mainly during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. According to industry insiders, there is still time to study how to deal with this problem. "As long as there is a market, there is no need to worry about equipment."

Small and medium-sized pumping and storage costs are high

Chen Dongping, former deputy secretary-general of the China Society of Hydropower Engineering, told reporters that the video conference proposed to actively explore and practice innovative projects such as small and medium-sized pumping storage, small and micro pumping and storage according to local conditions, combining actual conditions, and targeting different fields and objects. The development of the pump storage industry is a good addition. Compared with mainstream large-scale pumped-storage power stations, small and medium-sized pumped-storage power stations have the advantages of abundant site resources, flexible layout, low inundation loss, diverse units, convenient access to the system, and short construction period, so the development of small- and medium-sized pumped-storage power stations is very promising. 

The reporter learned that since last year, the New Energy Department of the National Energy Administration has been studying how to speed up the development of small and medium-sized pumped storage construction. At present, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hunan and other provinces are also carrying out the work of small and medium-sized savings.

It is particularly worth noting that the main problem of small and medium-sized pumped storage is the high cost of construction, which is as high as about 10,000 yuan per kilowatt. Therefore, it is necessary to further clarify the functional positioning of small and medium-sized pumped storage, such as from traditional peak shaving, valley filling, Inherent functions such as frequency modulation, phase modulation, black start, emergency backup, etc. are transformed into specific functions; optimized design, and research to raise the underground water transmission power generation system to the ground; research on suitable construction technology and equipment, reduce construction costs, and further explore adaptation to small and medium-sized pumping. Accumulated business models and profit margins. Editor / Xu Shengpeng