Building installed storage capacity to increase grid stability, bolster country's carbon ambitions

As China continues to move toward a more sustainable energy mix with a gradual increase in its clean energy proportion, energy storage will be of great importance to the country's high-quality development of the manufacturing sector, said political advisers and national legislators.

Liu Hanyuan, a national legislator and chairman of Tongwei Group, a new energy company specializing in solar cell manufacturing, suggested carrying out further exploration of pumped storage stations, as China's power storage industry is experiencing rapid growth with renewables taking up an increasing share.

With increasing demand for more flexible adjustment power capacity, the government should come up with a batch of pumped storage projects over the coming few years, especially small and medium-sized pumped storage projects close to the load center with a shorter construction period, he said.

Pumped storage hydropower is the most common type of energy storage in use today. It saves excess power by pumping water from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir at night when electricity demand is low and releasing it to generate power during the day when demand is high.

Pumped storage hydropower currently makes up 77.6 percent of the country's total power storage projects. Its installed capacity reached 45.79 million kilowatts by the end of 2022, ranking tops worldwide, according to figures released by the China Electricity Council.

Liu Yong, secretary-general of the energy storage department under the China Industrial Association of Power Sources, added that energy storage facilities will ensure the steady operation of the power grid while meeting the demand for the ever-growing power generated by renewable energy.

Fluctuating power output by renewable energies, including solar and wind power, will have negative impacts on the operation and scheduling of the power grid. The application of energy storage, however, ensures the steady operation of a new type of power system in the country, he said.

In addition to supporting the efficient use of a high proportion of new energy sources, Ouyang Changyu, head of the State Grid Energy Research Institute, said that energy storage will play a bigger role in ensuring a stable supply of electricity during extreme weather such as high temperatures and cold snaps.

An energy storage system based on pumped storage and supplemented by electrochemical and other energy storage methods will further facilitate the country's ambition to achieve a carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, he said.

New energy storage refers to electricity storage processes that use electrochemical, compressed air, flywheel and supercapacitor systems but not pumped hydro.

The development of new types of power storage like lithium-ion batteries has been on a fast growth track. The latest data from the National Energy Administration showed that as of the end of 2022, the installed capacity of new energy storage projects put into operation nationwide had reached 8.7 million kW, with an average energy storage time of about 2.1 hours, an increase of over 110 percent from the end of 2021.

The government plans to further accelerate the development of new types of power storage in the years to come, advancing from the initial stage of commercialization to large-scale development by 2025, with an installed capacity of more than 30 million kW.

The country has vowed to realize full market-oriented development of new energy storage by 2030, as part of efforts to boost renewable power consumption while ensuring stable operation of the electric grid system, said a statement released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration.