Conference presentation

On May 15, 2018, China Distributed Energy Workshop was held in Beijing. The workshop was hosted by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the State Grid Energy Research Institute Co., Ltd., and the Energy Internet Research Institute of Tsinghua University, and co-organized by the Energy Efficiency and Investment Assessment Committee of China Energy Research Society and China New Energy Power Investment and Financing Alliance. Nearly 200 people from government, business, industry association, financial agencies, and research institutes attended the seminar.

Supported by Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), WRI is leading the research project on China Distributed Energy Development. It aims to analyze the development potential, application models, and driving forces of China’s distributed energy, further, to develop action plan for promoting distributed clean energy.

The seminar was composed of four sections. First, experts from the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Grid Energy Research Institute gave keynote speeches on the relationship between distributed energy and energy transformation and the key issues faced. And then, experts from UNEP, the World Bank, WRI, and the GIZ shared the practical experience of international cooperation projects. In the driving force discussion section, experts from the policy research and energy internet fields made speeches from the perspectives of policy-driven, technology-driven, and business-driven; local government and corporate representatives participated in the panel discussion, sharing their own practical experience and obstacles encountered. In the last session, experts from the China Energy Research Society presented a strategic concept on the roadmap of distributed energy. Besides, WRI raised a strategy and action plan to promote distributed energy in China, and jointly proposed to formulate a coalition for distributed energy in China

In this seminar, the State Grid Energy Research Institute released a research publication Distributed Power and Micro Grid Development, Perspective and Road Map. The research team conducted a systematic study on distributed power and micro-grid development, covering the definition and scope, development status quo and prospects, key issues, and road maps of distributed power. The Distributed Power Purchase Contract Version 2.0 was released jointly by China New Energy Assets Investment and Financing Platform, China New Energy Investment and Financing Alliance, Sunshine Law Firm, and Zhong Lun Law Firm, providing a package of standard contracts for distributed clean energy trading.

Takeaways:

  • Scenario analysis shows that DE will play an important role on China energy transition.
  • DE is an important component of the Grid, and National Grid needs to provide robust support to DE systems.
  • Incentive policy is changing. The main purpose is to reduce dependence on subsidy.
  • Distributed solar is leading the growth of distributed clean energy system. More clean energy resources and technologies such as onsite wind, small hydro, biomass, urban waste, energy storage system, smart management system etc. will be integrated.
  • Cost of renewable energy is declining fast, especially, solar system is not far away from grid parity.

Recommendations:

  • Enhance the policy implementation and regulation, set up standards for quality control and evaluation system for performance tracking.
  • Taking load demand into account, optimize energy system planning and layout across the country.
  • Strengthen the connection of distributed clean energy systems with power grid, heating and gas networks.
  • Simplify the approval procedure of distributed clean energy projects; establish coordination mechanism cross departments.

Proposed to Formulate Coalition for Distributed Energy in China. Main tasks include:

  • Track and present research, trends, policies, application models (“use cases”) pilot experience, and expert viewpoints.
  • Provide a discussion platform for industry, developers, researchers, and advocates.
  • Jointly conduct projects, including pilot projects to highlight the scale-up potential from new policies or practices, most currently like DG trading, and green power purchase and consumption.
  • Jointly work with identified stakeholders to advocate platform establishment on distributed intelligent energy and accelerate practices for distributed energy and to define and prioritize pilot projects and use cases.
  • Prioritize the distributed energy on zone/park, new urbanization, and new rural center areas, and promote awareness of integration of distributed energy with sustainable transport (electric vehicles) and sustainable buildings (zero-net-energy and low-carbon buildings).
  • Propose to formulate tools kit for innovation of distributed energy development (including demonstration at local on policy development, projects/ technologies/ models, and tracking and evaluation of progress in pilot cities).
  • Undertake capacity building activities, including developing project decision tools, and connect financing sources with projects.
  • Promote recognition and knowledge sharing of the unique and emerging experiences with distributed energy in China and the world through a “network of practice and knowledge.”