Summary
In recent years, the rapid growth in national electricity demand, particularly residential consumption, has led to a pronounced "double-peak" feature in electricity use during both summer and winter across the country. The frequent occurrence of extreme weather phenomena has increased the pressure on the safe supply of electricity. The large-scale integration of renewable energy sources, characterized by randomness, volatility, and intermittency, poses new challenges to the stability of the power system. Meanwhile, there is an ever-increasing demand from all sectors of society for safe and stable electricity supply, necessitating a firm bottom line for ensuring electricity safety and supply. In this context, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) publicly solicited opinions on May 19th regarding the "Management Measures for Power Demand Side (Draft for Comments)" and "Management Measures for Power Load (Draft for Comments)." The public consultation period for these drafts runs from May 19, 2023, to June 18, 2023.
1. Key Content
The "Management Measures for Power Demand Side (Consultation Draft)" is revised based on the "Management Measures for Power Demand Side" issued in 2017, while the "Management Measures for Power Load (Consultation Draft)" is revised on the basis of the "Management Measures for Orderly Electricity Use" released in 2011.
The National Development and Reform Commission pointed out in the revised explanation of the "Management Measures for Power Demand Side (Draft for Comments)" that power demand side management refers to strengthening the management of electricity consumption in the whole society, comprehensively adopting reasonable and feasible technical, economic, and management measures to optimize the allocation of power resources, implementing demand response, energy conservation, energy substitution, green electricity consumption, and orderly electricity use in the electricity consumption process, promoting the safe reduction of carbon emissions and efficiency improvement in the power system. Power demand side management will tap into the potential of demand side resources in all aspects, accelerate the coordinated interaction of power generation, transmission, distribution, and energy storage, and play a crucial role in the construction of new power systems and new energy systems.
Compared to the current "Management Measures for Power Demand Side," the "Draft Management Measures for Power Demand Side (Seeking Opinions)" introduces a new chapter on demand response. It addresses short-term power supply and demand tensions and challenges in the consumption of renewable energy power by implementing economic incentives as the primary measure. This guides power users to voluntarily adjust their electricity consumption behavior based on the needs of the power system operation, achieving peak shaving and valley filling, enhancing the flexibility of the power system, ensuring the safe and stable operation of the power system, and promoting the consumption of renewable energy power.
The "Management Measures for Demand Side of Electricity Consumption (Consultation Draft)" indicates that by 2025, the demand response capabilities of provinces will reach 3% to 5% of the electricity load, with provinces having an annual peak-valley load difference rate exceeding 40% achieving 5% or more. By 2030, a scaled-up real-time demand response capability will be established, allowing for the sharing and mutual support of adjustable resource within the grid area, in conjunction with the auxiliary service market and electricity energy market transactions.
In response to the new situation, requirements, and connotations in the national power load management, the "Power Load Management Measures (Draft for Comments)" has similarly added a chapter on demand response. In addition, the draft has refined the requirements for orderly power use and introduced a new chapter on system support.
The "Management Measures for Electric Power Load (Consultation Draft)" defines orderly electricity use as a management approach to maintain stable supply and demand for electricity under circumstances where predictable power supply shortages occur. It involves enhancing power generation capacity, organizing the market, responding to demand, and emergency dispatching, among other measures. If the balance between electricity supply and demand is still unattainable, administrative measures and technical methods are employed to legally control certain electricity loads, ensuring the orderly operation of electricity supply and demand.
The "Management Measures for Electric Power Load (Draft for Comments)" explicitly states that the measures for power rationing should not be abused in the orderly electricity use plans, which may affect the normal social production and living order. It is prohibited to implement differentiated orderly electricity use for energy-consuming enterprises and units in the name of evaluating and assessing the responsibility for energy-saving goals at the national and local levels.
The "Management Measures for Power Load (Consultation Draft)" specifically proposes that, when drafting an orderly electricity consumption plan, five categories should be prioritized for restriction: including projects that have been built or are under construction in violation of regulations, enterprises listed in the industrial structure adjustment directory as淘汰类 or 限制类, businesses with energy consumption per unit product exceeding the national or local mandatory energy consumption limit standards, landscape lighting, illumination projects, and other high-energy-consuming, high-emission, and low-level enterprises.
The "Electricity Load Management Measures (Draft for Comments)" highlights that power operation authorities, energy regulatory agencies, grid companies, and electricity users across regions should enhance the construction, operation, and safety supervision of new electricity load management systems.
The new electric power load management system encompasses both hardware and software platforms designed for load information collection, predictive analysis, testing, regulation, and service for power users, load aggregators, virtual power plants, etc. It serves as an IT辅助 system for electric power demand-side management and is a key implementation platform for load management work.
2. Implementing Power Demand-Side ManagementPower Load ManagementThe Significance
Under the backdrop of the "Dual Carbon" targets, the newly installed power generation capacity in the power generation side is mainly composed of clean renewable energy sources such as wind and photovoltaic power, but under the existing technological conditions, wind and photovoltaic power generation are still difficult to provide stable and adjustable output. To ensure the stability and reliability of electricity supply, demand-side management of electricity is gradually becoming a necessary means to ensure the safety and stability of the power grid and optimize the energy structure. Demand-side management of electricity is achieved by adjusting and controlling the electricity consumption behavior of users to balance the supply and demand of the power system and improve energy utilization efficiency. Implementing demand-side management of electricity can reduce peak load by changing users' electricity consumption behavior, improve grid utilization, ensure electricity safety, and alleviate the pressure of new energy integration.
Delay Grid Investment, Enhance Grid Utilization Efficiency
Demand-side management of electricity can be achieved by rationally arranging customers' electricity consumption behaviors, regulating electricity loads, and optimizing the distribution of grid load, thereby delaying the need for grid investments and reducing operational costs. On one hand, demand-side management can optimize electricity consumption structures, lower the load pressure on the grid, and minimize the need for grid expansion by achieving goals such as energy conservation and clean energy use. On the other hand, it can also improve grid utilization efficiency, reduce grid dispatching costs, and promote grid upgrading and intelligent construction through the establishment of flexible market mechanisms, further enhancing grid utilization and operational efficiency.
Reduce Peak Load to Ensure Electricity Safety
Demand-side management of electricity can guide users to reduce or shift electricity consumption during peak hours through time-of-use pricing differences or incentive mechanisms, thereby lowering peak loads. Peak loads can easily lead to power supply shortages, voltage instability, equipment damage, and pose serious threats to the safe and stable operation of the power system. Implementing demand-side management can effectively control peak loads by adopting various methods such as reducing peak electricity consumption, shifting load valley values, increasing off-peak loads, and adjusting load curves, avoiding supply-demand imbalances caused by excessively high peak loads, reducing the operating pressure on the power system, minimizing the risk of power shortages, and ensuring the safety and reliability of the power system.
Enhance system flexibility and alleviate the pressure of integrating new energy sources
Demand-side management of electricity can enhance the flexibility and adaptability of the power system, mitigate the impact of new energy integration on the power system, reduce the impact of new energy fluctuations on the power grid, and lower dispatching costs. Furthermore, demand-side management can also alleviate the pressure of new energy integration by changing the structure of users' energy consumption, encouraging the use of new technologies such as distributed energy and energy storage systems, thereby improving the reliability of the system.
The system advances the deepening and upgrading of demand-side management in the power sector, alleviating the pressure on peak electricity consumption, and achieving energy conservation, environmental-friendly, green, intelligent, and orderly electricity use. This promotes the safe and stable operation of the power system and high-quality development. Specifically, the following three aspects of work should be addressed.
Firstly, we are committed to market-oriented reform and optimizing the power market system, implementing market regulation mechanisms.
By leveraging electricity price differentiation and peak-valley pricing systems, guide users to moderately reduce electricity consumption during peak hours, thereby regulating the electricity load and alleviating the pressure on the power supply system; establish a transparent, fair, and standardized power market environment, promote the reform of the power market, improve the market-oriented system and market supervision mechanism, and enhance market competitiveness; establish a power trading platform, providing services such as information exchange and transaction matching, to offer more convenient and transparent trading services for the power market; strengthen market supervision, prevent market monopolies, ensure fair market competition, prevent market failure, and improve the efficiency and fairness of market transactions.
Secondly, we are committed to conserving electricity and promoting demand response initiatives.
Extreme promotion of demand response, strengthening the top-level design of demand response, clarifying regulatory requirements, promoting the integration of demand response into power planning, improving demand response incentive mechanisms, and encouraging large industrial users to participate in real-time demand response upgrades; establishing energy-saving standards, limiting the electricity consumption of energy-intensive industries during specific time periods, and ensuring enterprises develop comprehensive energy-saving management systems and formulate independent energy-saving standards and measures; perfecting peak-valley electricity pricing, adjusting differentiated electricity prices based on the actual output of new energy sources, guiding users to adjust their electricity consumption behavior under significant differences in peak-valley electricity prices, and reducing peak electricity loads; enhancing the promotion of energy-saving measures, and encouraging the use of energy-saving lighting, appliances, and new energy equipment through fiscal subsidies and other means, while encouraging enterprises, residents, and public institutions to adopt energy-saving technological measures.
We remain committed to technological support, enhancing our digital capabilities.
We are promoting deep integration of information and communication technology, infrastructure, and energy, optimizing and improving the power demand-side management platform. By utilizing big data and artificial intelligence technologies, we analyze electricity usage data to achieve electricity consumption forecasting and scheduling,调节peak-valley loads, and alleviate the pressure on peak electricity consumption. We also establish an electricity supervision platform using big data and AI to monitor and control electricity usage in real-time, enhancing regulation and management of electricity consumption behaviors. By promoting the "Internet + electricity service" model, we provide precise services to users, enhance their electricity usage experience, and guide them to consciously reduce electricity consumption during peak hours, thereby lowering the peak electricity load.
--Excerpt fromNorth China Electric Power University - Zeng Ming、Wang Yongli"Implementing Demand-Side Management to Alleviate Peak Pressure on Low-Carbon Power Systems"
3 Demand-Side Management of ElectricityLoad ManagementDigital Solutions
The issuance of the "Management Measures for the Demand Side of Electric Power (Consultation Draft)" and the "Management Measures for Electric Power Load (Consultation Draft)" is timely, addressing practical issues of the new power system and providing policy support and solutions to ease the contradiction between electric power supply and demand. It is reported that recently, local power load management centers at the city or county level have been established across the country, marking a substantial and critical step in the reform of the power load management system. This is of great significance in accelerating the management of the demand side of electricity and power load management. For instance, the Ningbo Energy Big Data Management Center (Power Load Management Center) has connected the energy consumption data of over 10,000 large-scale enterprises and 3,079 key energy-consuming enterprises in Ningbo, as well as air conditioning load data from 698 public buildings, and has launched over 20 energy big data products, including public building air conditioning load management, industrial park energy management, and green factory energy monitoring.
AcrelEMS' Enterprise Microgrid Energy Management System addresses the demand and load management needs of corporate microgrids. By integrating the Internet of Things and big data technology, it offers functionalities such as power grid monitoring, energy consumption statistics, load forecasting, lighting control, key load monitoring, EV charging station operation management, PV power generation monitoring, energy storage management, and demand response. This enhances the intelligence of corporate power distribution and usage, assisting businesses in achieving reliable, safe, and efficient electricity consumption. Additionally, the system can serve as a subsystem for regional electricity demand-side platforms and power load management platforms, receiving demand response instructions from higher-level platforms. As a power demand-side management service provider, Ankorui has consistently offered demand-side and load management solutions to enterprises.
Figure 1: AcrelEMS Corporate Microgrid Energy Efficiency Management System Network Structure
Figure 2: Anker Power Demand-Side Management Service Agency Capability Assessment Certificate
3.1 Power Monitoring
AcrelEMS provides real-time monitoring and control of electrical parameters, operating status, contact temperatures, and other related equipment such as transformers, circuit breakers, DC screens, busbars, reactive compensation cabinets, and cables in low and high-voltage distribution and transformation systems. It also monitors and improves the power quality of the main circuits in the enterprise microgrid, handles faults promptly, and sends out alerts, enhancing the reliability of the enterprise's power supply.
Figure 3: Power Monitoring Feature
3.2 Photovoltaic Power Generation Monitoring
Monitor the operation of corporate distributed photovoltaic power stations, including inverter operation data, photovoltaic power generation efficiency analysis, power generation and revenue statistics, as well as photovoltaic power control.
Figure 4: Photovoltaic Power Generation Monitoring
3.3 Energy Storage Management
Monitor the operating modes, control strategies of Energy Storage Systems (EMS), Battery Management Systems (BMS), and Power Conversion Systems (PCS), as well as battery current, temperature, and SOC/SOH. Detect system insulation conditions, and set the charging and discharging strategies of the energy storage system based on the company's peak and off-peak characteristics, electricity price fluctuations, and instructions from the superior platform. Control the charging and discharging of the energy storage system to achieve peak shaving and valley filling, thereby reducing the company's electricity costs.
Figure 5: Energy Storage System Monitoring
3.4 Power Forecast
The system predicts power demand and photovoltaic power generation curves for the next cycle of the enterprise, based on historical load data and combined with weather factors and production plans, providing data support for the company to schedule energy plans and respond to demand in advance.
Figure 6: Power Generation Forecast
3.5 Energy Consumption Analysis
Collect data on energy consumption for electricity, water, gas, and other energy sources, categorize and itemize energy usage statistics, calculate energy consumption data per square meter or per product, and identify trends. Conduct energy efficiency diagnostics for major energy-consuming equipment, calculate corporate carbon emissions, and provide data support for the company's carbon peak and carbon neutrality routes.
Figure 7: Energy Consumption Analysis Feature
3.6 Lighting Load Control
The intelligent lighting control function can implement scheduled control, light sensing control, scene control, dimming control, etc., based on the company's needs. It integrates infrared and ultrasonic sensors to achieve automatic lighting when people are present and turning off when they leave. Furthermore, it can be centrally controlled according to the system's control strategy, thereby saving electricity for lighting purposes in the enterprise.
Figure 8: Lighting Control Feature
3.7 Charging Station Load Management
Monitor the operational status of corporate charging stations, provide charging station fee management and status monitoring functions, and adjust the power of charging stations based on changes in corporate load rates and instructions from the demand-side management platform, ensuring the safe and stable operation of the corporate microgrid and responding to the power demands of the superior platform.
Figure 9: Charging Station Management
3.8 Requirements Management
Based on fluctuating data of enterprise load and in conjunction with dispatch instructions from the superior platform, the decision is made on how to participate in the grid's demand response. The platform can adjust charging and discharging times by issuing control strategies to the energy storage system. During the demand response period, the platform adjusts the power of controllable loads, stops supplying power to interruptible loads, and can also formulate demand response control strategies based on the enterprise's controllable load data, enabling one-click response.
Figure 10: Illustration of Demand Response
3.9 Hardware Equipment for Power Demand-Side Management
Power demand and load management require software integration with various power monitoring and control devices, including comprehensive high and low voltage protection and monitoring products, power quality monitoring and treatment equipment, various smart meters, IoT meters, lighting control sensors, charging stations, contact temperature measurement, and remote control devices. Ankerui can provide a one-stop service for power demand and load management on the enterprise side.
4Closing Remarks
Electricity demand-side management is a digital system for all electricity-consuming enterprises in society. Effective electricity demand-side management begins with the intelligent management of corporate microgrids. It is an essential means to balance electricity supply and demand, a fundamental guarantee for improving the level of energy consumption management, and a critical path for achieving the consumption of clean energy and sustainable energy development. In the process of building China's modern energy system, electricity demand-side management will continue to play a significant role, promoting the transformation and upgrading of energy consumption and supply patterns in our country, and achieving a win-win situation for economic development and environmental protection.
