OREANDA-NEWS. China used 6 years to have the largest newly added installed capacity of wind power in the world with the rapidest increase, which took western developed countries 15 to 20 years to accomplish. China’s installed capacity of wind power was only 400MW in 2003. However, at the end of 2012, the integrated installed capacity of this kind excelled 75GW. It is estimated that that number will reach 140GW in 2015. China’s wind power is just like a blowing baboon, beautiful but full of crises. Some problems have become more pervasive, such as accommodation difficulty, surplus wind, low utilization rate, etc. The power grid has reached its safety limit. In prospect, the country needs to overcome these difficulties for a new situation of its wind power industry.

China has added the biggest installed capacity of wind power with the rapidest growth around the world in recent years. Its integrated installed capacity of wind power has reached 75GW. As the biggest producer, China’s problem of surplus wind in some regions has been a “growing pain”of the industry. Some people say that the root to the problem should be addressed to solve this problem by sorting out the planning in the upstream, strengthening management and scientific layout, and synchronizing wind power and grid accommodation. While some people argue the real key is to construct long-distance, large-capacity transmission channels and establish a consumption market for wind power on a national or even broader basis. Whatever the arguments are, they are about the reflection on the industrial development of new energy like solar and wind power in recent years and the review on the experience and conflicts in this course.

Rapid Expansion of China’s Wind Power

 “It’s a miracle for China to establish a complete industry system for wind power within a decade,” says Zhang Guobao, former Chief of National Energy Administration (NEA).  According to Chinese Wind Energy Association, China’s installed capacity of wind power was 75.32GW by the end of 2012, topping the world. It took China only 6 years to get there, which took European countries and the U.S. 15 years. However, at the same time, this rapid growth has brought increasingly prominent concerns.

According to NEA, an average of 1,890 hours of wind power was utilized in China in 2012, down 30 hours against 2011. Xie Changjun is the general manager of Longyuan Power. The company lost 1.3 billion yuan due to power rationing, which reached 13.8%. He says: “this reflects the rationing ratio of the whole country. 5% for wind power rationing should be reasonable.”

Some delegates from the electric power industry also showed concerns about surplus wind and power rationing during the Two Sessions this year. Some NCCPC members pointed out the power generated by surplus wind excelled 50% in some regions, especially in the Three North (northwest, north, and northeast China). Actually, Dali of Yunnan had to abandon 10% of its wind power because of abundant hydropower from the South. Wind power and hydropower are competing with each other and wind has to make way for water.

Yet, there is no sign of cooling down in the wind power market just because of surplus wind. A lot of hot money and investment is still entering into this field. The rapid expansion has not slowed down. Now with the third batch of wind power projects approved for the 12th Five Year by NEA, China will add another 80GW installed capacity of wind power with a growth rate of 25% in the next 3 years. The number will hit 140GW by the end of the 12th Five Year, which is 40% more than the 100GW target specified at the China Development Plan of RE and Wind Power for 12th Five Year.

Some experts worry that there is a mismatch between wind power projects and grid construction. On one hand, installed wind power is increasing. On the other hand, power grid is lagged behind. It will result in more surplus wind and can trigger a series of problems and conflicts. Yan Luguang, an academician from Chinese Academy of Sciences, says: "Without good conditions, a large proportion of wind power in the power grid is not conductive for peak shaving nor wind power accommodation. If massive wind has to be given up due to accommodation, its benefits can be greatly jeopardized. "

In fact, these contradictions and problems have existed and continued to intensify. Wind power plants are complaining about integration. But even integrated, the utilization hours are declining. Supply is way too much for demand.

Shi Jingli, researcher at Energy Research Institute, NERD, says: “it’s not fair nor objective to blame grid for abandoning wind resources. For the industry itself, it developed faster than expected and did not fully consider external factors.”

In fact, grid companies have their own difficulties. According to SGCC spokesperson Zhang Zhengling, a wind farm can be built up within a few months but its transmission project takes more than one year to accomplish because it involves multiple factors, such as land acquisition, construction and grid integration.

According to CEC, the national average utilization hours of wind power were about 2000 between 2006 and 2012, roughly equal to that in developed countries. In China’s East and West Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Northern Hebei with concentrated wind power, the electricity fueled by wind power accounts for 20% of the total consumption, almost the same with Denmark, Germany, and Spain with developed wind power industry. It’s safe to say that grid companies have done their best.

The latest data show that China hit record high in wind power generation capacity in the first quarter of 2013. The accommodated wind power by SGCC was 29.42TWh, up by 49.5%, which was 19% higher than the increase of wind power installed capacity. It indicates that the accommodation capability has outperformed capacity installation and integration within SGCC’s service area.

The Pain of Surplus Wind: Tough Channel

Surplus wind is the most direct response from a series of problems, such as difficult integration and accommodation, more surplus wind, and more frequent wind power accidents. First, it has something to do with China’s geographic endowment of wind power resources. Deputy Secretary-General of the CEC Ouyang Changyu says: "different from Europe and America, China’s wind resources concentrate in the Three North regions, where accommodation capability is limited. Plus the construction of trans-regional transmission channels is lagged behind. Therefore, the problem becomes more protruding.”

Second, China has not yet formed a unified market for consuming wind power or national networking capability. It’s difficult to adapt to large-scale development of wind power in the future and the need to optimize resources in a large scope. “SGCC accommodated 50GW wind power because the grids in these areas are networked. So with some unified dispatching and load arrangement, we can make it happen,” says Ouyang Changyu.

Third, the plans for wind power and grid lack coordination. SERC pointed out that the most important problem for the wind power industry in Three North regions was the mismatch between the plans for wind power and power grid in the Inspection and Regulation Report on Wind Power Accommodation in Key Areas in 2011. The Report took Hebei as an example. The installed capacity of wind power in operation, approved or ready to be approved, has reached 14.9GW, far more than the target of 10.13GW of installed capacity for 2015 specified in Hebei Wind Power Development Plan.

Director of wind power technology center of Gansu Electric Power Company Wang Ningbo says: "if there is no unified planning on wind power, power grid and power consumption, the integration problem for wind power cannot be spared given fast development of wind power and lagged development of power grid. It’s inevitable to have inadequate capacity for accommodation in the market. "

In addition, Zhang Guobao also points out: "surplus wind and water is due to lagged construction of transmission lines and poor delivering channels. People are suffering and complaining about polluted air but we abandon so much clean energy. This shouldn’t be happening. The reason is because there is no final say about UHV, and no grid plan so far. Electricity cannot be sent out.”

The Way out: UHV

As we all know, Zhang Guobao created the concept of “wind power of the Three Gorges”, which is widely spread in the industry. However, another concept of his, “building large bases to integrate into the big grid”, is neglected and forgotten to some extent.

CEEC Deputy GM Zhang Xianchong says: "expanding the scope for accommodating wind power is an important method to enhance its accommodation capability. Wind power’s output characteristics require the grid to be able for optimal allocation in a wide range. " "It’s inevitable for China to construct large wind power bases to integrate into the big grid. Wind power and solar power account for only 2% of the total generation in the country. It’s not a problem to accommodate the power at such capacity,” he indicates.

According to SGCC’s plan, there will be 3 vertical UHV AC lines, 3 horizontal UHV AC lines and a circular UHV AC line in North China, Mid China and East China and another 11 UHV DC lines will be constructed during the 12th Five Year Plan. Till 2020, the company will build a UHV backbone grid with North China, Mid China and East China as the core and connecting the grids in major regions and main load centers. It’s estimated that the transmission capacity of a UHV line is more than four times of a 500kV line with doubled transmission distance. After the UHV grid of three vertical and three horizontal lines in completion, SGCC can send the 70GW wind power from the Three North regions to North China, Mid China and East China according to the plan.

At the same time, experts also urge the government to improve relevant policies apart from technology, such as the price mechanism for trans-provincial accommodation of wind farms, or increasing subsidies for integrating wind power to the grid. “Currently the problem of large-scale wind farms’ integration and accommodation into the big grid is unique in China. But it is solvable,”says Yan Luguang. “The key is to plan the wind power construction in advance and everything else is based on this premise.”

Ouyang Changyu says: " scientific development, coordination and planning is the key for China to become a wind powerhouse.” Now that major breakthroughs have been made in new energy and grid technologies, and UHV technology is mature, new energy is ready to be massively developed. “I look forward to the day when China becomes the No.1 superpower of wind energy in the world.”