The original link: http://news.315.com.cn/20160405/100681894.html
As a major clean energy in the development in the country’s “13th Five-Year Plan”, the importance of distributed PV power plants is increasingly highlighted. Recently, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued "Management Measures of Full-Amount Protective Acquisition for Power Generated with Renewable Energies" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"), putting forward that power generation with biomass, geothermal energy and ocean energy, and distributed PV power generation project shall temporarily not participate in market competition, and grid companies will acquire on-grid volume of electricity at full amount. The policy guarantees the interests of distributed PV operators, favoring the enterprises investing in the distributed photovoltaic power generation projects.
A full-amount acquisition of electricity volume
The full-amount protective acquisition of power generated through renewable energies refers to under the pre-condition of guaranteeing a safety of electricity generation, grid companies (including power dispatching agencies), in accordance with the on-grid benchmark power price decided by the country and the number of hours utilized for protective acquisition, make a full amount purchase of on-grid volume of electricity generated by renewable energy projects that are within the scope of the plan for a full-amount acquisition, through combining market competition mechanism and implementation system of priority of power generation.
The “Measures” issued by NDRC recently is applicable to the power generation by wind power, solar power, biomass power, geothermal power, ocean energy power and other non-hydro renewable energies. The power generation from hydropower may be implemented with reference to the “Measures”. This means that the full–amount protective acquisition applies not only to “three wastes” – abandoned wind, PV power and water - that have become the focus, but also to the power generated with biomass power, geothermal power, ocean energy power and other renewable energies.
In addition, the "Measures" also sets a series of conditions for the power enjoyed by renewable energy electricity generation in the priority of grid connection and power dispatching, including renewable energy projects must be in line with national planning, which must obtain an administrative permit, be filed and meet the standards for grid connection. The distributed photovoltaic power generation projects shall temporarily not join market competition, whose on-grid volume of electricity shall be acquired by grid companies at full amount.
Industry insiders said the above "Measures" have made more substantial adjustments, compared to the previous draft. But the policy for the full-amount acquisition of the distributed PV power generation is retained.
Solving the issue of abandoning photovoltaic power
According to Director of China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University Lin Boqiang, if that problem cannot be resolved as soon as possible, the momentum developing electricity generation through photovoltaic power will be weakened, and it will be nearly impossible to drop the development costs down. "Large-scale centralized PV fields are very far away from the market, and a frequent power rationing leads to instable power supply, resulting in higher costs in grid operation; also, the power grid cannot be guaranteed to have the priority to access to. Distributed PV power plants require lower access requirements, which produces small impact on the grid. As long as they are near the market, a full acquisition can be guaranteed", said Lin Boqiang.
It is known that the distributed power generation projects require to be connected into grid at voltage of 35 kV and below (66 kV and below inNortheast China), and require a single project capacity no more than 20,000 kilowatts. It supports that Principle of Proximity shall be applied to power generation, grid connection, power conversion and power utilization. Using these principles can not only improve effectively the power volume generated by the photovoltaic power plants at the same size, but also effectively solve the problem of power loss in boost and long-distance transmission. According to other data, distributed power plants have accounted for more than 70% in European countries, while inChinait only accounts for 16%, leaving a huge space in development.
A preferential policy for owners of roof-distributed PV power
Undoubtedly, the full acquisition of the electricity volume generated capacity will benefit enterprises investing in distributed PV power generation. In the opinions of Xing Zhou, General Manager of Yingli Solar Power Investment Group, the releasing of the "Measures" indicates the country will continue to greatly develop the power generation with renewable energies, especially encourage the construction of distributed photovoltaic power plants. "The ‘Measures make investors reassured to let them enhance confidence in investing distributed photovoltaic power generation projects, in particular the owners with roof will strengthen their confidence in the investment significantly", said Xing Zhou. "Originally, those owners with roof worried about their investment in building distributed photovoltaic power plants. If the grid is unable to be acquired at full amount, their interests cannot be guaranteed. After the releasing of the "Measures", the electricity volume generated by distributed PV power plants will be fully acquired, providing the owners with stable revenue. As a result, their enthusiasm will grow, and accordingly investment channels for the distributed PV power stations will be broadened".
But Lin Boqiang thinks although the "Measures" favors photovoltaic power enterprises and distributed power plants, the biggest reason for abandoning PV power, a very serious issue now, is insufficient demand for electricity, and power generation through renewable energies has been excessive. To fundamentally solve the problem of abandoning PV power, we need to strive to improve the social demand for electricity.
Xing Zhou also said that for now, the features of distributed PV power plants have ensured the power plants built to realize grid-connection timely. That means the releasing of the “Measures” won’t exert a big effect on some enterprises. In addition, funds and other institutional investors have little interest in investing roof-distributed PV power plants. They worry about some problems faced the factories where the distributed PV power plants are located, such as poor management, plant demolition, and power plants unable to disinvestment.
Some other experts pointed out that local governments may create resistance to a certain extent, particularly in the place with a large number of thermal power units or installed capacity of renewable energies, In the context of an economic growth slowdown, how to balance the interests between renewable and traditional energy power generation enterprises will be confronted by the local governments.
