Wind power grid-connected fear of new national standard aggravated corporate transformation costs

The new technology standards for wind power grid-connected based on safety considerations may greatly increase the company's costs. At the same time, due to the lack of relevant requirements for the grid, it is difficult to achieve substantial improvement in wind power grid connection.

The State Electricity Regulatory Commission issued a notice on the 8th and approved the issuance of the "Technical Regulations for Wind Farm Access to Power Systems" (hereinafter referred to as "the new national standard"). The new national standard will propose a national-level new standard for wind power grid-connected technology, which together with the energy industry standard "Technical Specifications for Large-Scale Wind Farm Grid-Connected Design" jointly specifies the relevant technical requirements for the integration of wind farms.

The release of the new national standard was due to frequent accidents in the wind power industry in connection with the grid since last year.

On February 24, 2011, 598 wind turbine generators escaped from the network in Jiuquan, Gansu Province; on April 17th, 702 wind turbine generators were disconnected from the network in Ganzhou, Gansu Province; on the same day, 644 wind turbine generators were disconnected from the network in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province.

An insider of Goldwind said that the main cause of large-scale fan off-grid accidents was the lack of part of wind farm grid-connected standards and that some wind turbines did not have low-voltage ride-through capability. Since then, the state has stepped up its regulation of the wind power industry, which has led to the introduction of the above technical standards.

However, the newspaper learned that due to the high cost of related technological transformation, wind power companies generally believe that the introduction of the new national standard will greatly increase the cost of the company.

Shi Pengfei, deputy director of the Wind Energy Professional Committee of the China Renewable Energy Society, told reporters that the cost of retrofitting low-voltage ride-through will be shared by wind farm operators and wind turbine manufacturers.

A senior source of Longyuan Power reported to this newspaper that the wind farms to carry out low-voltage traversing transformation should launch dynamic reactive power compensation, and the requirements are very high. Therefore, at present, the cost of transforming a normal-scale wind farm will be more than 100 million yuan, and the cost that large operators will bear may be more than 1 billion yuan.

For manufacturers, Shi Pengfei said that the low-voltage ridethrough retrofit technology for wind turbines using direct-drive permanent magnet technology is simple and costly. Units adopting other technical routes will face high renovation costs of 100,000 to 500,000 yuan per unit. Some people even estimate that the cost of reforms paid by domestic wind turbine manufacturers may exceed 10 billion yuan.

In addition, the technological transformation has led to an increase in the cost of wind power companies. It is also due to the delay in the loss of project approvals by the competent authorities. Since most of the current wind power projects implement the sales model of wind turbine manufacturing and wind farm development and construction, the delay in project approval will directly affect the operating conditions of the wind turbine manufacturers.

In July 2011, the National Energy Administration issued the “Circular on the Planned Approval of the First Batch of Wind Power Projects for the Twelfth Five-Year Plan” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”), and on the basis of reviewing the various local development plans, the 5. The first batch of wind power projects to be approved shall not be approved for projects not listed in the “Notice”, but wind power projects below 50,000 kW may be approved by the local government.

Huarui Wind Power related parties expressed to this newspaper that after the National Energy Administration issued the “Notice”, wind power project approvals were postponed, coupled with delays in project approval and macroeconomic cyclical fluctuations, resulting in delays in the construction of part of the company's projects. Caused a decrease in sales and net profit.

On January 31, 2012, Sinovel Wind Power announced that its net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company in 2011 was more than 50% lower than the same period of last year.

In October of last year, Goldwind announced its 2011 third quarterly report that the company's 2011 annual results had been reduced. In 2011, net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies fell by 50% to 100% compared with the same period of last year.

Some industry experts also pointed out that the new national standard should not only be aimed at operators and manufacturers, but also make corresponding demands on the stability of the power grid, otherwise the costs incurred by the former two parties are too high.

A major domestic wind farm operator senior executive told this newspaper that due to the lack of standardization in the initial stage of development of the wind power industry, more accidents occurred last year, which made power grid companies also tightened their approval of wind farms, and the approval of power grid companies is exactly a government wind power project. The decisive factor in the approval process.

The senior management believes that the technical requirements for grid integration of wind power should be aimed at wind farm operators, wind turbine manufacturers and the grid. Therefore, at the same time when the first two parties carry out the transformation of low-voltage ride through technology, the grid should also strive to ensure stability and cooperate.

"If there is no requirement for the power grid, even if the new national standard comes out, it will be difficult for the wind power to be connected to the grid to achieve a fundamental improvement," said the senior executive.