Gansu energizes reboot efforts with supplies of excess power

Northwest China's Gansu province is contributing to the national efforts for resumption of normal life and industrial activities from the COVID-19 shock by supplying its excess electricity to other parts of the country.

The move is not only helping the province to make full use of its electricity generation capacity, thus reducing power loss, but boosting energy sales, thereby creating potential additional revenue.

Construction of a new power grid connecting Gansu and Shandong province has been progressing steadily. The infrastructure will help transmit electricity generated from coal, wind, and photovoltaic sources in Gansu to other areas, using ultra-high voltage direct current technology.

The technology allows large-capacity electricity transmission over long distances with high efficiency and minimum distribution losses.

Before the project, Gansu cooperated with Guangdong province and Beijing. In 2018, electricity generated from clean sources in Gansu was first transmitted to Guangdong. Supplies to Beijing started in 2019.

According to State Grid Gansu Electric Power Co, the undertaker of the new grid project connecting Shandong province and the operator of all grids in Gansu, electricity supplies from the province to other areas can help sustain the development of the local power industry. The current electricity generation in Gansu exceeds local consumption.

In a recent document, the company said Gansu's electricity consumption is about 20 percent of the levels seen in other energy-guzzling provinces like Shandong and Jiangsu. Even peak consumption levels in Gansu are less than one-third of its generation.

Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, said excess electricity needs to be used up as it cannot be stored like a commodity. It is also challenging to adjust generation levels, particularly when energy sources are clean, to meet current demand as fluctuations in natural resources are beyond human control.

With the completion of Jiuhu grid construction in 2017, Gansu-based Qilian Converter Station has so far transmitted more than 14.87 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy to other areas.

In 2019, the Hexi Corridor's 750 kV Third Line Reinforced Project in Gansu was completed and put into operation, which will increase Hexi's clean energy transmission capacity to over 8.5 million kilowatts to regions on its east and to 6 million kilowatts to provinces on its west.

By 2019, Gansu's supplies to other provinces reached 42.2 billion kWh, up 30 percent year-on-year.

Accumulative power transmitted from Gansu since 2016 reached 110.6 billion kWh. State Grid Gansu Electric Power Co said the external transmission goal for this year alone is 52 billion kWh.

Meanwhile, Gansu is continuing to promote new energy consumption. In 2019, it generated 35.2 billion kWh from clean sources, up nearly 7 percent year-on-year, while total consumption rate of clean energy generated in Gansu increased by 9.95 percentage points year-on-year.

But new energy consumption still faces challenges. "Factors like the random, volatile and intermittent characteristics of new energy power generation, the small scale of electricity consumption and insufficient peak shaving capacity still pose big challenges to Gansu's new energy consumption," said Chen Zhenhuan, director of the dispatching center of State Grid Gansu Electric Power Co.