From Russia in the north to Myanmar in the south, China has opened the prelude to foreign purchases of electricity. Some experts believe that China’s energy consumption structure should be adjusted to “replace electricity with electricity”.

When more people are focused on Sino-Russian oil and gas pipelines, an electric power link connecting China's Heilongjiang and Russia's Amur states has been running for more than five years. This unique energy channel generates only 0.26 yuan per kilowatt-hour of electricity. , far lower than the domestic thermal power price of 0.44 yuan, the economic benefits even more superior than imported oil and natural gas.

“Replacement by electricity” is a fresh topic, but Hu Zhaoguang, vice president of the State Grid Energy Research Institute, and his team started research as early as 2006. He proposed that 620 billion kWh of electricity can replace 100 million tons of oil and increase energy efficiency by 2.73 percentage points. This replacement of 100 million tons of oil will not only greatly ease China's energy pressure, but also save on high oil purchase costs.

"Oil and gas are storable, and international oil and gas trade is often interrupted by politics. However, in the short term, the output side is less damaged, and electricity cannot be stored. Once it is interrupted, it will bring similar serious economic losses to the power supply side. Hu Zhaoguang said that the advantages of purchasing electricity are more pronounced than those of oil and natural gas. This is reflected not only in price but also in transmission and politics.

"The surplus energy resources in our neighboring countries have always been ignored." Bai Jianhua, deputy chief economist of the State Grid Energy Research Institute, said that he was a little sorry that Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan in the north have abundant coal and water resources, and the south of Myanmar is even more Is a large hydropower, are a good target for imports.

"We have specially made research reports to the relevant departments to prove that it is feasible to purchase electricity from abroad." Bai Jianhua has repeatedly reiterated that foreign power purchases must rise to the national strategic level like imported oil and natural gas, otherwise it will become difficult to purchase electricity. Heavy.

Foreign purchase of electricity in action Heilongjiang Electric Power Company is a pioneer in foreign power purchase. In 2011, Heilongjiang Power Company purchased 1.227 billion kWh of electricity from Russia, an increase of 244 million kWh from 2010, an increase of 24.8% year-on-year. This part of the electrical energy is mainly passed through the Heilongjiang Electric Power Company 110 kV black line (Orava Blagoveshchensk to Heihe City transmission line) and 220 kV cloth line (Obragovices to Aihui County transmission line ), sale in the Heihe area. It is reported that a new channel - China-Russia DC networking project "Amur - Heihe" 500 kV transmission line is expected to be put into operation in 2012, when the annual power supply scale will reach 4.3 billion kwh.

As far as people are concerned about the route and price, this energy channel is enough to explain. The first is the price, the export price is 0.042 US dollars per degree, equivalent to *** 0.26 yuan, the average on-grid electricity price of domestic thermal power has reached 0.44 yuan, the price advantage is very obvious. Next is the line problem. Hu Zhaoguang said that countries usually build their own transmission lines, but China has the technical advantage of UHV long-distance transmission. If transnational lines are built by China, it will also stimulate the development of a large number of domestic power equipment manufacturers.

“The best way is to set up a joint venture to build a power plant, or even an upstream coal mine.” Hu Zhaoguang said that if China's power companies can go abroad to set up joint ventures to build power plants, then selling electricity to the country is the best way, because in recent years, internationally The news that oil and gas pipelines suddenly stop being supplied is always on the horizon, and joint ventures to build power plants are bound to reduce such supply risks.

Not long ago, the Russian Ministry of Energy stated that the Chinese side is negotiating with Russian coal mining companies and plans to develop coal resources and build infrastructure in Siberia and Russia’s Far East. The power generation enterprises are also progressing in succession. In June 2011, China Huadian Power Group signed a cooperation agreement with Russia’s second regional power generation company (TGC-2). The two sides formed a joint venture to build gas-steam combined cycle heating in Yaroslavl Oblast. Station project, project investment 570 million US dollars, Huadian Group Holdings 51%; almost at the same time, Yangtze Power and Russia's largest independent power company - Russia Energy Group Co., Ltd., signed a framework agreement on the joint venture project to build a series of power plants in Eastern Siberia. .

In order to verify the feasibility of foreign power purchase, Heilongjiang Electric Power Co., Ltd. has been trying for five years. In 2011, Heilongjiang Power Company organized nine professional talks with the participation of experts from China and Russia and completed the measurement device management. , Line maintenance procedures and other work.

In addition to Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan are also one of the best regions for electricity purchase in China. As early as 2006, the State Grid Corporation of China signed a Sino-Mongolian energy cooperation memorandum with Mongolia’s central regional grid company. China will be the main investor and has built three companies around Ulaanbaatar in central Mongolia. Thermal power plants have a total installed capacity of 10.8 million kilowatts. Some of the power generated by thermal power plants is used in Mongolia, and some of them are sent to Beijing, Tianjin and other areas in North China. The transportation distance is about 1,000 kilometers. In the same year, the State Grid Corporation of China also made contact with Kazakhstan. Liu Zhenya, general manager of the State Grid Corporation of China, once conducted a comparative analysis of the economics of transmitting power from Kazakhstan via UHV lines to China’s Central China, and considered the market prospect to be considerable.

Not only the thermal power in the north, but also the connection between the southern hydropower is proceeding quietly. China Power Investment Group's hydropower project upstream of the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar is currently a relatively large overseas hydropower investment project in China. The Yijiang Hydropower Project includes 7 large-scale hydropower stations and 1 power station. The planned installed capacity is 20 million kilowatts. The construction period is 15 years and the total investment is 20 billion US dollars.

Is it feasible to replace electricity with electricity?

If the import of electricity can replace part of the oil, it will be very attractive to China, because in the complex geopolitical situation, imported oil faces greater political risks than imported electricity.

Hu Zhaoguang and his team used an intelligent project to simulate the following results: If electricity is used instead of 70 million tons of electricity in 2020, the electricity needs will be about 440 billion kilowatt-hours, and an increase in power generation capacity of 87 million kilowatts will be needed, and the national energy efficiency will increase by 1.91. 1%; If 100 million tons of electricity is replaced with electricity, the required electricity is about 620 billion kwh, an increase of 125 million kilowatts of power generation capacity and the corresponding UHV transmission grid will be needed, and the national energy efficiency will increase by 2.73 percentage points.

Hu believes that compared with imported oil, the input of electric energy from UHV transmission lines has good economic benefits. This is mainly reflected in the efficiency of energy use. The utilization efficiency of electric energy in terminal equipment is higher than other energy sources. For example, electric vehicles are more than twice as energy efficient as oil vehicles. Assuming that imported oil is used in motor vehicles, 30% of energy is used effectively, about 70% of it is useless, and a lot of energy is wasted; while imported energy is used in electric vehicles, there is more than 70% of useful power. Only less than 30% useless.

“If we consider the environmental benefits, electric vehicles are zero-emissions, and pollution from power plants is emitted near the power plants, while motor vehicle pollutants from oil are emitted in traffic. This is also the main source of pollution in the city. With technological progress and UHV With the construction of the power grid, the benefits of economies of scale will come into play, and the cost of transmission can be further reduced,” Hu Zhaoguang said.

He believes that China's energy consumption structure adjustment ideas should be "to replace electricity with electricity." At present, the proportion of primary energy consumption in domestic end-use energy consumption is relatively high. China's energy utilization efficiency is only about 30%, about 10% lower than that of developed countries, and environmental pollution is serious. From the current point of view, China's transportation oil accounts for about 35% of the total oil consumption. By 2020, this proportion should account for nearly 50%. "If by 2020, the reduction of 70-110 million tons of traffic oil through traffic electrification will greatly ease the pressure on China's oil supply," Hu Zhaoguang said.

While China is actively negotiating with neighboring countries such as Russia to purchase electricity, Singapore, South Africa, and Vietnam are also accelerating the pace of foreign purchases. “Not only does China purchase electricity from outside China, but China’s electricity-rich regions can also sell electricity to foreign countries.” Hu Zhaoguang said that the hydropower-rich Yunnan Electric Power Company had sold electricity to Vietnam during the wet period of the climate, once the electricity supply became a A well-ordered bilateral trade will develop healthily.