Journalist of the Economic Information Daily learnt from 2016 National Seminar for Electricity Utilization and Electricity Saving Technologies held on Nov. 4-5 that the 13th five-year plan for the electricity industry has been formulated and will soon be released. Electric energy replacement in areas like residential heating, communications and transportation, production and manufacturing, and electric power system will be comprehensively advanced. Great efforts will be made in residential heating, communications and transportation.
Noticeably, though governments of various levels have rolled out 1,050 policies supporting electric energy replacement in recent years, it is widely believed in the industry that cost is still the biggest obstacle. Hence, relevant departments are mulling on launching more supporting policies, making full use of the sound timing brought by reform in the electricity industry, and making more efforts in the electricity selling side.
“Electrification level in China is still low now. Large consumption of coal and fuel oil is the malefactor behind the severe fog and haze in multiple provinces, so more efforts should be made in replacing oil and coal with electricity. Along with the rise of emerging industries and the demand of industrial upgrading, many enterprises will utilize electric power in the future.” Yang Yang, deputy branch head of the electricity department under the National Energy Administration, indicated on the seminar that the 13th five-year plan period is quite crucial for the energy transformation in China. Advancing electric energy replacement from the demand side is an effective way to realize energy consumption reform. During the 2000-2015 period, the contribution made by global electric energy in end energy consumption has been raised from 15.4 percent to 19 percent. In China, the figure is lifted from 10.9 percent to 22 percent, still low when compared with the situation in developed countries. Electrification level in China will be further improved during the 13th five-year plan period.
Zhang Yunzhou, head of State Grid Energy Research Institute, also believes that under the backdrop of coping with climate changes, the prevention and control of air pollution and etc., clean energy alternatives and electric power replacement will be a must for the energy reform. Next 15 years will be quite important for the economic and social development as well as energy transformation in China. The growth of electricity consumption will further decline during the 13th five-year plan period and the 2021-2030 period, but as a quality and high-efficient clean energy, electricity will see steady growth in consumption scale and ratio. Electrification level in areas like middle and high-end manufacturing industry, residential heating, and communications and transportation will greatly improve.
It's worth noting that multiple attendees hold that due to constantly declining economic growth in recent years, oil and gas prices at home and abroad keep dropping. Electricity sees weak price competitiveness in some end energy consumption areas, holding back large-scale promotion. Meanwhile, though many policies have been rolled out by governments of various levels, measures concerning direct fiscal subsidies, price policies and supervision over policy implementation are still not enough. There is still large room left for policy support.
Yang disclosed that 2016 is the first year for the state to comprehensively promote electric energy replacement. The biggest problem faced by many projects is cost. For the next step, departments like the Ministry of Finance will roll out more supporting policies. At present, some demonstration and piloting projects have been developed for electric energy replacement. Next, direct trading between enterprises engaged in electric energy replacement and various electricity generation companies like wind electricity producers will be promoted. Through direct trading, electric energy replacement projects can purchase electricity at competitive market price. Innovations will be made in auxiliary service system. Enterprises producing electricity or heat and investors that invest in the construction of regenerative electric boilers and provide peak load regulation service will gain reasonable compensation.
Translated by Jennifer
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