Differential utilization rate of electrochemical energy storage power stations:New energy allocation and storage still faces bottlenecks
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Southern Energy Watch
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Chen Yifang
In March 2024, the China Electricity Council (hereinafter referred to as "CEC") released the "Electrochemical Energy Storage Power Station Industry Statistical Data for 2023" (hereinafter referred to as "Statistical Data"). As of the end of 2023, the total installed capacity of various types of electrochemical energy storage power stations nationwide within the statistical scope was 45.43 gigawatts. In 2023, the newly commissioned electrochemical energy storage power stations had a cumulative capacity of 18.11 gigawatts, exceeding the total installed capacity of all previous years. In terms of scale, the new energy storage sector has made significant progress.
In practical applications, the differentiation of energy storage power stations in various application scenarios is obvious. The annual average operating hours of industrial and commercial energy storage can reach 5203 hours, with an average utilization rate of 65%; the annual average operating hours of thermal power with energy storage reach 4242 hours; the annual average operating hours of grid-side independent energy storage reach 953 hours, with an average utilization rate index of 38%. The allocation of new energy storage is ranked last, with an annual average operating time of only 797 hours and an average utilization rate index of 17%, the same as in 2022.
In early 2023, the China Electricity Council published a "New Energy and Energy Storage Operation Status Research Report." The report said "the equivalent utilization rate of new energy and energy storage is only 6.1%", which has caused deep concern about the "build but no use" of new energy and energy storage in the industry. However, soon afterwards, practitioners questioned the scientific nature of this indicator.:The annual equivalent utilization factor for a power plant is calculated on the basis of a one-year cycle. In theory, the utilization rate of a power plant can reach 100% only after 8760 hours of operation. However, energy storage power stations are usually designed according to the number of charges and discharges per day, which is different from generator sets. It is not appropriate to measure them annually because this does not match the characteristics of energy storage.
The data released this time used the capacity utilization index as an indicator. Capacity utilization index refers to the ratio of utilized hours to the designed charge and discharge hours of the power station during the statistical period. When the capacity utilization index is 100%, the power station design is met. Compared with the equivalent utilization factor, the capacity utilization index can more intuitively reflect the utilization status of electrochemical energy storage power stations. However, the report states that it is not used to measure thermal power generation with energy storage power stations. This is probably because thermal power generation with energy storage power stations generally participate in frequency regulation market and belong to power storage. Do not measure its usage level from the perspective of electricity charge and discharge.
It can be seen that after adjusting the index for measuring the utilization level, the average utilization rate of 17% of new energy storage is still a low value. At the same time, according to statistics of new energy storage power stations that have been in operation for a full year in 2023, the utilization rate of smaller power stations is higher than that of larger power stations. Among them, the average utilization rate of new energy storage power stations with a capacity of 0.5 MW to 5 MW can reach 35%, while the average utilization rate of power stations above 10 MW is between 9% and 18%.
In addition to the lack of significant improvement in the utilization rate of new energy storage, the utilization rate of independent energy storage power stations is also worth paying attention to. An average utilization rate index of 38% means that the utilization rate is less than half of the design target. Among the independent energy storage facilities that have been in operation for one full year, the average utilization rate of large-scale power stations with a capacity of 100 megawatts or more is lower than that of medium-sized power stations. Similar to the storage of new energy, the utilization rate of large power stations is lower than that of medium and small power stations.
The business model significantly influenced the utilization level of energy storage in different application scenarios. User-side energy storage relies on arbitrage of peak-valley electricity price differences, while thermal power with storage participates in the ancillary service market. Both have relatively clear cost recovery channels. Although the utilization rate of renewable energy with storage has attracted much attention, a feasible cost recovery model has not yet emerged. The profit model of independent energy storage power stations is also still under exploration.
In the same application scenario, profitability is usually correlated with utilization level. "Statistics" shows that the utilization rate of larger power stations may not be as good as that of small power stations. With the development of electrochemical energy storage power stations showing a trend of centralization and large-scale, this also prompts investors to comprehensively consider various factors to determine the construction scale, and the larger the energy storage is not the better.
Editor Jiang Li
Audit Feng Jie
