Electricity is a kind of clean, efficient, and convenient secondary energy. Its terminal utilization is more than 90%, and its efficiency of economic value creation is 3 times higher than that of oil, and 17 times higher than that of coal. The extensive use of electricity is a remarkable symbol of the Second Industrial Revolution. A new round of energy revolution characterized by the mass development and utilization of new energy has been surging in the 21st century, and re-electrification has been an important trend for the transformation and development of energy.
“Electrical substitution is an important way of re-electrification, and it is the basic direction of the energy consumption revolution. It is key to promoting the energy transition to become more environmentally friendly and low-carbon, protecting the ecological environment, and improving the efficiency of economic and social development.” Zhang Fengbao, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the Jiu San Society Tianjin Committee, and vice-president of Tianjin University , is particularly concerned about promoting energy substitution and the implementation of the re-electrification strategy, “From the point of view of energy production, re-electrification refers to the large-scale development and utilization of clean energy, especially new energy, replacing traditional fossil energy. New energy is mainly used by converting it into electricity. From the perspective of energy consumption, re-electrification refers to electricity for coal, the wide substitution of terminal fossil fuels such as oil and coal by electricity will significantly increase its proportion in terminal energy consumption. The various energy needs will be met through re-electrification, which will become the norm for changes in production and lifestyles. With the development of re-electrification, the development pattern of energy-centered and grid-based energy development platforms will become increasingly prominent."
Zhang said that the field of electrical energy substitution is very extensive. It has huge potential for substitution in various industries and fields such as industry, commerce, transportation, construction, heating, residential life, and rural irrigation. With respect to replacing coal with electricity, in 2017, there were still nearly 700 million tons of coal burned in China, accounting for nearly 20% of the total coal consumption in the year. In terms of replacing oil with electricity, transportation is an important field. At the same time, there is a great potential for substitution in areas such as airport land, port shore and farmland wells. Taking electric vehicles as an example, China's electric vehicle industry has developed rapidly. At present, it has nearly 1.5 million electric powered vehicles, accounting for more than half of the world, but it only accounts for about 0.7% of the country's total vehicles, so there is still much room for future development.
Both the central party and State Council attach great importance to the work of Electric Power Replacement. President Xi Jinping made directives to promote clean winter heating in northern China, and the State Council and related government departments made great arrangements for the implantation of the “electricity for coal” project in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and electricity for farm wells. With the efforts of State Grid Corporation of China and other institutions, more than 100 thousand “electricity for oil” and “electricity for coal” projects have been completed from 2013 to 2017, and the cumulative electricity replacement reached more than 350 billion kilowatt hours. The amount of "electricity for coal" projects accounts for about 80% of the total number of project which have been completed.
Zhang made five suggestions. First, the re-electrification strategy should be promoted as a national strategy. Combined with industrial transformation and upgrading, we should vigorously promote the Electric Power Replacement project and increase the proportion of clean electricity and green electricity in the use of terminal energy so as to comprehensively improve the level of electrification for the economic and social development in China.
Second , we should summarize and popularize the implantation of the “electricity for coal” project in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, make reasonable technical and economic analysis, choose the type of technology to suit local conditions, and expand the scope of treatment of scattered coal deposits, reinforce policies supporting investment, price and trade studies, and establish a cost control mechanism in which the entire society shares costs together, so as to attract social capital to participate in construction and reform and encouraging and guiding people to use more electricity.
Third, great efforts should be invested in the construction of electric heating grids, energy storage, energy storage and other infrastructure, and open “green channels” in planning, approval and other procedures for the project. The local government should be responsible for the preparatory work and expenses such as land acquisition and demolition of the power grid, includes the supporting infrastructure investment like power grids, energy storage and reasonable operating costs into the transmission and distribution costs to support the growing demand for electric heating power.
Fourth, with Tianjin as a pilot, the government should enact local standards for the “electricity for coal” project to clarify the requirements for electric heating equipment, engineering, temperature, environmental protection, and electricity price accounting. After accumulating enough experience, national standards will be formed as soon as possible to ensure its sustained and healthy development.
Fifth, the government should speed up the improvement of the electric vehicle charging and swapping market mechanism, use peaks and valleys in electricity prices to guide electric vehicle users to charge when the price is low, discharge when the price is high. The government should also participate in the regulation of power system, promote clean energy consumption on the one hand, and improve the operational efficiency of power system on the other hand.
By: Qiu Ya
Editors: Qin Mian and Keith Harrington
