Sichuan and Chongqing Jointly Promote the Energy Security Integration

Chongqing- Experts said that Southwest China's Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality enjoy access to hydropower and natural gas resources. Still, the energy security capabilities of both places, especially the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, don't match their actual development needs. During the special investigation of the Sichuan-Chongqing energy security integration construction from June 20 to 23, the National People's Congress (NPC) deputies in Sichuan and Chongqing provided suggestions for accelerating the construction of Sichuan-Chongqing energy security integration.

Sichuan and Chongqing have planned 20 significant projects with a total investment of 900 billion yuan (about 134.55 billion U.S. dollars). "The two places are supporting the energy integration of Sichuan and Chongqing with important projects, improving the anti-risk ability with mutual energy protection," said Wang Zuxun, director of the Chongqing Municipal Energy Administration.

A picture of Chongqing. (iChongqing file photo)

Energy storage industry

Improving the energy security mechanism in Sichuan-Chongqing and providing energy support for the high-quality development of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle is an urgent need to build Chengdu and Chongqing into a dual engine of high-quality growth in western China and even the whole country, said Jiang Weiping, deputy to the NPC from Sichuan. He said that while increasing support for natural gas power generation projects, hydrogen energy, and photovoltaic new energy, special attention should be paid to policy support for industrial development in energy storage to support energy security needs.

The energy consumption structure in Chengdu and Chongqing is dominated by hydropower which has prominent seasonal fluctuation characteristics. Accelerating the innovation of energy storage industry layout and application scenarios, clarifying the cost boundary and profit model of energy storage power stations, and exploring the common commercial use of energy storage power stations will help enhance the economic value of energy storage in a bid to build a more diversified energy supply system.

Huang Yulin, deputy to the NPC from Chongqing, shared the same opinion with Jiang. He believes that the energy storage industry will be a new industry direction with rich application scenarios, diverse profit models, sustainability, high certainty, and high growth in the future.

"The development of the new energy storage industry in Sichuan and Chongqing has a good foundation with innate resource advantages, strong scientific and technological strength, and powerful market demand," said Huang. Formulating a development plan for the new energy storage industry is necessary to boost the new energy storage industry in Sichuan and Chongqing, carry out its application demonstrations in different scenarios, improve policy systems, and innovate business models.

Sokon's New energy vehicle. (iChongqing file photo)

A new generation of information technology

At present, Dongfang Electric Corporation is piloting a waste-to-energy coupled hydrogen production project in the Tongnan District, Chongqing, which is expected to create a new business path of environmental hydrogen energy that is leading nationwide.

"The large-scale development and utilization of green energy have become the main direction of energy development in today's world," said Shi Haofei, deputy to the NPC from Chongqing. He said it is difficult for traditional power systems to cope with the uncertainty of green energy's power generation in windy, rainstorms, lightning, and other weather. In the face of these challenges, the new generation of information technology based on big data and artificial intelligence can provide strong technical support for the efficient and stable operation of the whole energy system.

Another deputy to NPC from Chongqing, Zhang Xinghai, said that if Sichuan and Chongqing take the integration of clean energy as the starting point, strengthen cooperation in the new energy vehicle industry chain, ensure that new energy vehicles adopt green electricity, and promote the research and development and utilization of hydrogen energy and other clean energy, it will undoubtedly boost the formation of a high-quality new energy vehicle industry cluster in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle. 

(Wang Lu, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)