In the past two years, we have heard a lot of comments at the conference such as "energy storage technology is not good enough" and "battery cost is too high", which is far from our current understanding of energy storage.
In terms of mechanism, battery energy storage technology is the same as electric vehicle technology. Take BYD electric vehicle and battery energy storage as an example, they use the same power battery. The Battery Management System (BMS) and Process Control System (PCS) also basically use the same technology and products. An electric vehicle is a small mobile energy storage power station. In recent years, our country electric vehicle market develops rapidly, many mature technology has been in the international leading level.
Because of rapid size increase of electric vehicle market, the battery price is declining year by year. It is expected to the price of LiFePO4 battery cell will reach 1 yuan per kWh. As is calculated, the overall cost of 2-hour LiFePO4 battery energy storage power station has been reduced to the half cost of pumped storage power station (the pumped storage power station cost about 6000 yuan per kilowatt). In the standard conditions (room temperature 25 - 5 degrees celsius, the The rate of charge and discharge is 0.5C, 95%DOD), LiFePO4 battery cycle life can reach more than 8000 times (more than 70% of the remaining capacity). According to this calculation, the cost of 2-hour LiFePO4 system is about 0.25 yuan, and it is equivalent to the cost of thermal power.
The above calculation is only one of the reference methods to measure the economic value of battery energy storage. The value of energy storage is reflected in, although the battery energy storage system itself can not generate electricity, but in the generation, transmission, distribution, use of all aspects of the grid. Battery energy storage is of great significance and needs to be gradually recognized and continuously discovered.
According to incomplete statistics of the global energy storage project pool of the Energy Storage Alliance, until the third quarter of 2017, the accumulative installed scale of the electrochemical energy storage project in the world has reached 2244.4 MW. The author thinks that the main reason affects the development of battery energy storage market in China are not the technology and cost, but the concept conversion of power network , and the opening degree of power market and the supporting policy of the country.
Fortunately, China is gradually opening up its electricity market, and one possibility is to pilot it in two economically developed regions, South and East China (and perhaps the Northwest). In addition, the electricity market will also be opened simultaneously, and open electricity market of China is to be expected in the next 3-5 years.