Sensitive: the tangle point in the UHV dispute

A researcher who worked for the National Grid commented on the U.S. high-speed issue and said: "Too sensitive." Behind this is the U.S. turmoil in the controversy over the years.

U.S. high voltage because of the "power generation of coal", is considered to be "a new idea of ​​governance," the determination of high-level iron fists began to strongly disperse the fog surrounding the UHV industry itself.

The UHV North Line project of “Yandong-dong” is awaiting the final approval of the relevant state departments and is expected to start construction within the year. The UHV transmission route project in Inner Mongolia has also been passed. Several UHV lines have been passed successively, and the UHV market has been red since then. The light turns green.

High-rise gate
"Everyone has no arguments for failing to reach the UHV. It must be on the top," said Cai Guoxiong, deputy chief engineer of the China Electric Power Research Institute of the State Grid Corporation of China and a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

At the end of March, experts and people from all walks of life had reached a certain level of consensus on the U.S. CPPCC National Committee’s symposium on UHV.

Ultra high voltage, the biggest feature is long-distance, large capacity, low loss power transmission. The UHV power grid is a transmission network that communicates voltage levels of 1,000 kilovolts and plus or minus 800 kilovolts. The UHVDC power grid of the primary loop can deliver 6 million kilowatts of electricity, which is equivalent to 5 to 6 times that of the existing 500 kilovolt DC grid, and the transmission distance is also 2 to 3 times that of the latter.

On February 12 this year, Premier Li Keqiang presided over the executive meeting of the State Council to study and deploy to further strengthen the governance of air pollution such as haze. The first major measure proposed was to speed up the adjustment of the energy structure, and implementation of cross-regional power transmission projects was one of its main contents.

This is the first time that the executive meeting has used cross-regional power transmission to control haze.

Later, Wu Xinxiong, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission and director of the National Energy Administration, publicly stated that in order to reduce pressure on power generation in the eastern region, 12 cross-regional power transmission channels were planned and constructed, including 4 UHV DC lines and 4 UHV AC lines. And three 500 kV high voltage lines. National level initiative to put forward construction of UHV power grid, which means that in 2014 China's UHV power grid approval will enter the fast lane.

Dispute focus

U.S. high-voltage is still not on, this dispute has continued for many years. One of the controversies lies in the safety and stability of technology; the other lies in its economy and necessity.

Cai Guoxiong told the reporter of the “First Financial Daily” that, in the past, apart from the controversy over the safety and stability of technology, there was also a question of whether coal transmission or transmission was cheaper.

However, as the haze of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta has become more and more serious in recent years, the main means of “treating the iron fist” have begun to shift to reducing the use of coal in the region. There is no controversy over electricity generation. From this perspective, the UHV is an inevitable choice. At present, the focus of debate is mainly on the UHVDC or AC UHV.

DC ultra-high voltage, in simple terms, is biased towards point-to-point power transmission, and AC ultra-high voltage has advantages in large-area mesh transmission.

At present, there are many domestic trials of DC UHV. Prior to this, China Southern Power Grid established a DC UHV for the purpose of sending clouds and electricity to the east. Cai Guoxiong said that China Southern Power Grid covers 20% of the country's territory and is also suitable for direct-current transmission from a geographical point of view. However, the national grid covers 80% of the area, and it will be transported from Tibet, Xinjiang, and Northeast China to North China, East China and Central China.

The controversy still lies in the safety and economy of technology.

Cai Guoxiong told reporters that the exchange of UHV technical problems, China Electric Power Research Institute, Tsinghua University and other units have done simulation studies to simulate the actual Sanhua Power Grid (North China, East China, Central China Power Grid) and various faults, to test whether Safety, the conclusions of the study are positive, and there are no problems with safety.

At the same time, the formation of Sanhua Power Grid will make the network itself more reasonable, sturdy and stable. The grid will be subject to small disturbances and can support and balance each other. In other words, networking will be a better choice from a security perspective.

However, another part of the experts held a diametrically opposed attitude and believed that North China, Central China and East China were connected by UHV. Once the grid operation had problems, the scope and impact would be even greater.

Lin Boqiang, director of the China Energy Economic Research Center at Xiamen University, has a neutral attitude. "Because I never went over, I naturally don't know what the outcome is." He believes that although it is not necessarily as big as the current national grid, it is necessary to try. “One by one to repair it, there is no problem at a glance.” Lin Boqiang told reporters.

Profit soared

The UHV is the most important part of the State Grid's 380 billion investment in 2014. With UHV construction gradually approved by the National Energy Administration and the National Development and Reform Commission, its construction will enter explosive growth in 2014.

In May 2013, Liu Zhenya, general manager of the State Grid Corporation of China, publicly stated that during the eight years from 2013, the company will invest more than 3 trillion yuan to build the national grid, and UHV has entered the fast lane. The equipment manufacturers that will benefit UHV construction include: Pinggao Electric, TBEA, Tianwei Baochang (*ST Tianwei), China Xidian, Xuji Electric, and Sifang.

In fact, the speed increase of UHV construction has already catalyzed the performance of some upstream and downstream equipment manufacturers.

Pinggao Electric's main business is manufacturing and sales of high-voltage switchgear, control equipment and its accessories. According to the company's 2013 annual report recently released, the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company in the current period was approximately 398 million yuan, up 194.36 percent year-on-year. %.

In 2013, Pinggao Electric's operating income was approximately RMB 3.818 billion, of which the U.S. high-voltage revenue totaled 1.046 billion yuan; new orders were approximately 1.77 billion yuan. The company’s executives said that in 2014, the company’s new orders are expected to double, benefiting from the acceleration of UHV construction this year.

China West Power's main business covers almost all primary equipment for power transmission and transformation. The company's 2013 annual report on March 30 showed that the company achieved a net profit of 322 million yuan in 2013, an increase of 173.52% year-on-year.

In 2013, China West achieved UHV delivery of approximately 3.5 billion yuan, and the amount of orders in hand at the end of the year exceeded RMB 5 billion. At the same time, in 2014, it is expected to approve the "secondary and second straight" UHV lines. The amount of orders for each AC-DC contribution will be about 1.5 billion to 2 billion yuan, and the net profit margin will be 10%.

The traditional business of TBEA is power transmission and transformation. With the launch of the “12th Five-Year” and “Thirteenth Five-Year” UHV plans, the company’s UHV business continues to grow. According to the forecast of GF Securities (9.99, 0.11, 1.11%), from 2013 to 2016, the company received a total of about 24 billion U.S. high-voltage orders.

The State Grid Corporation of Communications' 2014 Communication UHV Working Conference clearly stated that this year the construction of Huainan-Nanjing-Shanghai and Ya'an-Wuhan “Two Constructions” projects will be fully approved. According to preliminary calculations, the investment of these two lines is nearly 40 billion yuan.