Twelfth Five-Year Power Equipment Market Accelerates Localization Process

Editor's Note: Recently, at the "2011 6th China Electrical Equipment Innovation and Development Forum", Li Ye, Director of the Energy Conservation and Technology Equipment Division of the National Energy Administration pointed out that China's energy industry has a lot of room for development and faces a huge market. All energy companies should actively innovate and strive to achieve localization of power equipment.

For a long period of time, China's energy industry must strive to ensure that the rapid development of the national economy and the people's living standards improve the energy demand. During the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, China's energy industry will maintain a high-speed growth trend. Li Zhi said that in 2015, China’s installed capacity for electric power is expected to reach 1.47 billion kilowatts, which may reach 1.84 billion kilowatts in 2020 and 2.47 billion kilowatts in 2030.

With the huge demand for domestic power installed capacity and the adjustment of power structure, the energy industry will bring unprecedented market opportunities to the electrical equipment manufacturing industry. Surrounding such a large market demand, the next step in the development of domestic electrical and electric industry needs urgent innovation to occupy the market.

Li Ye pointed out that the clean and efficient use of fossil energy during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period is still the mainstream, and the development of high-efficiency, clean energy-saving and emission-reduction of traditional electricity represented by thermal power should still be placed first. It is estimated that by 2015, the installed capacity of coal power in China will increase from the current 700 million kilowatts to 1 billion kilowatts. At that time, China will become the largest thermal power in the world.

Regarding the 700C ultra supercritical coal-fired power generation technology that has recently attracted much attention, Li Ye stated: “Some people proposed that the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” should build a demonstration project, but this is a long-term issue and it cannot be accomplished overnight. To promote the development of conventional equipment, materials, and technology through the ultra-supercritical coal-fired power generation technology at 700 degrees Celsius, to grasp "700 degrees", and to localize the localization of conventional thermal power pumps, valves, pipelines, and electrical control systems."

Gas turbines are an important equipment for the energy industry. According to industry sources, the size of thermal power during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period depends on the scale of gas-fired power generation. If gas-fired power generation increases 10 million kilowatts, thermal power can be reduced by 10 million kilowatts.

Li Ye said that the current plan for the "12th Five-Year Plan" gas power generation added 30 million kilowatts, put into production 30 million kilowatts. "With such a huge market capacity, we must realize the autonomous supply of equipment."

China now also has the conditions for the development of gas turbines. “In the past decade, gas turbines have been developed through large-scale tendering. Our large-scale bidding is by no means simply changing the drawings in the market, but has undergone a large-scale technological transformation. Like five-axis numerical control devices and coordinate measuring machines, etc. We not only caught up with foreign countries, but also exceeded the level of processing and manufacturing. Now that there is a market demand, there is also a driving force for enterprise innovation, and there must be a major breakthrough in the technology of gas turbines during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, said Li Ye.

Li Ye said that in conventional power generation, thermal power and gas power generation are the most basic development directions. During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, China will create innovations for conventional power generation and gas turbines through basic research, equipment localization, pilot demonstration projects, and innovation platforms.

Faced with the panic effect of the Fukushima nuclear accident, how should China develop nuclear power? Li Ye believes that there are two issues that need to be solved urgently at present: one is the selection of technology routes, and the other is the localization of equipment and materials. "Regardless of which technology route to take, such a large installed capacity will not be made without localization."

Concerning the controversial hydropower industry, Li Ye stated: “Pumped storage is a key project for hydropower. The core of pumped storage is in the auxiliary engine, and now the power electromagnetic control equipment basically depends on imports, and during the “Twelfth Five-year Plan” hopes to pump and store energy. The equipment is basically domesticated. Pumped storage and gas turbines are the best means for peaking electricity."

From several million kilowatts in 2005 to more than 30 million kilowatts of grid-connected power now, and the installed capacity in the world, China has become the largest country in wind power. At present, in addition to the planning, design, and grid problems in this industry, fan quality is also a big problem. "Next step we will strengthen management in terms of standards, testing, certification, etc. We must not allow any wind turbines to enter the market. We must really see the clean power generated by the wind." Li Ye said, "The wind turbine converter and solar energy The transformers are now basically controlled by foreign companies, so it is imperative to break through the core technologies, especially the control and adjustment of grid-connected compensation technologies around wind power, solar power and grid access."