Accelerate the implementation of the response to electricity demand in a timely manner

In September 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission and six other ministries jointly revised and issued the "Power Demand-Side Management Measures (2023 Edition)", and the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the "Power Load Management Measures (2023 Edition)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Two Measures"). One of the most significant adjustments to the content of the "two methods" is to add a chapter "demand response" in a very prominent position. The "Power Demand-Side Management Measures (2023 Edition)" is set in Chapter 3, Articles 12 to 20, and the "Power Load Management Measures (2023 Edition)" is set in Chapter 2, Articles 7 to 12. The content of the "two measures" involves all aspects such as the definition of demand response, response objects, specific implementation subjects, implementation goals, implementation departments, implementation processes, profit channels, supervision and inspection, and is very guiding. The "two measures" were introduced very timely. The new round of electricity reform has been more than eight years since then. Whether it is the power system structure, power market rules, or the maturity of market entities, the conditions for accelerating the implementation of power demand response.

1. Demand response is a necessity for the construction of new power systems

On July 11, 2023, the Central Committee for Deepening Reform reviewed and passed the "Guiding Opinions on Deepening Power System Reform and Accelerating the Construction of a New Power System", emphasizing the need to deepen the reform of the power system and accelerate the construction of a new power system that is clean, low-carbon, safe and abundant, economical and efficient, coordinated supply and demand, flexible and intelligent. To achieve the goal of supply and demand coordination, developing a non-real-time balanced model of diversified interaction between source, network, load and storage, and a high-proportion demand response power sales system are important means. With the rise of new energy and energy storage, the connotation of power users has undergone major changes. Most users who have participated or are worthy of participating in demand responses basically exist in the form of a comprehensive energy body. Especially after the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Guidance on Integration of Power Source, Grid, Load and Storage in 2021, the scale of this type of energy complex has made a qualitative leap. As of June 30, 2023, the country has identified nearly 100 pilot projects for integrated source, grid, load and storage integration, with a total installed power supply capacity of more than 30 million kilowatts, and is equipped with millions of new energy, hundreds of thousands of energy storage, and millions of loads.Incremental distribution network, super-large energy complexes equipped with millions of new energy, millions of thermal power installed capacity and millions of loads (the power grid side is still the user) with deep regulation capabilities have appeared. This type of energy complex is an important part of the new power system, and it also poses severe challenges to the construction of new power systems due to the instability of new energy output and the volatility of enterprise loads. Therefore, in the process of building a new power system, it is necessary to pay attention to the response to electricity demand as a necessity. The construction of power system and the formulation of rules should consider how to better utilize the response capabilities of energy complexes.

2. Demand response will become a common product in modern power market transactions

On September 18, 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued a notice on issuing the Basic Rules for the Electric Power Spot Market (Trial)", which will speed up the response to power demand. The "two methods" define demand response as "through economic incentive-based measures, guiding power users to voluntarily adjust their electricity usage behavior according to the needs of the power system operation." The Federal Energy Administration Commission (FERC) divides power demand response into incentive demand response and price demand response. Price demand response refers to allowing end consumers to directly face price signals based on time and space locations, and independently make arrangements and adjustments to the electricity usage time and methods, such as time-sharing electricity prices, real-time electricity prices, etc. Demand response requires a clear price signal. The spot market is fully unfolding, and the price discovery ability is constantly improving. The next focus is to clarify the value of social entities' participation and the path of participation. Shanxi Province's spot market construction is at the forefront of the country, and the market rules have been updated to version V13.0, and a number of virtual power plants with price-based demand response as the main profit means have entered the market. When building a spot market, the German power market introduced a balanced group (the power generation and electricity consumption in this unit must be balanced) as a settlement method, effectively reducing the system's balanced cost. Among them, the balanced party contributed to the in-depth management of user energy use (including demand response) for the user. It can be foreseen that under the requirements of energy security and the "3060" dual-carbon strategy, driven by the objective demand for more system backups, driven by the objective demand for more system backups, driven by the need for energy security and "3060" dual-carbon strategy, the further reduction of new energy power generation costs and electrochemical energy storage construction costs, and driven by the objective demand demand response will become an important option to cope with the challenges of power system operation economy and reliability, and the more perfect the rules and the more mature the market, the more it will become a common product.

3. The future of demand response must be firmly handed over to the market

Among power demand management methods, demand response is the most market-oriented business, and market entities also have the ability to implement this business. The "Electric Load Management Measures (2023 Edition)" proposes that "the power demand-side management service agencies include load aggregators,Electricity sales company, virtual power plant operators, comprehensive energy service providers, etc. "The Basic Rules of the Electric Power Spot Market (Trial)" mentioned "Promoting new business entities such as distributed power generation, load aggregators, energy storage and virtual power plants to participate in transactions". The business entities that respond to electricity are highly overlapping. Since the new round of electricity reform in 2015, the role of the power market in the two aspects is very obvious. First, it has cultivated users' awareness of marketization of electricity use. Many users have adjusted their production methods based on time-sharing electricity prices and spot prices, and can accept the behavior of new business entities such as power sales companies to purchase electricity; second, it has cultivated a group of very competitive power sales companies, and each province can find one or more well-known private power sales companies that are not led by power plants, and these power sales companies have begun to use distributed new energy, energy storage services, spot software or spot products. Transaction services, virtual power plants, etc. In 2021, Guangdong Province carried out demand response transactions for 77 days, with a total of more than 12,000 power users registered, with a daily maximum winning capacity of nearly 1.5 million kilowatts, an effective response capacity of 260 million kilowatt hours, a net profit of 240 million kilowatt hours for power sales companies, and a net profit of 740 million responders. This example vividly shows that new business entities such as power sales companies have strong organizational and aggregation capabilities, and power users also have a good sense of response. In the next step, it is time to test the wisdom of local government departments, and a clear and perfect technical standards and market rules are issued to allow new business entities, power users and other "private experts" to know how to do it, where the profit is, and how much there is. A series of model innovations such as power sales + demand response, new energy + demand response, virtual power plants, etc. will emerge quickly.