Also by EU-China Energy Cooperation Platform Project

2020

EU China Energy Magazine Spring Double Issue

EU-China Energy Magazine Summer Issue

中欧能源杂志夏季刊

EU-China Energy Magazine Autumn Issue

中欧能源杂志秋季刊

EU-China Energy Magazine 2020 Christmas Double Issue

中欧能源杂志2020圣诞节双期刊

2021

EU-China Energy Magazine 2021 Spring Double Issue

中欧能源杂志2021春季双期刊

EU-China Energy Magazine 2021 Summer Issue

中欧能源杂志2021夏季刊

EU China Energy Magazine 2021 Autumn Issue

Joint Statement Report Series

Electricity Markets and Systems in the EU and China: Towards Better Integration of Clean Energy Sources

中欧能源系统整合间歇性可再生能源 - 政策考量

Supporting the Construction of Renewable Generation in EU and China: Policy Considerations

中欧电力市场和电力系统 - 更好地整合清洁能源资源

支持中欧可再生能源发电建设: 政策考量

Integration of Variable Renewables in the Energy System of the EU and China: Policy Considerations

Table of Contents

About ECECP

Team Leader’s Letter

1. Phasing out fossil fuels: the Danish experience

2. Short-term pain: the recent energy crunch in Europe and China

3. How can China’s national carbon market contribute to reducing emissions?

4. How to tap the efficiency potential of coal-fired power

5. Power sector flexibility lessons from Germany for better integration of renewables

6. European Green Deal and EU-China Cooperation on Urbanisation

7. News in Brief

About ECECP

EU-China Energy Cooperation Platform was launched on 15 May 2019, to support the implementation of activities announced in the ‘Joint Statement on the Implementation of EU-China Energy Cooperation’.

The Joint Statement was signed during the 8th EU-China Energy Dialogue that was held in Brussels on 9th April between Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete and the Administrator of the National Energy Administration of China Mr ZHANG Jianhua, back-to-back with the 21st EU-China Leaders’ Summit on 9 April 2019 and was witnessed by Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission; Donald Tusk, President of the Council of Europe and Dr Li Keqiang, Premier of China.

The start of the implementation of the EU-China Energy Cooperation Platform (ECECP) was included in the EU-China Leaders’ Summit Joint Communique.

The overall objective of ECECP is to

‘enhance EU-China cooperation on energy. In line with the EU’s Energy Union, the Clean Energy for All European initiative, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the EU’s Global Strategy, this enhanced cooperation will help increase mutual trust and understanding between EU and China and contribute to a global transition towards clean energy on the basis of a common vision of a sustainable, reliable and secure energy system.’

Phase II of ECECP is implemented by a consortium led by ICF, and National Development and Reform Commission- Energy Research Institute.

Disclaimer:

The views and opinions expressed in the articles of this magazine are the authors' own, and do not represent the views of ECECP.

Team Leader’s Letter

Dear All,

At the time of writing, there is a global squeeze on energy supplies, with gas, coal and oil prices reaching record highs. It is a moment of real danger in the battle against climate change, as China boosts its coal output to stabilise its energy production, and industries and electricity companies in Europe teeter on the brink of collapse.

Against this background, we present to you in this autumn issue of the EU China Energy magazine several very timely articles: a feature article on phasing out fossil fuels where we look at the experience of Denmark, Europe’s policy-driven energy reform and what is preoccupying China in the switch from black to green energy; and an article on how to tap the efficiency of coal-fired power plants, where we present a couple of innovative technologies to improve the efficiency of boilers and cooling towers. We also have two invited articles, one from GIZ presenting the findings from the study ‘A quantitative comparative study of power system flexibility in Jing-Jin-Ji and Germany’ and an analysis of the recent energy crunch in Europe and China.

On 4 October 2021, ECECP completed its first very eventful three -year mission. During phase one of ECECP, we published three Joint Statement reports on the energy market, integrating and promoting renewable energy. Two more reports, the ENTSO-e grid planning modelling showcase in China, and Energy Modelling in the EU and China, are in the final stages of publication and will be released shortly. Three more joint statement reports, on financing energy efficiency, a comparative study of policies for products’ energy efficiency in the EU and China, and on acceleration of the incubation and commercialisation of innovative energy solutions in the EU and China are scheduled for release later in 2021.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank DG ENER and NEA, all our partners, experts, speakers and participants for their great support. Last but not least, a special thank you to our senior energy policy expert Zhao Meng, our past and present junior fellows and to our long-suffering editors Daisy Chi and Helen Farrell for their hard work.

Best regards,

Flora Kan

ECECP team leader

1.  Phasing out fossil fuels: the Danish experience

As governments and industries weigh up the challenges facing the phasing out of fossil fuels in Europe and China, what can they learn from Denmark’s achievements?

Countries around the world are scrambling to replace fossil fuels with renewables as global temperatures rise. The task is gargantuan. The secret to achieving this energy transition lies not only in new technology and investment, but also in long-term planning, government support and flexible energy supply if the race to introduce renewable energy is to be won. In Europe, Denmark is ahead of many other European countries, but still benefits from the EU’s steady tranche of policies and directives. Though behind Europe, China is following a similar path towards a cleaner, greener future.

Denmark’s journey from black to green

At the time of the OPEC crisis of 1972, 92% of Denmark’s energy was fuelled by oil and gas. The crisis sparked a quadrupling of oil prices and was the catalyst for a long-term government plan to phase out oil and gas and use renewables instead. The country also resolved to rule out nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels. Its first wind power installation was built in 1978. A new state policy document, Energi 2000, set climate and energy targets and introduced taxes on CO2, SO2 and NOx. Denmark set up its first offshore wind farm in Vindeby in 1991 and started to build onshore wind farms. The state-owned oil and gas companies were merged into a single company, Danish Oil and Natural Gas (DONG Energy) in 2006.

These developments were spurred on by the opening up and liberalisation of the European internal market, as well as the development of Nordpool in Norway and Sweden. In 2007, the EU 20-20-20 target was introduced, which was adapted to each member state, resulting in a higher target for Denmark. This legally binding target led to a change of strategy in 2009. Denmark announced that it would move from 85% reliance on fossil fuels in 2009 to 85% reliance on green energy by 2040.

Investors started to get interested in Denmark’s green initiatives. In particular, pension funds seeking long term stable projects with predictable returns started to look into renewable projects. Denmark decided that institutional investors would fund 50% of the cost of development, with DONG Energy taking 100% of the construction risk. A new energy agreement was reached with a revised target of a 70% CO2 reduction by 2030. Denmark then moved to set up two new major wind projects and the first energy island in the world. It is now a world leader in wind technology and is on course to beat its own target for renewables integration.

In 2017, when DONG had divested all of its oil and gas assets, they changed their name from DONG Energy to Ørsted, after the scientist Hans Christian Ørsted. Ørsted is likely to overtake BP in terms of revenue in 2021.

What can the rest of the world learn from Denmark’s energy sector?

Denmark’s experience demonstrates that long-term energy planning needs to be underpinned by close cooperation between government and business. New policies need to be applied transparently and reliably, with dialogue being encouraged in the very early stages among all participants in the energy transition. Alexander Newcombe, adviser at the Danish Energy Agency, points to Denmark’s practice of inviting discussion of tenders for its wind farms at open forums to which potential investors are invited.

Economic incentives need to be designed carefully and transparently so that any volatility in the market can be navigated without losing investors. When bids were invited for the Anhult wind farm at a time of slowing investment in onshore wind, it was resolved that if the winning bidder withdrew, the runner up would take the project on. Throughout the tender process, dialogue was maintained between industry and government.

Denmark has maintained its steady progress partly by maintaining a majority ownership in Ørsted, which has enabled the state to put long-term plans in place that are not likely to be side-tracked by unpredictable market developments. The priority has been to define an exit strategy for any technology that does not comply with the country’s green goals, and an entry strategy for renewables. By keeping its green goals as its top priority, it has been able to make drastic moves such as closing 40% of its CHPs and divesting assets that do not align with its vision. It even abandoned an investment in the Greiswald coal fired power station, shouldering a USD 1.1 billion loss.

The key lessons from Denmark’s experience are as follows:

1)  National long-term energy plans that are both transparent and inclusive are essential.

2)  Concrete legislative reforms, carefully planned incentives, competition, and demonstration projects for new technology will attract investors.

3)  Every company needs a new sustainable vision.

4)  An exit strategy needs to be developed for fossil fuels, alongside investment in human resources to attract new talent into the industry.

5)  Courage is required to take the steps necessary to meet policy commitments.

Europe: Policy-driven energy reform

The transformation of Denmark’s energy sector has been facilitated and encouraged by European energy policy. However, at a wider European level, progress has not been as rapid, and decisions need to be taken about how to galvanise development of the energy sector.

Since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and the negotiation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the EU has set itself GHG emission targets designed to produce an almost carbon-free economy by 2050, and so contribute to limiting the global temperature increase by the end of the century to 2˚C.

In 2007, EU leaders set a number of ambitious climate and energy targets known as the 20-20-20 targets by 2020 – a 20% reduction in EU GHG emissions from 1990 levels; raising the share of EU energy consumption produced from renewable resources to 20%; and a 20% improvement in the EU’s energy efficiency.

Regulatory and policy objectives followed:

●  Creation of an EU-wide integrated energy market optimising the use of interconnections to guarantee price transparency and cost efficiency.

●  Achieving security of supply by introducing an energy efficiency and renewable energy development policy – this policy aimed to start solving Europe’s excessive dependence on imports, and to control production costs.

●  Reduction of carbon emissions whilst increasing the use of renewable sources in order to achieve sustainability and price competitiveness.

The 2050 Energy Roadmap, published in March 2011, projects an 80% reduction in GHG emissions compared to the 1990 baseline. Some EU countries have incorporated this objective into national law.

The European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is the cornerstone of the EU’s drive to reduce emissions. It covers more than 12 000 facilities in the 27 EU member states as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. In 2020, emissions from sectors covered by the EU ETS were due to be 21% lower than in 2005, and by 2030, the Commission aims for them to be 43% lower. Carbon pricing is a vital driver for the energy transition, and the market price will direct the effectiveness of the EU ETS.

The Green Deal, announced in 2019, aims to make the European economy climate neutral in all sectors. On 14 July 2021, the EC adopted the ‘Fit for 55’ package, a set of interconnected proposals that strike a balance between pricing, targets, standards, and support measures that are designed to achieve the goals of European Climate Law and to deliver the European Green Deal. Crucially, the renewable energy target has been revised from 32% to 40% by 2030, with a new binding EU target set for 2030 regarding final and primary energy consumption. Tax incentives have shifted from fossil fuels towards clean energy technologies, with EU budget support available for more vulnerable businesses and households.

What hurdles lie ahead for Europe’s energy sector?

Despite the extensive legal and political framework underpinning the move from a black to a green energy mix, there are large obstacles ahead for the EU.

A key issue is time: it can take up to 10 years to carry out environmental protection and environmental impact assessments. Given that 500 GW of new renewable capacity is required to meet the EU’s 2030 target, this timeline for risk assessments and the permitting process needs to be streamlined.

There is also not yet enough storage to support a power system based on wind and solar energy; the current market design needs to be reconsidered. When investment options for 20- or 30-year plans are being designed, feasibility studies need to use data that does not rely solely on spot market data and hedge prices. The current market design has introduced volatility, where negative price hours can introduce uncertainty into price calculations, and therefore into the assumed profitability of a project. This makes investing in such a project a less appealing prospect to investors at the same time that investment requirement is projected to run to EUR 400 billion over the next decade.

Policies need to be designed so that they attract investment in RES. The now familiar phase ‘electrification whenever, wherever’ brings with it a requirement for an easy, straightforward and reliable public infrastructure for EV charging stations, which in turn will need substantial investment. A similar increase in demand is envisaged for heat pumps.

There is a critical need for the distribution grid to be extended and developed. The future is electric, with EVs, heat pumps and other electric devices all contributing to the grid. This must happen in parallel with the development of renewable energy resources.

Finally, a focus on further improvements to cross-border power trading in Europe using interconnectors is essential. A future with more shared renewable resources will require rapid infrastructure development which may prove increasingly controversial given current permitting delays and public opposition in some quarters. Going forward, construction of large-scale renewable generation facilities at sites far away from demand centres may prove more useful for transit than their immediate surroundings. Hence, different sharing models for costs are needed, focusing less on local benefits and more on the wider benefits across the continent.

China’s path towards a green economy

China’s current electricity consumption is double that of the EU. Coal meets 70% of the country’s energy needs and accounts for 80% of its power consumption. Its 2060 net zero target means that the electricity sector will need to be net zero, if not net negative, by 2060. This will be a huge challenge and the country has limited options. According to AFRY projections, 2 000 GW – 3 000 GW of extra onshore wind and solar PV will need to be brought into the system to provide enough electricity and flexibility for net zero. This can only be achieved with an intermittent system.

China’s 2030 target is equivalent to the EU’s 2020 goals. It aims to have 1 375 GW of renewable energy assets by 2030, with coal generation capacity reduced to 1 123 GW in the same year. It is worth noting that, while the EU is constantly adjusting its targets (from the Clean Energy for all European Package in 2019 to the Fit for 55 energy package in 2021) in order to accelerate its transition, China is resisting any acceleration. Instead, it relies on its Five-Year Plans to set climate goals and establish a framework for its energy transition.

Like Denmark, most of China’s energy and power companies are state owned, and China is able to take a long-term view when transitioning to renewable energy. The current focus is on creating forward markets with monthly and annual forward products, as well as the creation of spot markets. Eight spot markets are being piloted in China at the moment, with five more having been announced. Regional markets are also in the process of being designed.

What is preoccupying China in the switch from black to green energy?

Flexibility is the key for an energy system based on renewables, but system operators need tools to balance the system in real time. In order to do this, China needs to handle most of the flexibility before real time or risk blackouts as well as a more expensive trading process. There will need to be different energy solutions for different timeframes, whether day-ahead, week ahead or intra-day. The intraday market will be crucial in supporting the system after the closure of the day-ahead. A target model will be needed for market reserve platforms and manual reserve platforms which are vital for flexibility.

Energy balancing is likely to be a priority in China when phasing out thermal generation and introducing additional flexible resources into the system. China is well placed to use its abundant hydropower to balance its power system, rather than relying on coal for system stability. While China established its own regional pilot ETS in 2013, the prices are not comparable with those in the EU as the markets are designed differently and cover different sectors.

Market coupling is likely also to prove a highly efficient strategy for China’s power market integration. In the EU, this optimises the allocation of cross-border capacity. In China, the same process can be used for cross-regional trading.

Transparency is also set to be a key factor in the years ahead. In the long term, investment cannot only be from state-owned companies. The huge level of investment required means that China will need to attract investment from many different sources and provide the right signals to drive divestment from fossil fuels. Participants at the ECECP’s Black to Green power workshop in 2021 urged China to introduce not just 12-month contracts to the forward market, but also 5-year contracts and longer. Renewables will thereby be able to de-risk, and new market participants will be able to hedge against RE volatility. Without these contracts, the electricity market won’t be attractive to private companies.

At the time of writing, there is a global squeeze on energy supplies, with gas, coal and oil prices reaching record levels. It is a moment of real danger in the battle against climate change, as China boosts its coal output to stabilise its energy production, and industries and electricity companies in Europe teeter on the brink of collapse. This is a moment for governments and regulators to hold their nerve and keep their goals and targets firmly in focus, using every technology and tool available to reduce nations’ dependence on domestic or imported fossil fuels and so move towards a cleaner, independent, and green energy future.

By Helen Farrell

ECECP

2.  Short-term pain: the recent energy crunch in Europe and China

In autumn 2021, an energy crunch bit both Europe and China. Many European countries saw a sharp spike in energy prices, while more than 20 provinces in China experienced power shortages. Behind the crisis lies surging energy demand post-Covid, which is outpacing the growth in fossil-fuel supplies. Policymakers in both the EU and China have put in place measures to tackle the squeeze on energy supplies, in order to restore the supply-demand balance and protect low-income groups. Energy prices are expected to remain high until at least the first quarter of 2022. The task of ensuring energy security is urgent. Nevertheless, it is important to recognise the crisis as a short-term issue in the transition away from fossil fuels. There is no need to derail the current transformation to low-carbon pathway. Instead, the long-term solution to the crisis lies in more rapid green transition, upping renewables deployment, energy storage technology and energy efficiency measures, argues Yan Qin, lead analyst at Refinitiv.

Europe’s energy prices rocket in 2021

This year, when many European countries are still recovering from the pandemic, energy prices have spiked sharply across the continent. Both gas and electricity prices have reached unprecedent levels. In early October, wholesale gas prices in the EU were four times more costly than at the start of the year, and electricity prices had tripled in the same period, mainly driven by higher fuel prices. This is in stark contrast to 2020, when energy commodities prices showed a precipitous decline due to Covid-lockdowns.

Figure 1: Wholesale natural gas and electricity prices in the EU (EUR/MWh).

Source: European Commission

Several factors have led to the spike in energy prices. The main reason is rising gas demand, driven by an economic recovery that has not been matched by a corresponding increase in gas supply. In the second quarter of 2021, seasonally adjusted GDP increased by 2.1% in the EU compared with the previous quarter. Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index has stayed above 60 points since March. Thus, the economic recovery and a revived industrial sector have driven up energy consumption. Moreover, the strong uptick in the European carbon price has further boosted the demand for gas in the power sector. At the same time, hydro and wind power output have dropped below normal levels.

Gas supply has been unable to keep pace with the growth in demand. European gas storage were lower than they had been for many years, following a colder than normal winter. Dutch gas production is declining, and delayed infrastructure maintenance during the pandemic has also constrained gas supply. Although it has fulfilled its long-term contracts with its European counterparts, Russia’s Gazprom has offered little or no extra capacity to ease pressure on the EU gas market. Political uncertainties surrounding Russia’s new export pipeline, Nord Stream 2, added to supply concerns. In addition, the global LNG market tightened substantially in 2021, leaving fewer vessels available for Europe. Asian LNG demand remains strong, mainly led by the sharp rise in imports to China. In South America, low hydroelectricity output and a slump in domestic gas production have also generated strong LNG demand for imports. In the first nine months of 2021, LNG imports into the EU fell by 20% year on year. Given that Europe is traditionally the global LNG ‘swing market’, this has placed upward pressure on the prices offered by competing pipeline suppliers.

Figure 2: European gas storage in recent five years

Source: Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, GIE

The surge in European electricity price is primarily due to soaring gas prices, which have become a fundamental determinant of power prices in many EU countries. The European carbon price has doubled to above EUR 60/tonne in October from EUR 30/tonne at the beginning of the year, driven by economic growth and a revision to the EU’s climate targets for 2030. Finally, lower hydroelectricity and wind output in the summer have further tightened power supply, driving up spot power market prices. In Germany, the wholesale power price averaged EUR 128/MWh in September, 2.5 times the level seen in 2020. The power price still varies from country to country, but the same upward trend is observed throughout the region.

Figure 3: Monthly wholesale power price in Germany, 2018-2021 (EUR/MWh).

Source: Refinitiv, EEX

Rising energy prices have affected European consumers and business. Natural gas still plays an important role in the EU energy mix, accounting for around a quarter of the EU's overall energy consumption. The power generation sector uses 26% of the EU’s gas supply (including in combined heat and power plants), while industry uses around 23%.. Most of the rest is used by households and the service sector, primarily for heating and cooling. The spike in prices has led to surging costs for industrial producers, while several small energy retailers have gone bankrupt. On average, the wholesale element typically makes up a third of the end user’s price, plus transmission and distribution costs along with taxes and levies. Those with a purchase contract tied more closely to the wholesale prices have been hit earlier, while those with long-term contracts are likely to see price increases feed through more slowly over the coming weeks and months.

The squeeze on China’s power sector

The power supply crunch in China has affected almost the entire nation since late August 2021. Over 20 provinces have been curbing power supplies to industrial or residential sectors since late August. In Guangdong province, it was reported that some factories have been asked to limit production and close for 3-6 days a week, or operate during off-peak hours. Similar curbs or load-shifting measures have been implemented in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Yunnan provinces and others, affecting various industries, from textiles to steel and aluminium.

The situation was so severe in three north-eastern provinces that the grid operator has been carrying out emergency load shedding since 23 September to prevent grid failure. Media reports state that the supply gap was as large as 7 GW (10% of peak load) and grid frequency dropped to 49.8 Hz. The operator had to cut power supply, including to some residential consumers, to keep the entire grid from collapsing.

This is the worst power crisis in China for a decade: estimates are the China’s GDP has been cut by 0.5 percentage points in the fourth quarter, or even more.

The key factor behind the current situation is soaring coal prices, which have dented available thermal capacity, causing power supply shortages. In addition, rising prices mean that coal stockpiles at many thermal plants have been at very low levels this year, adding to the woes. In the north-eastern provinces, only half of coal fleet was operational in late September, running at 50% of installed capacity due to regular maintenance and coal shortages.

Since the beginning of the year, domestic coal prices have doubled or almost tripled in some regions in China, reaching more than USD 250/tonne in September. The main cause is similar to the one behind European gas price surge that coal demand growth outpacing coal supply, whether from domestic production and imports. Globally tight coal markets and rising gas prices have driven up coal prices in China.

Figure 4: China Qinghuangdao coal spot price (CNY/tonne).

Source: Refinitiv, Steel Home

On the other hand, the highly regulated coal-fired power tariff has led to heavy losses for the power plants. The coal power tariff is largely regulated, at around CNY 0.4/kWh to CNY 0.5/kWh (EUR 50/MWh to EUR 60/MWh) in most provinces or even lower. With coal prices surging and the power price mostly unchanged, this will lead to losses for coal plant owners, as fuel costs account for 70% of the costs of coal-fired generation. One power enterprise in Shanxi province is reported to be looking at a loss of CNY 0.12/kWh in August - 20% of the power tariff.

In addition, there are also regional logistics bottlenecks for coal transportation from the western coal-producing provinces to eastern industrial provinces. Some thermal plants have opted into maintenance to reduce their losses or avoid replenishing coal stockpiles before winter season. Reduced operating capacity at the coal plants then led to tight power supply in many provinces.

In several provinces, they have chosen to curb some industrial production in order to be on track to achieve their year-end energy intensity and energy consumption targets. This is likely the case in eastern Jiangsu and Zhejiang province. For example, Taizhou city, in Jiangsu province, reportedly closed all of its industrial production in the last two weeks of September.

The ‘Dual Control’ target is a mechanism that has been in place since 2015, when China started to set targets for total energy consumption and energy intensity (energy consumption per unit of GDP) for provinces. In March 2021, China set new Dual Control targets in the 14th Five-Year Plan, aiming for a 13.5% cut in energy intensity by 2025. China also set a binding target to reduce carbon intensity by 18% in 2025 compared to 2015 levels, in order to achieve the goal of peak carbon emissions before 2030.

Thus, the climate pledge and 2030 carbon peak goal have caused policymakers to turn the screw tighter on the energy Dual Control targets. The goal is to cut energy intensity by 3% in 2021. State energy planner NDRC has been publishing quarterly progress reports for the provinces, relating to their energy consumption and intensity targets. In the first quarter, seven provinces missed their intensity target, and this number increased to nine in the first half-year progress report, including Jiangsu and Guangdong. In the first six months of 2021, Zhejiang’s energy-intensive industries saw power consumption jump 20% compared to same period in 2020. These two provinces are now in a last-minute dash to bring down energy consumption in the final two weeks of the third quarter, in order to be in line with target.

This short-term pain will not derail the long term decarbonisation gain

The energy crunch is not over yet, and energy prices are expected to remain high until at least the first quarter of 2022. The task of ensuring energy security has created acute and urgent tasks for both European and Chinese policymakers. On 13 October 2021, the European Commission published a toolbox to mitigate the impact of the energy crisis on vulnerable groups and protect consumers and businesses. Immediate measures include subsidies, tax deductions and so on. China’s state planner and top leadership have also issued several notices and held a meeting of the National Energy Commission on 9 October 2021 to formulate actions in response to the energy crunch. Short-term measures include boosting domestic coal output, increasing fuel imports, allowing more flexibility in power pricing and so on.

The ongoing energy crunch will have an adverse impact on economic growth this year. However, this is not likely to derail the decarbonisation pathway and the carbon neutrality targets to which China and the EU have pledged. Indeed, soaring energy prices are a stark reminder of how dependent the world remains on fossil fuels, and should serve to accelerate the shift towards clean energy. Rational consumer behaviour will, for example, accelerate the transition from fossil fuels if the prices of those fuels or the electricity produced from them remain high and volatile. One example is the growing interest in rooftop solar among factory owners, following factory shutdowns due to power curbs.

Carbon pricing schemes can also be added to the toolbox for tackling the crisis. The EU encouraged governments to use their significantly higher EU ETS revenues resulting from higher carbon prices to alleviate the impact of skyrocketing bills on vulnerable households. Levies and taxes on energy prices and environmental taxes could also help raise the funds needed for near-term action. This demonstrates that the carbon price from the ETS provides a fundamental incentive to switch to cheaper renewable energy, more energy efficient buildings, and low-carbon energy sources, thus contributing in the longer term to lower wholesale prices and reduced vulnerability to similar global shocks. China’s new national carbon market, launched in 2021, could become an important source of funding for lower-carbon investment as auctioning of allowances is gradually introduced.

A market design that fosters an efficient and long-term sustainable energy market will also facilitate the green transition and make the energy market more resilient to such shocks. The European Commission is to task the Agency for the Co-operation of Energy Regulators (ACER) to assess the benefits and drawbacks of the current wholesale electricity market design. Among other issues, it will look at its capacity to address situations of extreme price volatility in the gas markets and available measures to mitigate such situations, while ensuring a cost-effective transition towards a net zero energy system.

In China, power market liberalisation took a significant step forward on 12 October 2021 with the state planner announcing a further deepening of power market reforms. The floating range of the coal-fired tariff is expanded to 20% above/below the benchmark, and is unlimited for energy-intensive industries. All of China’s coal-fired power generation will enter the power market, up from the current level of 70%. Industrial and commercial power consumption will also be included in the power market, up from 44% at present. This means that fuel costs can at least partly be passed on to the end user, and market-based power transaction share in total power consumption will further expand.

Finally, it is important to recognize the energy crunch as a short-term crisis in the energy transition rather than something that will derail the current transformation to a low-carbon pathway. Variable renewables have been cited as a cause for the power crunch, but this shows the need to ramp up flexible power generation and energy storage. The long-term solution to the crisis lies in an even more rapid green transition, upping renewables deployment, energy storage technology and energy efficiency measures.

By Yan Qin

Lead analyst, Refinitiv

3.  How can China’s national carbon market contribute to reducing emissions?

As the system begins to set explicit carbon price for large power sector emitters, it still has to overcome some expected design and implementation challenges

Figure 1: A screen in Wuhan shows data on China's national carbon market, on the day trading began

Source: Xiao Yijiu / Alamy/ China Dialogue,CC BY NC ND

On 16 July, trading started on China’s national emissions trading system (ETS). This is the first nationwide explicit price on carbon, for now covering companies in the power generation sector.

With overarching regulation for the national ETS having entered force in February, and rules for the registry, trading and clearing of allowances released in May, China now has in place the key building blocks for trading in carbon allowances between large emitters. In its first compliance cycle (for emissions from 2019 and 2020), the ETS covers 2,162 power companies across the country, responsible for a total of over 4 billion tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

The carbon price had been one of the most conjectured upon features of the new carbon market, with predictions ranging from under 38 yuan/tonne (US$5.85/tonne) to 49/tonne. On the opening day, trading started at 48/tonne and closed at 52.8/tonne, hitting the daily 10% upper limit on price variation. In the first two weeks of trading, about 6 million tonnes of allowances were traded at a value of about 300 million yuan. As of 5 August, prices were trading between 53–59/tonne.

This suggests that the prices are within the range of expectations of key stakeholders, including those working in the power generation sector. Trades on the opening day were pre-arranged to coincide with the opening ceremony at the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange and sister events in Beijing and Wuhan, prompting some observers to caution against putting too much weight on them as a sign of prices within the first compliance period overall. If oversupply becomes evident in the coming months, it is possible prices may drop towards the end of the year.

The launch of trading is undoubtedly a major step towards the goal of realising the intended role of carbon pricing – reducing China’s emissions. As with most carbon pricing systems, however, it will necessarily be a learning-by-doing process. Some of the potential challenges that the system will face, now that trading has been initiated, include:

●  Credibility of emissions data

In late June, just as authorities were preparing to launch trading, significant concerns were raised around the integrity of the emissions data of some market participants. This reinforced the importance of strengthening the rules and penalties around monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of emissions, to ensure that the data underpinning the market operation is credible.

●  Absolute cap

Transitioning from carbon intensity-based allocation of allowances to an absolute cap on emissions is increasingly recognised as an important step to improve the effectiveness of the ETS. This is in terms of incentivising transformational change both in the power sector and in other industrial sectors that will be added into the system in the coming years.

●  Liquidity

Market players beyond the compliance companies, such as institutional investors, are looking forward to having access to the market. In addition, regulators may explore the potential for providing for additional and varied trading products in order to facilitate liquidity.

●  Policy coordination

It is important that there is coherence with other relevant policies, such as power market reform, trading of energy consumption rights, and trading of renewable energy quotas. If carbon pricing is to play its intended role in cost effectively driving down emissions, it is crucial that other policies do not negate its effect, but are coordinated to be complementary.

●  Transition from pilots to national ETS

The roadmap and approach for the next steps in transitioning from regional pilots to a fully functioning national ETS needs concrete milestones.

From an emissions-reduction perspective, it is important to be aware of what the system is and is not able to achieve at this stage. Because allocation of allowances under the ETS is based on the carbon intensity of electricity production, rather than the overall emissions of a business, the key incentive created is for a shift from less efficient operators to more efficient ones. It has been pointed out that this misses the opportunity to incentivise shifts away from coal power to renewables.

Even so, the shift from less efficient to more efficient coal operators does provide the potential for some significant emission reductions in the short term. The central government began introducing a deliberate policy of “Promoting large and closing small” coal-fired power plants during the 11th Five Year Plan (2006–2010). While some efficiencies were achieved, about 60% of China’s operating coal power units are still inefficient sub-critical ones, accounting for about 44% of total coal power generation capacity, according to Global Energy Monitor’s Global Coal Plant Tracker.

If all of the electricity currently produced by power generation units under 300MW capacity were instead generated by 600MW units, it would cause on average about 19% less CO2 emissions. If it were generated by 1000MW units, emissions could be reduced by about 26% on average. In an economy where power generation causes over 5 gigatonnes of CO2 annually, these potential reductions are not insubstantial. Of course, while these reductions are technically possible on paper, there are real-world obstacles to achieving them, including limits to inter-connectivity within the power grid, and guaranteed operating hours to smaller units.

An additional obstacle to fully realising the emissions reduction potential from the ETS is that the allocation of free allowances will apply differently to small and large power generation units. In the EU, power generation received free allocation based on one single, sector-wide benchmark. At the start of China’s national ETS, units 300MW and below face a benchmark for free allocation 10% more generous than those with larger capacity (measured in terms of emissions intensity of production). While this could potentially blunt some of the effect of the ETS in encouraging a shift away from inefficient units, there are regional distribution motivations for this approach. The smaller units are not spread evenly across China, but are rather concentrated in certain parts of the country. Provinces such as Heilongjiang (in the northeast) and Yunnan (in the southwest) see half of their generation capacity concentrated in such small units, meaning that when they go offline it will have a bigger impact on these province’s power supply as well as on local economies.

The local economic challenge comes in to focus in towns like Qiqihar in Heilongjiang, where two thirds of local generation capacity is made up of 200MW subcritical units that were installed in the 1980s. Qiqihar is an old industrial town northwest of Harbin, and it has not received the same level of investment in updating power generation and transmission infrastructure as other parts of the country. The closest ultra-high voltage (UHV) power line ends about 400km away in Inner Mongolia. More support for coal-power towns like Qiqihar is needed in order mitigate the risk of the ETS bringing shocks to local economies.

Figure 2: A training session for local government and industry representatives under the EU-China ETS Platform in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang, June 2021

Source: EU-China ETS Platform

The good news is that the ETS is riding a wave of enthusiasm and political momentum this year, which may lead to some ambitious reforms to enhance its effectiveness within the 14th Five Year Plan period (2021–2025). Experts working on the ETS have been actively exploring changes to the design such as: an absolute cap on the emissions of covered businesses, rather than a cap on the carbon intensity of power production; the inclusion of industrial sectors such as steel, aluminium, cement and chemical production; development of stronger legal enforcement via State Council regulation; and improvement in the oversight of monitoring and reporting of emissions. In addition, the discussion around a “just transition” is gathering pace in China, with options being explored for financing channels to ameliorate the inevitable economic effects on coal-dependent communities. If these opportunities can be realised within the next few years, carbon pricing can be expected to start playing the decisive role in reducing emissions that it is intended to achieve.

By Huw Slater

This article was originally published on China Dialogue under CC BY NC ND Creative Commons licence.

4.  How to tap the efficiency potential of coal-fired power

Soaring coal prices and ambitious climate targets mean China’s coal-fired power generation industry is suffering severe operating losses even as it secures the country’s power supplies. There is no turning back from the transition towards clean energy, and yet coal cannot be cut out of the power equation. One answer is to improve the efficiency of boilers and cooling towers, the two major components that generate almost all plant losses and 100% of emissions, argues Slovenia’s Dr Zeljko Warga.

The squeeze on coal-fired power

China’s coal-fired generation plants generate almost 60% of the country’s power and more than 40% of carbon emissions. Their remit is to cut emissions even as they maintain output to secure the country’s power supplies.

Yet the coal price, which generally accounts for a majority of 70-80% cost for a power plant, has had a roller coaster year. By Oct 15th, the 5500kcal (22.9MJ/kg) coal stock price reached a historic high at more than CNY 2200 (USD 342/t)[1], more than double the price of the same period of last year.

As the coal price skyrockets and the authorities retain the low benchmark power prices, most coal-fired generation companies find now that the more power they produce, the more money they lose. Some plant operators report that for every single unit of power produced, they lose CNY 7-8 cents (USD 1.1-1.2 cents) at the current market coal price, which translates into over more than USD 155,000 loss per day if they run in full capacity[2].

This dismal picture is confirmed by recent industry figures showing that 70% of coal-fired assets in big generation groups are running at a deficit[3], with no prospect of an improvement in the near term. In early September, 11 coal-fired power companies took the unprecedented step of requesting a rise in electricity prices in order to avoid bankruptcy. The squeeze on coal supplies to coal-fired power plants is causing severe power shortages across China, affecting millions.

China needs cleaner coal

There is no turning back from China’s carbon neutrality targets: coal’s current dominance will continue to weaken and shift towards flexible power sources. Yet in the near term, installed coal fired capacity is still set to grow in order to meet rising power demand and to safeguard supply. In addition to its 1079 GW existing coal power generating capacity, China has over 357 GW more in the pipeline[4].

Top of the agenda in the power sector is the task of making traditional coal-fired units environmentally friendly, with higher power generation efficiency and lower energy consumption. China has already moved to shut down underperforming units and implement ultra-low emission and energy-saving measures in existing assets. Statistics show that by the end of 2020, 950 GW of China’s coal power capacity had been upgraded, affecting about 89% of existing assets[5]. The emission of major pollutants from coal-fired power plants, as well as average coal consumption for power generation, have both seen a steady decline over the past few years (the latter has dropped from nearly 400g per kWh in 2000 to 304.9g per kWh in 2020[6]). Nevertheless, in 2020 Chinese coal power plants consumed nearly 1.7 billion tonnes of coal.

Efficiency is the key

Dr Zeljko Warga, business development associate of IBE[7], the oldest industrial engineering company in Slovenia founded in 1949, believes there is huge potential for China’s coal-fired power plants to improve their efficiency. He has co-developed an innovative Plant Efficiency Toolbox (PET) for coal-fired power plants that can cut coal usage, and so reduce operating costs and emissions. The PET relates to the two major plant components, the boiler and cooling tower, which generate nearly all plant losses and all emissions.

Boiler efficiency optimisation – a direct pain killer!

The boiler is the primary plant component, and its performance directly determines the plant operating efficiency. This in turn affects the overall plant economics and its environmental footprint. ‘To secure better performance, the key is to know details on what goes on in the boiler from heat transfer point of view’ notes Dr Warga. He has developed online boiler heat transfer calculation software[8] for everyday engineering use. This web-based tool can conduct thermodynamic calculations and simulate the impact on boiler performance of operating parameter changes (combustion quality, feed water temperature, steam pressure, etc.) fuel composition (coal change and coal blending, alternative fuel addition) and boiler internal geometry (use of refractory in furnace for instance).

Boiler-related calculations are not new to plant operators. However, existing software tools are complex and can only be operated by specialist external companies, whose services can be very costly (in the region of USD 30k-60K) and time-consuming (a specialist survey can take weeks). Warga’s software is specially designed for use by plant engineers with basic theoretical and practical knowledge about heat transfer in boiler, and is accessible to anyone. The user only needs to enter boiler internal geometry information, fuel composition and operational readings, and the calculations will be carried out in the background in a matter of seconds. The software then generates a clear picture of what is going on inside the boiler and how changes in operating parameters and geometry affect the outcome, steam production and efficiency. ‘This is the first time such a tool has been publicly available to engineers to serve their needs on a 24/7 basis,’ says Warga.

Warga’s team has gone a step further. Not content with knowing the optimisation potential, they also provide an innovative boiler tuning expertise which means they can fine tune a boiler to get the desired results.

In late 2015 the team won an advanced combustion tuning project funded by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO[9]) at a coal-fired power plant in Indonesia. The candidate boiler was a 600 MW boiler (1,900 t/h steam at 190 bar) and the project was completed in June 2016. The Babcock & Wilcox Canada boiler was already very well maintained, and had sustained commissioned values from September 1997, a remarkable achievement. Nevertheless, there was still room for improvement.

Once the recommendations were adopted, the boiler saw savings of around 35,000 t/yr of reduced coal usage, 67.000 t/yr in CO2 emissions reduction, and 458 t/yr (all metric tonnes) in SO2 emissions reduction[10].

‘To bring this into perspective, in 2014, ABB tuned a boiler (Unit 4) at the same location and achieved 0.33% energy savings. When we took on combustion tuning in 2016, we achieved around 0.7% boiler efficiency increase at nominal load, and more than twice as much at 66% load,’ argues Warga.

Even more boiler tuning potential was detected following subsequent boiler thermodynamic calculations and simulations with Warga’s software.

Figure 1: Case study location, Suralaya power plant, Indonesia, 4025MW

The plant’s total coal usage reduction potential (extrapolated to the plant’s eight boilers, 4025 MW in total) was found to be around half a million tonnes, representing more than 900,000 tonnes of CO2 reductions. This is achievable without capital investment or boiler stoppage, according to Warga. In total, around 3.5% coal usage and consequently this much CO2 emissions reduction potential was detected.

‘Based on these results, we have good reason to believe that if such potential exists in what is touted as best set and operated plant in a country, there is significant potential elsewhere,’ declares Warga.

Cooling tower efficiency: neglected potential

Another key component of a coal-fired power plant that could benefit from further efficiency improvement is the cooling tower. Its improvement potential is often overlooked. ‘Cooling towers in most cases do not operate optimally because evaluation methods are largely statistical due to practical limitations: their giant size and thousands of water-rinsed tubes make manual data collection impossible. This way some spots in need of attention are left out. Losses from an improperly maintained cooling tower can amount to millions of dollars per year for a single plant,’ says Warga. ‘The trick is to be able to quickly locate areas inside the cooling tower where conditions depart from the optimum operation point.’

The new technology employs AI-driven mobile units alongside an advanced algorithm that are programmed and deployed within the cooling tower to collect data for performance evaluation and to identify anomalous areas left out by statistical methods. The potential gain from eliminating those anomalous areas is calculated and a baseline is set so that operators can be alerted when any deviation is detected. The option for this technology is included in the PET.

Demonstrations of the technology have been carried out at several European sites. ‘The results are encouraging. A system efficiency increase of between 0.3% and 1% (0.65% on average) was observed even in the case of equipment that has been properly and regularly inspected and maintained,’ reports Warga. The cost of the service can be recouped within weeks.

Figure 2: AI-driven mobile units deployed inside cooling tower to collect needed data

Figure 3: Cross-section A-A showing reported results with red areas indicating spots in need of attention overlooked by traditional methods

An ‘All-at-Once’ solution

Boiler and cooling tower operation evaluation, and consequently plant performance improvement, is normally undertaken by specialist service companies who keep the know-how to themselves. Warga believes that most of the optimisation work can be carried out by trained plant staff, so yielding much quicker results nationwide. ‘Our idea is to equip plant staff with the know-how through training. It is always better to teach a man how to catch the fish than to give him a fish.’

Warga’s ‘All-at-Once’ strategy provides a mass plant staff training and technology transfer that enables widespread implementation of the PET. ‘It makes little sense to handle a single plant at a time, when the clock is already ticking for tackling climate change,’ he says. In his view, this strategy offers the best way to deploy the software and knowhow more widely. The economic gains from adopting the package can then be used to invest in environmental and technological upgrades or to recoup costs.

China has the biggest potential

The PET was first brought to public attention at a coal power themed workshop in Vietnam, organised by the Centre for Sustainable Carbon[11], formerly the Clean Coal Centre in London. ‘We’ve successfully introduced the software in Vietnam[12]. But the country that has the most potential and stands to benefit most from the PET is of course China!’ states Warga. He presented it to a Chinese audience for the first time at an innovation-themed event held by EU-China Energy Cooperation Platform (ECECP) earlier in 2021[13].

Figure 4: Dr Warga delivering speech in Hanoi in October 2018

With China’s coal-fired plant operators facing soaring coal prices and demands to reduce emissions, the PET offers the potential to ease that pressure with less external effort and minimum capital outlay.

‘We firmly believe the All-at-Once strategy can be replicated in China. Countries like China and Vietnam possess certain institutional advantages for deployment and therefore can more easily reap the benefit from unified action,’ says Warga.

The PET is set to improve further with advanced, yet simple and cost effective, plant boiler bottom ash removal and unburned in ash afterburning technology. This has also the potential to reduce emission further by co-firing processed communal waste (RDF) in power plants to replace part of the fuels, which not only can reduce coal usage but also handle the municipal waste problem at the same time without the need to build controversial and expensive incinerators.

Warga estimates that complete implementation of PET in China’s coal-fired power plants, including RDF co-firing[14], could reduce coal usage by up to 10%, which translates to a staggering 170 million tonnes a year, given 1.7 billion tonnes annual usage, and more than 320 million tonnes reduction in CO2 emissions - five times more than Three Gorges Dam’s contribution[15] in 2020.

With the coal price soaring, a climate crisis, and countries worldwide rushing to implement policies and legislation to cut emissions, innovative solutions to optimise plant performance and efficiency are needed more than ever to cut fuel use and reduce coal’s environmental footprint. Warga’s PET shows what can be achieved just through effective management of existing assets.

By Daisy Chi

ECECP

5.  Power sector flexibility lessons from Germany for better integration of renewables

This is an invited article that has not been through the ECECP editing process.

Electrification of energy consumption with a high share of renewable energy is one of the main pillars of the low-carbon energy transition. Many advanced economies, such as Germany, have achieved a high share of variable wind and solar in their electricity systems: in 2021, Germany is likely to generate over half of its electricity from renewables, of which over 20% will come from wind and over 10% from solar. In the 2021 revision of its Renewable Energy Act, Germany has set the target to achieve 65% renewable energy in gross electricity consumption by 2030. The Law also stipulates that before 2050, all electricity that Germany produces or consumes on its territory is carbon neutral. In 2019, Germany had an average supply interruption duration per connected final consumer per year of 10 minutes on medium voltage levels and 2 minutes on low voltage levels. The German electricity system is one of the most reliable systems in the industrialized world, which illustrates the ability of the German grid to flexibly handle a power generation structure with increasing renewable energy share.[16]

In many countries variable renewable energy still faces a variety of obstacles. And although many analysts cite market design and institutional incentives as the most important factors blocking greater integration of renewable energy,[17] within the power sector many experts continue to cite technical hurdles as well. For example, in China, the distance between renewable-producing regions in western China and consumption centres in eastern China, as well as the high share of combined-heat-and-power (CHP) in winter months in northern China, are often mentioned to explain curtailment of wind and solar energy.[18]

How is Europe improving flexibility to improve integration of renewable energy? How does China’s power system flexibility compare? To answer these questions, we begin by discussing the current and future plans and policies of Germany and the EU regarding flexibility, and then summarize the results of a recent study quantifying the flexibility in Germany and the region of China near Beijing.

How Germany and Europe are achieving high flexibility

In general, the main reforms necessary to achieve the energy transition in Germany through 2020 have consisted of power market reforms and incentives to encourage flexibility and efficiency.

Power market reforms began in 1996 with the first EU regulation on liberalizing power markets, requiring the unbundling of generation, transmission, distribution, and trading.[19] These reforms, carried out in Germany after 1998, included establishing a spot market and achieving a high volume of spot market transactions, as well as establishing a balancing energy market across Germany, increasing the integration of German markets with neighbouring markets, and establishing detailed roles and responsibilities for balancing.

The German power market is an energy-only market, meaning that generators only are paid for generated energy (not for the willingness to generate as in a capacity market).[20] As the renewable energy share rises and price fluctuations increase, plants that can ramp up and down faster, more flexibly, are incentivized through energy prices. Germany’s balancing energy market, which comes into play in the case of sudden and unexpected surges or drops in load, also incentivizes flexibility by rewarding those producers who can quickly feed in additional energy or reduce feed-in and consumers who can quickly take load off the grid or increase load.[21]

How Europe will improve flexibility in the future

To achieve its climate and energy goals, Europe intends to improve cross-border electricity interconnections. Connecting Europe’s electricity systems should allow the EU to boost its security of electricity supply and to integrate more renewables into energy markets. Hence, the EU has set an interconnection target of at least 10% by 2020, to encourage EU countries to connect their installed electricity production capacity. This means that each country should have in place electricity cables that allow at least 10% of the electricity produced by its power plants to be transported across its borders to neighboring countries. The EU plans to reach an interconnectivity of 15% by 2030.[22]

Moreover, the new EU Electricity Regulation, which entered into force in 2020, stipulates that cross-border electricity connections must be opened to a larger degree for cross-border trade. The trade capacity levels are to be incrementally raised until 70% of connection capacities are actually made available for cross-border trade. This will help boost pan-European trade in electricity and avoid member states curtailing cross-border interconnection capacity to deal with internal bottlenecks.

The EU’s Ten-Year Development Planning has also helped address transmission bottlenecks and ensure that interconnectors can enable a fully integrated clean energy system in time for carbon neutrality. The EU’s transmission planning process relies on generation and demand scenarios—accounting for weather and seasonal renewable variations—designed by multiple stakeholders. This planning method produces superior results to other systems that use simplistic rules-of-thumb about utilization rates or renewable percentage to plan and design individual lines. Such systems can produce suboptimal results, since they place too little value on demand flexibility, distributed energy, and improved dispatch, while overvaluing centralized generation can cause excessive investment in stable output—such as costly central energy storage or backup fossil plants to even out production only on the supply side.

Distributed energy and energy storage are also strategies for improving flexibility in the medium and long-term.

The development of solar energy in many parts of Europe and North America in the early 2000s initially began with a relatively higher policy emphasis on distributed residential solar, despite the high cost of rooftop solar. Only recently have these regions seen stronger interest in pairing energy storage with residential solar. Today, almost 70% of new home solar PV installations in Germany come with battery energy storage. The country’s residential storage market represented around 2.3 GWh of installed capacity by the end of 2020. There are now more than 300,000 battery storage systems installed in German households, with the average installation size around 8-9 kWh.[23] Germany may install 150,000 residential batteries in 2021, accounting for around 1.5 GW, or two-thirds of new battery installation capacity for 2021.[24]

The demand side will also play an increasing role in providing flexibility, such as through thermal energy storage via small scale heat pumps, off-peak or coordinated electric vehicle charging, and aggregation of demand through virtual power plants. A virtual power plant (VPP) can be defined as a central IT system that controls or aggregates decentralized power-generating technologies, energy storage technologies, or flexibility-providing demand-side resources that are mainly connected to the distribution grid or near to end users.

The 2012 European Union Directive on Energy Efficiency first established aggregators for load management. The 2019 Clean Energy for All Europeans package encourages member states to create favorable conditions for energy suppliers and citizen energy communities to participate in power markets in a non-discriminatory manner with other generation.[25] In Germany, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) established a VPP industry guideline in 2016, [26] and a 2021 revision of the German Energy Industry Law added information obligations between aggregators and consumers.[27] VPPs in Germany can participate in long-term power markets and spot power markets, as well as in the balancing market, which may be considered ancillary services in the Chinese context. Most transactions take place in the spot market: VPPs are active in both day-ahead and intraday markets and can offer rapid and controllable flexibility in the 15-minute and 1-hour markets, which are active up to 5 minutes before delivery.

VPP participation in the balancing market takes two forms: via the spot market, and via a tender organized by the Transmission System Operators (TSOs), and recently most are participating via this tender mechanism. VPP participate in the ancillary services markets, including the automatic (5 minute) and manual frequency regulation markets, and compensated using both capacity price and energy price based on actual usage. VPPs can also participate in tenders for interruptible loads with the TSO, which applies to loads down to 5 MW. Interruptions may be signaled electronically to customers or to aggregators. The German VPP market is small but growing. The largest VPP, Next Kraftwerke, aggregates 11,049 generators for 9 GW of power, including PV, batteries, small hydro, and biomass. Sonnen, a battery company, aggregates PV and batteries for its customers, participating in energy trading and balancing services. Heating and cooling equipment provider Viessmann has recently launched a VPP that will integrate heat pumps and thermal energy storage for electricity storage.

New study shows German system more flexible than similar region in China

While it has long been recognized that long-distance transmission systems, coal plants, and CHP plants in Europe are operated more flexibly than those in China, it has never been easy to measure this in practice. To help policy makers, grid operators, and power sector participants understand the best path for improving flexibility, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and researchers at the Energy Research Institute of NDRC and the North China Power University sought to quantify the flexibility of the existing system, compare the system’s flexibility to best practices in regions with a higher share of renewables, and quantitatively analyze the costs and flexibility benefits of various strategies for improving flexibility. The report is a result of the Sino-German Energy Transition project, implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy.

In report about the analysis, A Quantitative Comparative Study of Power System Flexibility in Jing-Jin-Ji and Germany, we used five metrics to quantify flexibility in Germany versus Jing-Jin-Ji—the region comprising Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, altogether has a larger population and electricity load than Germany.[28] The five metrics are the Loss-of-Load-Probability (LOLP), the probability of insufficient downward flexibility, the probability of insufficient upward flexibility, and the curtailment rate of wind and solar. We used historical data to ensure reliability, though future analysis will likely consider projected data as well.

The overall results show that the Jing-Jin-Ji region of China lacks the flexibility of Germany’s power system. North Hebei has a high loss-of-load-probability (LOLP), in both winter and summer, and lacks downward flexibility in both seasons. This inflexibility contributes directly to curtailment of renewable energy.

Figure 11: Comparison of typical day LOLP between Jing-Jin-Ji and Germany

Source: NDRC ERI, 2020

The report further compares the cost of four strategies for upgrading the flexibility of the region’s power system: coal plant flexibility retrofits, upgrades to existing transmission, energy storage, and demand-side-management. The model used in the study finds the greatest flexibility benefit for coal plant retrofits. China has missed targets for coal plant flexibility retrofits in recent years.

Improved interconnections are also a cost-effective strategy, though the benefit is not quite as pronounced. Assuming renewable capacity continues to grow, improved interconnections and operational flexibility of interconnections will be necessary. Currently, the region’s interconnections are mainly used as emergency backup, to provide baseload energy, or to serve peak loads. Interconnections are not yet operated to facilitate bidirectional power flows, enable regional spot markets, or provide short-term balancing across provincial or regional boundaries.

Using energy storage costs from 2018, the report found that this was the least effective strategy, though as storage prices go down and as more renewable plants acquire onsite storage to comply with recent requirements, storage will likely play a role in Jing-Jin-Ji’s future flexibilization.

Conclusion

The German case shows that improved flexibility has helped the country reach nearly 50% renewable energy generation while keeping the grid stable and supply highly reliable. As the need for flexibility grows along with new wind and solar additions, more will be needed. Well-functioning power markets, thermal plant flexibility retrofits and transmission are the first solutions for improving flexibility. Once these have been fully achieved, distributed energy storage and demand-side flexibility come into play. All will be needed to achieve high levels of renewable energy and carbon neutrality.

By Anders Hove

Project Director, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

6.  European Green Deal and EU-China Cooperation on Urbanisation

When it launched the European Green Deal (EGD) at the end of 2019, the European Union (EU) stetted up the landmark goal to cut GHG emissions by 55% (compared to 1990) by 2030 and become the first carbon-neutral continent by 2050. The EGD is an ambitious development plan, which involves numerous policies and directives in multiple sectors, including finance, environment, energy, buildings, transport, and industry. It stands at the core of the EU´s climate diplomacy, seeking to lead international climate negotiations.

European cities have been actively involved as ‘green dealers’ in the EU´s green and digital transition. Those initiatives have the potential to be rolled out to foreign partner counties like China, through cross-cultural cooperation in knowledge exchange and joint solution development.

European Green Deal in The Urban Age

The EGD is not only an investment and regulatory strategy for a green economy, but also a tool for conceptualising the society of the future[29]. Around 80% of the EU’s population live in cities, which are generators of innovation and growth. According to UN-Habitat, cities consume 75% of energy globally, and are responsible for about 70% of GHG emissions and pollution. Many EU cities are already pioneers and leaders in localisation of climate strategies. The EGD acknowledges the key role of local authorities in the design and implementation of climate action plans. The priorities of the EGD, be it secure and green energy, sustainable transport, circular economy or ecological food system, depend mainly on actions by cities to develop local solutions. The EGD presents a holistic strategy for cities and regions as they transition to a circular economy with clean energy and green technologies, with benefits for the environment and biodiversity, quality of life and health, resilience and competitiveness. The EGD reviews the current EU policies, regulations and guidelines, and incorporates financial tools e.g. the Multiannual Financial Framework and the Next Generation EU Recovery and Resilience Facility. It involves the commitment of all stakeholders in the public, commercial and non-profit sectors.

Figure 1: The European Green Deal.  Source: European Commission.

The New European Bauhaus, launched in September 2020, is one of the initiatives that aims to involve cities to support the EGD[30]. This programme brings the EGD to city life by connecting architecture and design, climate science and green technology, as well as art and culture. It provides urban development with dimensions of sustainability (including life-cycle usage of building materials), high-quality (including people´s experience), and equity (including affordability and social inclusion). The program is in the initial phase of co-design. It is set to be rolled out in pilot projects in various cities in Europe. In April 2021, the ‘New European Bauhaus Prize’ was launched to recognise and disseminate the knowledge and experience on effective local climate solutions gathered through the pilot projects.

EU-China Urban and Regional Cooperation

The EGD is a strategic plan for Europe which stands at the core of EU´s international climate negotiations, by strengthening EU’s bilateral actions with other partners like China. The implementation of the EGD is in parallel with China´s 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2021-2025) and the country’s ‘30-60’ Decarbonisation Goal (carbon emission peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060), which conceivably set a benchmark for the global socio-economic development.

To support city-to-city and inter-regional cooperation, the EU has supported the initiation of the International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) (2021-2023). As part of the second phase of IUC (2016-2020), the IURC China will contribute to the delivery of the Agenda 2030. the European Green Deal and the Urban Agenda through city-to-city diplomacy and collaborative regional efforts to overcome common challenges faced by both the EU and China. The programme aims to further lead a form of decentralised urban and regional cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development and innovation, working with more than 40 European and Chinese cities and regions[31].

IURC China consists of two components: city-to-city cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development, and region-to-region cooperation in the field of innovation.

The approach consists of three interlinked thematic networks: ecological transition, urban and regional renewal, and innovative sustainable systems. These three thematic networks are complemented by the overarching common challenges of digital transition and smart cities, energy transition and climate change, and the post Covid-19 recovery entailing social justice and inclusion.

Through effective interventions and actions, the programme will contribute to enhanced EU-China cooperation on sustainable cities and regional innovation, strengthened capacity of participating urban and regional stakeholders to implement transnational cooperation, active knowledge exchange and networking, and continuous engagement regarding investment opportunities between EU and China.

Challenges and Prospects

Albeit the strong cooperation, the EU-China urban and regional cooperation is not without challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic, cultural, political and social differences, language barriers, and lack of funding represent major challenges to the EU-China urban and regional cooperation.

While travel restrictions under COVID-19 have impeded transnational cooperation, the impact can be mitigated by engagement of the stakeholders through regular collaborative digital connections. Like all other international cooperation programmes, cultural, political and social differences can limit mutual understanding, and language barriers may hinder deeper dialogue beyond the shallow presentation of ‘best practices’. These set “translation” beyond the language an important role. It shall facilitate the EU and China cities to better understand the socio-technical and cultural context of both sides. The funding challenge may be mitigated by the soon-to-be-launched IURC Competitive Fund Mechanism, and the funding resources within the Triple-Helix model (the local authority, companies, and academic institutes).

What would EU-China urban cooperation in the post-COVID-19 era look like? It is possible that we will see an unfamiliar socio-economic landscape. The new normality will be different from the normality that we leave behind. The impact of the pandemic and climate change provide us with an opportunity to ‘build back better’. Based on the lessons learned from the previous efforts, the EU-China urban and regional cooperation programme IURC-China optimises the added-value of international cooperation, transforming IURC into a global network of reference for urban and regional sustainable innovation, and generating the potential 'new normal'.

By Keru Feng

Key expert, International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC)

International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC – China)

Funded by: EU Partnership Instrument - European External Action Service

Implemented by: GOPA Infra, GOPA Beijing, GOPA Consultants, VNG

Project team: WANG Qian (Team Leader), FENG Keru (Key Expert), and JIN Jingnan (Programme Coordinator / Expert)

Term: 2021 - 2023

Project description:

The International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) represents a second phase of the ‘International Urban Cooperation (IUC) Programme’ with a view to taking forward and developing further the achievements of the first phase (2016 - 2020). It seeks to contribute to the delivery of international commitments articulated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN New Urban Agenda. It will equally support the implementation of the European Commission’s priorities for a ‘Stronger Europe in the World’, the new EU’s growth strategies (e.g. the Green Deal) that build upon the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy and the ten-year vision of member states in the Rome Declaration of 2017, notably with regard to the objective of a ‘prosperous and sustainable Europe’.

IURC has two components or thematic strands of cooperation:

- City-to-city cooperation in the field of sustainable urban development.

- Region-to-region cooperation in the field of innovation.

The project constitutes part of a long-term strategy to foster urban diplomacy as an important vehicle of the EU's external relations. The programme reflects the interest of the EU in promoting innovation and competitiveness through inter-regional cooperation at sub-national level.

Website: www.iurc.eu

E-mail: info-china@iurc.eu

7.  News in Brief

Energy efficiency takes centre stage in Europe

Practical guidance on how to implement energy efficiency across Europe was published by the European Commission in September 2021. The move is to help stakeholders in the energy sectors to apply the energy efficiency first principle, which was first written into EU law in 2019. The guidance builds on the EC’s July proposal for revisions to the Energy Efficiency Directive, which will make it obligatory for EU member states to ensure that energy efficiency is considered in planning, policy and investment decisions relating to the energy and non-energy sectors.

A launch event in September 2021 also saw the creation of the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group, which will work on the practical application of the energy first principle.

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Carbon removal joins the arsenal of weapons to be used against climate change

Amid general consensus that CO2 needs to be removed from the atmosphere to meet global climate goals, the EU has announced plans for a certification scheme for removal of carbon dioxide from sources including agriculture and forests. The policy paper on ‘the sustainable management of the carbon cycle’ is set to be published later in 2021.

Carbon removal technology has yet to be developed at the scale necessary to mitigate the hazards of climate change. The IEA reports that in 2020, 31.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted. The world’s largest carbon capture plant can extract 4,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, and only opened in September 2021.

As part of Fitfor55, a landmark climate law adopted by the EU in 2021, the continent is aiming for a 55% cut in GHG emissions by 2030 and for net zero by 2050. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), even if nations cut CO2 emissions in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement, there would still be ‘residual emissions’.

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Hydrogen to edge out natural gas in the UK

The UK has declared a long term aim to replace up to one fifth of natural gas with ‘green’ hydrogen, according to a new strategy announced in August 2021. The country aims to generate 5 GW of low carbon hydrogen production by 2030. At present nearly all the hydrogen produced in the UK is fossil fuel based.

‘Green’ hydrogen will be made through electrolysis powered by renewable energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The country also intends to use ‘blue’ hydrogen, produced from natural gas and steam. Unlike green hydrogen, blue hydrogen is not emissions-free, but the carbon emissions are captured, stored and used in other applications.

The government said it would make around GBP 900 million (USD 1.25 billion) available to support hydrogen projects in Britain. The strategy includes a consultation on the types of support for hydrogen projects that could lower costs, using a contract-for-difference scheme as an incentive by guaranteeing a minimum price for energy producers using hydrogen. The government will also look with industry at the feasibility of mixing 20% hydrogen into the existing gas supply.

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Funding boost for French solar

Rooftop solar development in France is set for a boost following the European Commission’s approval in August 2021 of a USD 6.7 billion scheme to support electricity generation from renewable energy. Approved under EU state aid rules, the grant means the country will be able to add about 3 700 MW to its existing 12,000 MW solar capacity. The announcement follows the EC’s approval in July of a USD 35 billion scheme to support production of electricity from RE sources. France is aiming to produce 32% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2030. According to Alexandre Roesch, general delegate of the Renewable Energy Trade Association (SER), while onshore wind power is ‘on the right track’, solar power needs to be developed ‘almost fourfold’.

Close to 70% of France’s electricity production is based on nuclear power whereas the share of renewables stood at 23.4% in 2020.

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Recyclable wind blade for commercial use offshore launched by Siemens Gamesa

Siemens Gamesa has launched what the company describes as the world’s first wind turbine blade ready for commercial use offshore that can be recycled at the end of its lifecycle – the RecyclableBlade.

Produced at the company’s factory in Aalborg, Denmark, the first batch of those six 81-metre long blades will be installed at the Kaskasi offshore wind farm in Germany, which is scheduled to be producing energy from 2022.

According to the company, the new wind turbine blades are made from a combination of materials cast together with resin to form a strong and flexible lightweight structure. The chemical structure of this new resin type makes it possible to efficiently separate the resin from the other components at end of the blade’s working life. This mild process protects the properties of the materials in the blade, in contrast to other existing ways of recycling conventional wind turbine blades. The materials can then be reused in new applications after separation.

Siemens Gamesa has set a target to make wind turbines fully recyclable by 2040 in its recent launched Sustainability Vision.

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China pledges to end funding for overseas coal-fired projects

One year after China’s pledge to the international community to ‘achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality’, President Xi Jinping announced that the country would end its financial support of new overseas coal-fired power plants, a move that will end a key source of financing for the fuel that is held to be most responsible for climate change. This signals a historic shift away from the world's most polluting fossil fuel.

Even though the timeline for ending financial support is not yet clear, the mix of China's overseas energy investments has already moved significantly towards renewable energy in recent years. Statistics show that in 2020, China's overseas non-fossil energy investment exceeded its non-renewable energy investment. In 2021, the country has not yet allocated any funding from its Belt and Road Initiative to coal-fired power plants.

For a long time, China, Japan and South Korea have been the global drivers of public funding for overseas coal-fired power investment. Now, as the international community starts turning off the taps for public sector financing for overseas coal power projects, it is up to the private sector to follow suit.

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China to liberalise coal-fired power pricing to stabilise supplies

In response to the recent power generation shortages brought about by record high prices and shortfalls in coal supplies, the Chinese government has adopted a series of measures to encourage plant operators to increase generation without worrying about selling below cost. These measures include boosting coal production, deepening reform of the market price for coal-fired power, and managing electricity demand from the industrial sector, especially among energy-intensive industries.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said in a statement on 12 October that all electricity generated from coal-fired power would be priced via market trading, allowing for more price fluctuation. The floating range of the market price for electricity will be expanded from 10%-15% to 20%, based on the current benchmark price. Power prices for energy-intensive industries will not be affected by the 20% upper limit, in a move that is designed to encourage those industries to become more energy efficient. The price scheme adjustment means that coal plants will be able to cover their increased costs by benefiting from power price fluctuations.

The government has also instructed commercial and industrial users to buy electricity directly from the market or via agents over the grid company.

Residential and agricultural users will continue to benefit from fixed prices, which the government hopes will maintain stability. These sectors will be given priority when it comes to receiving lower cost power source allocation.

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China restructures T&D manufacturing industry

In September 2021, China established the country’s largest state controlled transmission and distribution manufacturer by merging key players. The plan was approved by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) on 14 September 14.

The merger affects some of the country’s major T&C manufacturers, including China XD Group and three affiliated companies of State Grid Corporation of China (Xuji Electric Corporation, Pinggao Group and Shandong Electric Engineering and Equipment Group), as well as three primary power equipment companies owned by NARI Group Corporation.

The new company has a registration fund of CNY 100 million yuan (USD 15.47 million), in which the SASAC holds a stake of about 66.66%. Figures show that the new T&D giant will hold assets worth close to CNY 120 billion.

The restructuring of the power grid company and separation of its main business from its auxiliary activities are regarded as central to the country’s reforms of state-owned companies. It marks the start of the SGCC's move to strip out competitive businesses, and represents important progress towards overall power system reform.

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China launches green power direct trading scheme

In September 2021, China launched direct trading platform pilots for green power trading between corporate consumers and renewable energy generators. The aim is to boost renewable energy development by tapping the potential of market mechanisms.

The first green power transactions using the new direct trading pilot platforms took place at the Beijing and Guangzhou Power Exchange Center. A total of 259 market players from 17 provinces participated, with 7.935 TWh changing hands on the first day of trading. The average power prices was 5% to 10% higher than the power grid PPA.

The pilots will allow enterprises willing to shoulder more social responsibility to trade directly with renewable energy generators. It is anticipated that earnings from the transactions will be invested in new energy development, boosting the role of renewable energy in the power system.

According to NDRC, an independent green power trading product is to be established under the existing medium- and long-term trading framework. Initial trading will commence with electricity from wind and solar generation, while hydropower and other renewable power could be included in the near future. Non-subsidised renewable power will be given priority in direct trading.

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New standard to promote EE and RE in the building sector

In October, China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD) officially issued the full text of a new national mandatory code, GB 55015-2021, that sets standards for energy conservation and renewable energy utilisation in the building sector. Implementation of the new standard will begin on 1 April 2022.

The document establishes carbon intensity targets for new residential and public buildings that are 7kgCO2/(m2·a) lower than the previous standard. It also requires reports on building energy consumption, renewable energy utilisation and carbon emissions analysis to be included in the feasibility studies, construction plans and the preliminary design of every building project. Calculation and analysis of carbon emissions will be required at different stages of building projects.

According to the new requirements, the average energy consumption for new buildings must be 30% and 20% lower than the current national and industry standards, respectively. The average energy efficiency (EE) rate for residential buildings is set at 75% in cold regions and 65% in other areas, while the average EE rate for public buildings is set at 72%.

In addition, the document introduces detailed specifications on the application of renewable energy systems such as solar, air source and ground source heat pumps. Of these, solar PV is regarded as key if the building sector is to achieve its carbon targets at county and city level.

Insiders believe that, following the announcement, carbon consulting and carbon emission reduction services in the green building sector could grow to more than CNY 10 billion.

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Official Document (Chinese Only)

[1] https://www.163.com/dy/article/GMJ2H6C30519QIKK.html

[2] https://www.guancha.cn/politics/2021_09_29_609028.shtml

[3] https://cec.org.cn/detail/index.html?3-298922

[4] https://xw.qq.com/cmsid/20210907A0E5AT00?pgv_ref=baidutw

[5] https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_12532197

[6] 中国电力行业发展报告2021

[7] https://www.ibe.si/en/Pages/default.aspx

[8] www.boilerdesignsoftwareonline.com

[9] www.unido.org

[10] Combustion Air Optimization of Unit 6 Of Suralaya Power Plant - Indonesia, Final Report, Unido Project

[11] https://www.sustainable-carbon.org/

[12] UN sponsored project with the intention to assist country’s industrial boiler manufacturing sector

[13] http://www.ececp.eu/en/past-activities/promoting-innovation-in-energy-technologies-opportunities-for-cooperation-between-eu-and-china-zoom-link/

[14] We will explore the potential of RDF co-firing in a followup article in the future.

[15] 34.39 million tonnes of reduced standard coal use, and 94.02 million tonnes CO2 reduction in 2020, see https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1688015969649258808&wfr=spider&for=pc

[16] “Die Energie der Zukunft. 8. Monitoring-Bericht zur Energiewende – Berichtsjahre 2018 und 2019”, BMWi, on 9 August 2021, at https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Publikationen/Energie/achter-monitoring-bericht-energie-der-zukunft.pdf.

[17] “Comments on National Energy Administration’s ‘Advancing Electricity Spot Market Implementation,’” Regulatory Assistance Project, March 2019, at https://www.raponline.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/rap-comments-NEA-march-2019-spot-market-policy-EN.pdf; Hao Zhang, “Prioritizing Access of Renewable Energy to the Grid in China: Regulatory Mechanisms and Challenges for Implementation,” Chinese Journal of Environmental Law, 3 December 2019, at https://brill.com/view/journals/cjel/3/2/article-p167_3.xml.

[18] Qi Ye et al., “Wind Curtailment in China and Lessons from the United States,” Brookings Institution, March 2018, at https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/wind-curtailment-in-china-and-lessons-from-the-united-states.pdf.

[19] “20 Jahre Strommarkt-Liberalisierung: Befreiung für saubere Energiewende-Lösungen”, Agentur für Erneuerbare Energien, on 27 April 2018, at https://www.unendlich-viel-energie.de/themen/politik/europaeische-union/artikel14031; “Was versteht man unter Liberalisierung und Unbundling von Strommärkten? ”, NextKraftwerke, accessed on 19 August 2021 at https://www.next-kraftwerke.de/wissen/liberalisierung-strommaerkte

[20] “Was ist der Energy-Only-Markt?”, NextKraftwerke, accessed on 20 August at https://www.next-kraftwerke.de/wissen/energy-only-markt.

[21] “Incentivizing Flexibility: The Role of the Power Market in Germany,” Sino-German Energy Partnership, October 2019, at https://www.energypartnership.cn/fileadmin/user_upload/china/media_elements/publications/2019.10_Flex_Studie/EN_Final_giz_Study_Flexibility_2019_Web_1029.pdf.

[22] “Electricity interconnection targets”, European Commission, accessed on 19 August 2021 at https://ec.europa.eu/energy/topics/infrastructure/electricity-interconnection-targets_en.

[23] Andy Calthorpe, “More than 300,000 battery storage systems installed in German households,” Energy Storage News, 23 March 2021, at https://www.energy-storage.news/news/more-than-300000-battery-storage-systems-installed-in-german-households.

[24] Sandra Enkhardt, “Germany may install 150,000 residential batteries this year,” PV Magazine, 20 May 2021, at https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/05/20/germany-may-install-150000-residential-batteries-this-year/.

[25] “DIRECTIVE (EU) 2019/944 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 5 June 2019 on common rules for the internal market for electricity and amending Directive 2012/27/EU (recast)”, Official Journal of the European Union, on 14 June 2019, at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/; Emiliano Bellini, “EU publishes directive, regulations for Clean Energy Package”, PV Magazine, on 17 June 2019, at https://www.pv-magazine.com/2019/06/17/eu-publishes-directive-and-regulations-for-clean-energy-package/

[26] “Beschluss Az. BK6-17-046”, Beschlusskammer 6, Bundesnetzagentur, on 14 September 2017, at https://www.bne-online.de/fileadmin/bne/Dokumente/Englisch/Policy_Papers/BNetzA_BK6_17_046_Beschluss_vom_14_09_2017.pdf .

[27] “Energiewirtschaftsgesetz (Gesetz über die Elektrizitäts- und Gasversorgung) ”, 16 July 2021, at https://dejure.org/gesetze/EnWG/41e.html.

[28] Zhang Yanan et al., “A Quantitative Comparative Study of Power System Flexibility in Jing-Jin-Ji and Germany,” Energy Research Institute of National Development and Reform Commission, December 2020, at https://www.energypartnership.cn/fileadmin/user_upload/china/media_elements/publications/Power_system_flexibility_in_Jingjinji_and_Germany.pdf.

[29] EC - European Commission. (2019). The European Green Deal. Communication From The Commission To The European Parliament, The European Council, The Council, The European Economic And Social Committee And The Committee Of The Regions. https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/european-green-deal-communication_en.pdf

[30] See https://europa.eu/new-european-bauhaus/about/about-initiative_en

[31] See www.iurc.eu for more information on the participating cities and regions.

Also by EU-China Energy Cooperation Platform Project

2020

EU China Energy Magazine Spring Double Issue

EU-China Energy Magazine Summer Issue

中欧能源杂志夏季刊

EU-China Energy Magazine Autumn Issue

中欧能源杂志秋季刊

EU-China Energy Magazine 2020 Christmas Double Issue

中欧能源杂志2020圣诞节双期刊

2021

EU-China Energy Magazine 2021 Spring Double Issue

中欧能源杂志2021春季双期刊

EU-China Energy Magazine 2021 Summer Issue

中欧能源杂志2021夏季刊

EU China Energy Magazine 2021 Autumn Issue

Joint Statement Report Series

Electricity Markets and Systems in the EU and China: Towards Better Integration of Clean Energy Sources

中欧能源系统整合间歇性可再生能源 - 政策考量

Supporting the Construction of Renewable Generation in EU and China: Policy Considerations

中欧电力市场和电力系统 - 更好地整合清洁能源资源

支持中欧可再生能源发电建设: 政策考量

Integration of Variable Renewables in the Energy System of the EU and China: Policy Considerations