China Southern Power Grid : Asia’s largest photovoltaic roof leads to green transformation of enterprises

Company profile

With social responsibility in mind, China Southern Power Grid set up China Southern Power Grid Comprehensive Energy Co., Ltd (abbreviated as “Southern Power Grid Energy”), a large scale holding subsidiary dedicated to energy conservation and emissions reduction. In 2014, Southern Power Grid Energy ranked the 2nd among the Top 100 National Energy Conservation Enterprises and A-Level Energy Conservation Technological Service Enterprise in Guangdong Province. As an energy conservation enterprise, it has been put on records by NDRC and recommended by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. On Dec. 20, 2010, Southern Power Grid Energy was founded in Guangzhou with over 20 branches and subsidiaries nationwide.

The four major businesses of Southern Power Grid Energy are energy conservation, energy comprehensive utilization, clean energy and renewable energy exploitation, and electronic energy conservation platform. It is committed to integrating advanced energy conservation and emission reduction technology and offering energy comprehensive utilization package solution. As a result, it boasts strong competitiveness in technology integration, market exploration and project investment & construction & operation. In 2014, Southern Power Grid Energy saved an electricity amount of up to 510 million kwh, a year-on-year increase of 89%. This process is equivalent to the conservation of 164,000 tons of standard coal, cutting the emission of carbon dioxide by 507,000 tons. 

Challenges

Guangdong Province is in serious need of primary energy, while coal and petroleum mainly rely on its neighboring provinces and also the import from other countries. Rich in solar power (2,200 irradiation hours annually and 4200-5800 megajoule/sq. m of gross radiation intensity annually), Guangdong’s land receives an energy gross radiation intensity of 30 billion tons of standard coal annually.

For enterprises in Pearl River Delta, solar photovoltaic power generation is the best choice for energy mix optimization, energy conservation and emission reduction, low-carbon development and industrial upgrading. However, photovoltaic roof construction faces a number of challenges, such as lack of fund and lag in technological. It is both the mission and the trend for Southern Power Grid Energy to provide convenient, efficient service for new energy to boost the sound development of photovoltaic industry as well as the green transformation.

Solutions

Take Shunde Factory of Midea as an example. Its electricity consumption hit 100 million kilowatt in 2011, an equivalent of 29,600 tons of standard coal and 79,000 tons of carbon dioxide. To bring photovoltaic power supply to Midea factories and reduce enterprises’ economic and environmental pressure, Southern Power Grid Energy took advantage of its advanced technology and management as well as abundant capital to build the largest distributed photovoltaic power generation demonstration project conducted by a single Asian factory ever on a 329,800 sqm roof of Midea Shunde Factory from Aug. 21, 2013 to Dec. 6, 2013. This has lasted for only 66 days, the world record for the same type of projects.

Contract resource management mode to address Midea’s concerns 

The project was driven by the EMC contract energy management business mode, namely, billions of investment was poured into the project and electricity was sold at a below-the-market price. As such, 1/3 of the power demand could be met and the investment would be recycled through electricity price and government subsidy based on a 25-year contract.

Innovating technological planning to take advantage of roof photovoltaic strength

Based on a number of preliminary technological feasibility researches, Southern Power Grid Energy defined the project technological planning, which improves the security of power supply and cut power generation loss. Alongside that, this helps to enhance Midea’s energy conservation efficiency. The power generation system was also divided into different modules to conduct intensive management and control. In this way, the human resources input was reduced tremendously to maintain and manage the system.

A number of approaches to implement sustainable development concept during the construction

 In the project planning and design period, Southern Power Grid Energy, to obtain the utmost environmental benefits, broke the routine and equipped certain areas with components based on precise calculation. When purchasing key equipment, Southern Power Grid Energy adopted two indicators (quality and ecology) to compare different equipment and finally chose the high-quality equipment with great environmental benefits recognized by the entire industry. During the construction of project, the enterprise adopted a different construction technology to reduce the environmental impact, such as damage on green land, flowing dust pollution, soil erosion and loss. With such efforts, the surrounding environment was protected from the pollution that would have been caused by land excavation during the construction.

Achievements

The 32 megawatt distributable photovoltaic demonstration project by Midea Shunde Factory serves as the largest roof photovoltaic project conducted by a single Asian factory ever. The completion of the project sets a good example for the distributed photovoltaic development in Foshan, Guangdong Province and even the entire nation. Alongside that, it leads a great many enterprises to march forward on a green development path and utilize green energy to promote energy conservation and emission reduction.

Tangible benefits for enterprises

On Apr. 25, 2014, the project was put into operation with the support from Midea Shunde Factory, local authorities, power grid enterprises and other stakeholders.

The total electric energy production of the project is expected to be 764 million kwh during the 25-year contract term with an average annual electric energy production of 30.54 million kwh. Each year the project could save 10,400 tons of standard coal, and reduce carbon dioxide emission by 26,000 tons and sulfur dioxide by 800 tons, displaying sound energy conservation and emission reduction effects. The factory is equipped with photovoltaic components for thermal insulation and cooling. In this way, the electric charge for air conditioning is over 1 million yuan annually. Alongside that, the project also improves the working conditions.

After the photovoltaic power station is completed, it will provide electricity for the factory at a negotiated price (5%-10% lower than market price), cutting costs of several million yuan for enterprises. According to Midea, air conditioning products produced via green solar power are more popular among overseas customers, with the overseas sales volume increasing by about 30%. As a “green factory”, Midea’s name has been more widely spread to the world.

The operation of roof photovoltaic power station guarantees the power supply for the factory during rush hour. in addition, the operating power of the station is consistent with enterprises’ rush hour, which has eased the local power supply pressure to some extent. Southern Power Grid Energy’s business has gone through a rapid growth. By the time of December 2014, Southern Power Grid Energy has developed photovoltaic projects with the gross power generation of 249.29 megawatt, offered energy conservation suggestions to 4,970 major industry customers and implemented 320 industrial energy conservation projects. Moreover, it also undertakes the production of 1.72 million electricity saving lamps and the green building energy conservation projects with a construction area of 1.46 million sqm.

Prospect

Looking into the future, Southern Power Grid Energy will continue to focus on R & D to improve its overall strength, and build a global, open energy conservation technology integration platform. Furthermore, it will serve the transformation of cities and enterprises, and play its part in energy production and consumer revolution, thus contribute to ecological development and a beautiful China.