Study on the flexibility enhancement of China’s power system with renewable energy

Abstract

At present, China’s renewable energy utilization scale has ranked first in the world. By the end of 2019, China’s cumulative installed capacity of solar power had reached 204.3 million kW, and that of wind power had reached 210 million kW. Some parts of China already have a high proportion of renewable energy power systems. However, the lack of flexibility in China’s power system has become a constraint to the development of renewable energy. This paper analyzes the current situation of the flexibility of China’s power system and the problems facing the development of high proportion of renewable energy. It is proposed that the flexibility of China’s power system should be improved by retrofitting the existing coal power system, controlling the scale of newly installed coal power plant, establishing the demand side resource utilization system, planning the energy storage application of the power system, and implementing the reform of the power market.