On August 6, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the National Energy Administration (NEA), and the National Data Agency (NDA) issued the Action Program for Accelerating the Construction of a New Type of Electricity System (2024-2027) (the “Action Program”). The Action Program puts forward a number of specific initiatives in response to the actual situation of rapid development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Among them, the Electric Vehicle Charging Facilities Network Expansion Action is also listed as one of the nine special actions to be focused on in 2024-2027.
As China’s new energy vehicle development into the “fast lane”, the significant increase in ownership of supporting charging infrastructure construction has put forward higher requirements. At the same time, electric vehicle batteries as energy storage resources, for the power system to provide more options for flexible regulation. According to the latest data released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), in the first half of this year, the sales volume of new energy vehicles completed 4,944,000 units, an increase of 32% year-on-year, with a market share of 35.2%. With the growing ownership of new energy vehicles, charging infrastructure is also growing steadily, to the first half of this year, the overall scale has exceeded 10 million units. At present, the charging infrastructure service network has been initially completed, can basically meet the national new energy vehicle charging demand.
The National Energy Board Electricity Division, the main person in charge of foreign said, for electric vehicles large-scale charging demand and the effective use of energy storage resources, the “Action Plan” put forward to improve the charging infrastructure network layout, strengthen the integration and interaction of electric vehicles and the power grid, the establishment of a sound charging infrastructure standards system, to accelerate the promotion of electric vehicles and the integration of the development of the energy transition. It is worth noting that the Action Program mentions expanding the coverage of highway charging network, promoting intelligent and orderly charging, and accelerating the revision of standards, all of which are core issues in the development of the industry.
For example, focusing on “two districts” (residential area, office area), “three centers” (commercial center, industrial center, leisure center), layout of public charging infrastructure according to local conditions, expanding the coverage of highway charging network and strengthening holiday charging services guarantee, effectively increase the number of charging facilities in rural areas, and gradually build an increasingly complete charging infrastructure network. Accelerate the formulation and revision of advanced charging and switching technology standards represented by fast-charging technology, explore the establishment of vehicle-network interaction related standards, improve the charging infrastructure planning, design, construction, operation and other aspects of the standard system, and enhance the internationalization of standards to lead the ability.
With the new energy vehicle ownership and penetration rate gradually increased, its role in the electrochemical energy storage system, as well as in supporting the new energy system and the new power system to play a role in the construction should not be ignored. China Electricity Council released the “2024 quarter of the national power supply and demand situation analysis and forecast report” mentioned that in the first quarter of this year, the rapid development of electric vehicles to pull the charging and switching services industry electricity consumption increased by 70.1% year-on-year. As an evenly distributed flexible resource, new energy vehicles can balance the new energy fluctuations in the power system when used properly; when used poorly, they will have a huge impact on the power system. The Action Plan also specifically points out that in key provinces with large-scale development of electric vehicles, the organization will carry out a study on the capacity of charging facilities that can be accessed by the power distribution network.
According to the planning of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2025, the domestic car pile ratio will realize 2:1, 2030 to realize 1:1. from the charging infrastructure policy end, “13th Five-Year Plan” period has formed the central policy guidance, local supporting the implementation of rules and regulations of the supporting system. In China’s charging and switching infrastructure industry from high-speed development to high-quality development of the key period of transition, vehicle network interaction will become the focus of the next period of time. China Electricity Council Deputy Secretary General Liu Yongdong pointed out that the car network interaction is a sand into a tower, set armpit into a fur project, the realization of large-scale car network interaction requires the government top-level design, all parties to cooperate. In addition to the policy, the car network interaction is also facing the scale, mode, technology, standards and other aspects of the problem.
In January this year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Board and other four departments jointly issued the “on the strengthening of new energy vehicles and grid integration and interaction of the implementation of the views”, which is also the first domestic car network interaction of the top-level design documents. This Action Plan points out that the full use of electric vehicle energy storage resources, the full promotion of intelligent and orderly charging. Support to carry out vehicle, pile, station, network integration and interaction exploration, research to improve electric vehicle charging time-sharing tariff policy, explore the discharge price mechanism, and promote the participation of electric vehicles in the power system interaction.
Some industry sources said that there are still bottlenecks in vehicle-network interaction, and with technological advances, improved battery safety, and changes in vehicle owners’ perceptions, it is possible to break through the relevant barriers, lift concerns, and achieve zero-cost use of the vehicle, and even make electric vehicles earn money every day.