Hello, welcome to visit Shanghai Forum
Renewableenergies that we can get are farther and farther from people’s living place,yet there are rich renewable energies in many inland desert regions, whichrequires a long-distance and cross-regional transportation of electricityproduced by those energies.
Reporter:Wan Hu
Reporter:Nowadays, not just the academic or professional fields are concerned with smartgrid, but ordinary people pay attention to it as well. Shanghai is the biggestcity in China. What advantages do you think can smart grid bring to people ifwe develop smart grid in Shanghai?
HuZhaoguang: If we plan to construct a smart grid in the city, we need to firstconsider smart electricity utilization. For citizens, they can know duringwhich time the electricity charge is high and during which time it is lowthrough the system. Every household wants to pay less. Surely, the preconditionis that we practice time division charge which means that charge differs indifferent times. If it is cheap to use electricity at night, then citizens canchoose to have shower, use washing machine and electric cooker at night. Smartelectric meter can not only tell residents when the charge is low, and it canalso record at which time residents use electricity and how much they use, andtherefore, through analysis of electricity use of last month, residents canmake arrangement of next month to further reduce electricity charge.
Reporter:In the “twelfth five-year plan” of Shanghai new energy development, it is putforward that we will try to make wind power the leading power in Shanghai’s newenergy electricity generation. What important role does smart grid play in windpower development?
HuZhaoguang: Residents use electricity according to electricity chargeinformation, then where does such information come from? We can gain theinformation through smart grid. Nowadays many cities are developing wind power,so is Shanghai. Wind power will be wasted if no one uses it, yet it cannot bebrought into ordinary grid because grid needs to maintain immediate balance ofelectricity supply and demand, and it cannot stock large amount of electricitypower and needs to send electricity to residents. However, wind power isusually strong at night, and now smart grid can play its role. It can predict,for example, in two hours, or tomorrow, when is the wind strongest and transferthe information to residents. For instance, it can tell residents that there iswind tonight, and electricity charge at that time is lowest, and thus remindsresidents to use electricity during that time.
Therefore,through smart grid, we can first make residents to save power consumption, andreduce expense as well. Secondly, smart grid enables residents to know when to useelectricity, and thus makes effective use of more renewable energies. Next, wecan develop charge for electric vehicles, for example, the charge is lowestafter 10 PM because electricity then is provided by renewable energies. In thatcase, we can reduce consumption of more energy, for instance consumption ofcoal, and therefore, city will become clean, and it is also a relief of energysupply pressure.
Reporter:What else can be done in urban low-carbon cleaning?
HuZhaoguang: Another issue is the electric public transportation. Nowadays peopleare most concerned with air pollution in cities. Where does PM2.5 come from? Itmainly comes from emission of car tail gas. Other pollution sources, such asheat-engine plants can be built farther, and they are indeed moving far fromdowntown, and therefore, urban pollution is mainly resulted from tail gas. Now,we do not know when technique of electric vehicles can make breakthrough, and Ithink what is most realistic is to build trolleybus which is the simplest aswell as the cheapest. If we change all oil-consumed buses to trolleybuses, wecan largely solve problems brought by tail gas.
Reporter:There are also buses using compressed natural gas, and it is reported that itis very clean as well. How do you judge the advantage of trolleybus?
HuZhaoguang: Buses using compressed natural gas still emits a little waste gas,yet we can achieve zero emission if we use electricity. Moreover, we should tryto use renewable energies to generate electricity. Surely there may be peoplethinking that it is inconvenient for trolleybus to do overtaking, yet suchproblem has already been solved in Beijing. When trolleybus goes throughChangan Avenue, it lowers electrical poles, and after passing the Avenue, itraises its poles again, and therefore, it is convenient to do overtaking. Thereis also battery in trolleybus which can support bus to do overtaking and finishthe distance. Under the background of no big breakthrough in electric vehicles,especially battery technique, trolleybus is the cheapest. Subway is practicableas well, yet it is too expensive, and to build track above street also costs alot, while trolleybus is the cheapest.
Reporter:When it goes to trolleybus, many people will feel like returning to the 1960sand 70s. Do you think it a trend in bus system development?
HuZhaoguang: You may feel trolleybus is outdated, yet as a matter of fact, inmany European countries, trolleybus is still in good function. Whethertrolleybus is outdated or not depends on whether it is practical andeconomical. We cannot say it is not good because it is an old staff before the1950s. Just imagine, if we use oil, how much pollution will it bring to cities?Therefore, if we make comparison, we can see that the most realistic choice istrolleybus. If we can change all buses to cheapest trolleybus or other railwaytransportation and thus achieve electrification of urban bus, PM2.5 willrapidly decline.
Reporter:You have put forward a strategic idea that we can “import electricity powerfrom Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan and from cross-national smart grid” in2012 International Forum of Chinese Smart Grid Construction. What is yourthinking in putting forward such idea?
HuZhaoguang: It is a general trend. Nowadays, people need more renewableenergies, yet we have almost exploited all that we can see or touch around us,which is saying that energies that we can get is farther and farther fromliving place. Yet, when we open a world map, we can see that there are manyrenewable energies in many inland desert regions, then how can we solve theproblem? We need a long-distance and cross-regional transportation forelectricity produced by renewable energies.
China’sinland areas such as Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang enjoy rich stock of energies,and if we look farther, Siberia region in east Russia has very rich resourcesand small population, why don’t we make us of it? Russian people agree tocooperate with us as well. It is a long distance if they want to transporttheir electricity to Moscow, yet it is a short way to transport electricity toChina, and therefore, we can form cross-national cooperation. Nowadays, there iscooperation not only in Asia, but also in Europe. Europe has already consideredto cooperate with Africa in transporting solar and wind power in north desertregions of Africa to European grid, and therefore, cross-regional andlong-distance power transportation is a general trend.
Reporter:If we import electricity, are there any considerations of diplomacy andgeopolitics?
HuZhaoguang: They are different from electricity utilization. Production,transportation and consumption of electricity are finished almost at once, andit is impossible to stock large amount of electricity, while oil and naturalgas are all inside the country, for example, when there is problem about priceduring transportation of natural gas to Europe, Russia can stop transportation,and there is no loss if the resources are stocked. However, for electricitytransportation, the plants are built in the other country which cost a lot.Plants, whether they are invested by China or the other country, can solvelocal GDP, employment and tax, and therefore, once plants are built, the othercountry hopes to sell you more and will not stop electricity supply. Therefore,it is safe. Once plants are built, electricity will be transported to China. Inthis point, Russia is very active in transporting electricity to China.
Reporter:Topic of this year’s Shanghai Forum is “strategy for future ten years.” Wouldyou like to imagine what Shanghai’s smart grid will be like in future tenyears?
HuZhaoguang: I believe that Shanghai’s smart grid will be in front row nationwidein the future. It can solve energy safety issue in Shanghai, increasepercentage of renewable energies, and reduce urban pollution, which can beforeseen by now.
Introducton of Hu Zhaoguang:
Vice-deanof Energy Research Institute of State Grid,chief energy expert, member ofAcademic Degree Committee of China Electric Power Science Research Institute,director of Dynamic Economy Professional Committee of China ElectricalEngineering Society, deputy director of Resource Information ProfessionalCommittee
