Since the beginning of this year, electricity consumption has continued to grow rapidly, with a cumulative electricity consumption of over 3 trillion kilowatt hours in the first four months, a year-on-year increase of 9%. At the same time, the temperature in most parts of the country is relatively high. The critical period of peak summer is approaching, and what new characteristics will China's summer energy and electricity consumption present? What is the situation of ensuring energy and electricity supply? The reporter interviewed companies and experts on relevant issues. The rapid increase in electricity load is a key factor affecting the peak summer electricity demand. Data shows that from January 1st to May 20th, the average temperature in China was 0.9 degrees Celsius higher than the same period in previous years, making it the third highest in history. According to Liu Yunyun, Deputy Director of the Climate Prediction Office of the National Climate Center, it is expected that during the peak summer season in 2024, except for eastern Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and other places where temperatures are close to the same period as usual, most parts of the country will experience higher temperatures than the same period as usual. Higher temperatures mean more electricity demand. As a major electricity consuming province, Jiangsu is a key area for ensuring power supply every summer. "This summer, Jiangsu may experience a period of high temperature heatwaves, leading to a sharp increase in cooling load demand and posing a serious challenge to ensuring power supply." Wang Zhicheng, Director of the Dispatching and Planning Department of State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Co., Ltd., predicts that the highest load on the entire network in Jiangsu this summer will increase by 13 million kilowatts year-on-year. The Zhejiang Electric Power Industry Association recently released a proposal for ensuring power supply during peak summer, calling on power companies to prepare for peak summer. It is understood that the electricity consumption in Zhejiang Province increased by 11.3% year-on-year in the first four months. Based on current meteorological information forecasts and energy output calculations, the electricity supply and demand in Zhejiang during the peak electricity consumption period this summer are tight. In the context of climate change, both energy and electricity supply and demand are facing challenges such as significant changes in key influencing factors and increased uncertainty, making it increasingly difficult to balance electricity supply and demand. Ouyang Changyu, Deputy Chief Engineer of State Grid Corporation of China and President of State Grid Energy Research Institute, said that from the perspective of electricity consumption, with the improvement of people's living standards, the "peak" characteristics of cooling and heating loads are obvious. From the perspective of power generation, new energy, as the main body of newly installed power generation, has significant fluctuations in daily output, which puts higher requirements on the climate resilience, safety resilience, and regulation flexibility of the power system. "During this summer, it is expected that the national electricity load will continue to grow rapidly, with the highest load increasing by over 100 million kilowatts year-on-year, putting pressure on ensuring power supply." Zhang Xing, Deputy Director of the Comprehensive Department of the National Energy Administration, stated that based on comprehensive analysis, during this year's peak summer season, the overall power supply in the country is guaranteed, and there may be power supply shortages in some areas during peak hours. If extreme or catastrophic weather occurs, the shortage of electricity supply may further exacerbate. To promote the construction of power grids during peak summer, strengthening power supply is the key, and key projects are the focus. On April 1st, the first unit of the National Energy Group's Maherdu Hydropower Station, the highest altitude and largest installed hydropower project under construction in the Yellow River Basin, was officially connected to the grid for power generation. This means that the core project of the first 10 million kilowatt level "water wind energy storage" multi energy complementary clean energy integration project in the Qinghai section of the upper reaches of the Yellow River has taken a crucial step towards full production. On the main stream of the Yangtze River, six large hydropower stations, including Wudongde, Baihetan, Xiluodu, Xiangjiaba, Three Gorges, and Gezhouba, constitute the world's largest clean energy corridor. Not long ago, China Three Gorges Corporation promoted the deployment of industrial Internet platforms in six cascade hydropower stations, greatly improving the operational efficiency, safety and reliability of hydropower stations, and helping usher in summer. The power grid is the core hub connecting the power production and consumption ends. On April 28th, China's first "AC to DC" transmission project - the Yangzhou to Zhenjiang ± 200 kV DC transmission project was officially completed and put into operation. This project is the first to transform the operating AC transmission line into a DC line, which can significantly enhance the interconnection capacity of the power grids on both sides of the Yangtze River. Wang Zhicheng introduced that in terms of power grid operation, State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power has put into operation 8 main power grids including 500 kV Xuyi Qiutao, Xijindu Huifengshan Wunan "single to double", and Wunan transformer capacity increase, as well as 1383 peak summer projects in the distribution network, to ensure that power resources can be "delivered in and implemented". With the continuous increase in the proportion of new energy, the demand for regulating power sources such as energy storage stations during peak summer is also increasing. On May 20th, the Jingneng International Chengshan 200 MW/400 MWh shared energy storage project in Rongcheng City, Weihai, Shandong Province was successfully connected to the grid. This project is the largest electrochemical energy storage project with a single installed capacity in the Jiaodong area. It adopts a "shared leasing+electricity spot trading+capacity compensation" operating model, which not only improves the utilization rate of energy storage power stations but also reduces user electricity costs. Sha Xin, the person in charge of the Control Center of State Grid Weihai Power Supply Company, stated that after the project is completed, it is expected that the annual peak shaving and consumption of electricity will be about 200 million kilowatt hours, which can fully leverage the "power bank" role of energy storage, peak shifting and valley filling, providing strong support for optimizing the power system structure and ensuring a stable and orderly supply of energy and electricity during peak summer. Deeply tapping into the potential of existing electricity resources, facing the structural contradiction between electricity supply and demand during peak summer, blindly building new power sources is not economical. Balancing electricity supply and demand on a larger scale is a key move. On May 11th, the Fujian Guangdong Interconnection Project delivered power to Guangdong for the first time with a full channel capacity of 2 million kilowatts, fully supporting Guangdong's electricity demand. Affected by climate, Fujian enters summer later than Guangdong, and the power load characteristics of the two provinces are complementary. It is understood that when Guangdong starts summer in May, Fujian still has surplus electricity to send to Guangdong, supporting the peak summer electricity demand in Guangdong; When there is abundant hydropower in Southwest China from July to September, once Guangdong has surplus electricity, it can be sent to Fujian to alleviate the power supply pressure during the peak summer load period in Fujian. The two have good seasonal complementarity. In recent years, the development and reform departments of Guangdong and Fujian provinces have signed agreements on the mutual transmission of electricity and electricity, establishing long-term mechanisms such as regular and emergency assistance, and regularly utilizing the transmission capacity of the Fujian Guangdong interconnection project, expanding the achievements of inter provincial electricity mutual assistance. The two provinces have completed 25 electricity exchange transactions so far. After years of practice, demand side resources have gradually become an important resource widely involved in power grid operation and achieving coordinated optimization of supply and demand resources. Starting from April 1st, Anhui Province will optimize and adjust the time of use electricity price. The peak and valley electricity price periods will be shifted forward, the price difference will be widened, and the peak periods will be more concentrated. Enterprises will be encouraged to transfer the main production load to the low valley period through reasonable scheduling and staggered production, which can significantly reduce electricity costs. "We will deploy and take action early, make preparations in advance, and carry out time-of-use electricity price promotion to all 25000 high-voltage industrial enterprises. 'One household, one calculation' will help enterprises calculate their electricity consumption economic accounts, serve enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency during peak production, and assist in ensuring summer power supply during peak hours." Baiyun Long, Director of the Marketing and Operations Department of State Grid Anhui Electric Power Co., Ltd., said. Zhao Li, a second level inspector from the Development Planning Department of the National Energy Administration, stated that we need to deeply tap into the potential for cross regional and intra regional power grids to complement each other, and urge all regions to use market-oriented methods to enhance demand side response capabilities. Promote the coordinated efforts of both supply and demand sides to provide reliable guarantees for meeting the growing demand for electricity consumption. (Lai Xin She)