New Business Models Ignite New Vitality as Power System Transition Accelerates
Beijing, March 17, 2025 (Xinhua Finance) – In recent years, many regions have focused on building new power systems, promoting innovative models and business types such as integrated source-grid-load-storage systems and virtual power plants. These initiatives aim to enhance the stability, reliability, and economic efficiency of power systems.
The State Grid Qingdao Power Supply Company is leveraging the construction of integrated source-grid-load-storage systems to create a new power system model that reflects the characteristics of a coastal city. By aggregating flexible resources from the power generation side, strengthening intelligent control on the grid side, promoting diverse interactions on the load side, and expanding multi-scenario applications for energy storage, they are building a robust framework.
As of now, Qingdao’s installed capacity for renewable energy has surpassed 6.9223 million kilowatts. The city ranks among the top in Shandong Province for distributed photovoltaic integration, and the automation coverage of the distribution network has reached 100%, showcasing the gradual emergence of collaborative synergies across source, grid, load, and storage.
During the development of integrated source-grid-load-storage systems, the State Grid Qingdao Power Supply Company has encouraged energy service providers, equipment manufacturers, financial institutions, and end users to actively participate in peak load shaving and valley filling. In the summer peak of 2024, through coordinated optimization, they successfully managed a maximum daily load of 13.39 million kilowatts, ensuring the safe and stable operation of the grid.
As an emerging technology within the new power system, virtual power plants are increasingly demonstrating their role in peak shaving and supporting renewable energy consumption. The State Grid Chengdu Shuangliu Power Supply Company, in collaboration with government departments, has established Sichuan’s first government-enterprise collaborative virtual power plant—Shuangliu Virtual Power Plant. This initiative involves deploying a new power load management system on the Smart Rongcheng platform and exploring various innovations in platform construction, resource integration, and operational mechanisms, forming a model of “platform co-construction, resource sharing, and load co-management.”
Government departments utilize the Smart Rongcheng platform for online monitoring and precise control of distributed resources such as photovoltaics, energy storage, and adjustable loads. Power supply companies are focused on enhancing supply reliability, while social capital benefits from market mechanisms like peak-valley pricing, demand response, and green electricity trading. Through this collaboration, companies in the Shuangliu Economic Development Zone have seen their electricity costs reduced by 10% per kilowatt-hour, creating a virtuous cycle of “resource aggregation—system stability—cost reduction and efficiency improvement,” with the local consumption rate of clean energy from distributed photovoltaics exceeding 90%, transitioning from “source following load” to “source-load interaction.”
In Liaoning Province, the State Grid Dalian Power Supply Company has developed a market-oriented virtual power plant platform based on the “ePower” professional operation and maintenance platform. Currently, this platform has successfully integrated 64 customer load resources, aggregating a total capacity of 166,060 kilowatts with an adjustable capacity of 24,890 kilowatts, covering various load resources including base stations, charging piles, commercial loads, air conditioning systems, and photovoltaic-storage facilities.
The platform has completed technical integration with the provincial load management platform, forming a closed-loop management system characterized by “precise instruction reception—intelligent resource scheduling—real-time data feedback.” This system is capable of swiftly responding to demand-side management directives during peak summer periods and extreme weather, effectively enhancing the safety and economic viability of the grid by flexibly adjusting vast distributed resources.
Moreover, to meet the development needs of new business models like virtual power plants, the State Grid Dalian Power Supply Company is accelerating the upgrade of distribution networks, enhancing the capacity for distributed energy integration, and facilitating the efficient and flexible access of new loads.
According to Zhang Hai, a senior engineer at the Advanced Energy Technology Center of the State Grid Shanghai Energy Internet Research Institute, new power systems achieve collaborative optimization of “source-grid-load-storage” through deep integration of advanced information technology, power electronics technology, and energy storage technology. This supports the establishment of a modern energy system and facilitates a green and low-carbon transition in energy production and consumption. Accelerating the development of new power systems is crucial for achieving national energy strategy goals and is currently the central focus in the power sector. During this process, integrated source-grid-load-storage systems and virtual power plants are expected to find broader development opportunities and play a more critical role in energy transition.
