With the successive promulgation of the Chinese government's "Guiding Opinions on the Development of Natural Gas Distributed Energy", "Natural Gas '12th Five-Year Plan'", "Natural Gas Utilization Policy", "Renewable Energy Development '12th Five-Year Plan'", "Interim Measures for the Management of Renewable Energy Electricity Price Surcharge Subsidy Funds", and "Energy '12th Five-Year Plan'", distributed energy has become one of the focal points of high attention from the government to enterprises.
The white paper "China's Energy Policy (2012)," published by the State Council in October 2012, stated: "Promote the distributed utilization of clean energy. China adheres to the principles of 'primarily for self-consumption, with surplus fed into the grid, adapting to local conditions, and promoting in an orderly manner,' and actively develops distributed energy. In energy load centers, accelerate the construction of natural gas distributed energy systems. Focusing on energy consumption centers such as cities and industrial parks, vigorously promote the application of distributed renewable energy technologies. Promote the construction of distributed renewable energy in rural areas, forest areas, and islands according to local conditions. Formulate distributed energy standards, improve the pricing mechanism and policies for distributed energy grid connection, and strive to achieve direct supply of distributed generation and non-discriminatory and barrier-free grid access. During the 'Twelfth Five-Year Plan' period, construct approximately 1,000 natural gas distributed energy projects and approximately 10 demonstration areas of various typical characteristics for distributed energy."
According to the above policies, in the next few years, the construction of distributed energy projects will become one of the main focuses of my country's energy construction. Related standards and design specifications will also be introduced one after another. The research on distributed energy and combined cooling, heating and power (DER/CCHP) systems, which is already one of the hot research topics in China, will usher in a new wave of development.
Since 2008, I have successively undertaken pre-feasibility study reports, feasibility reports, consulting and design tasks for multiple domestic gas-fired CCHP projects and renewable energy DER projects. In the process of completing these tasks, I conducted an in-depth investigation into the current status of DER/CCHP in China, and at the same time, I studied in depth the research results, literature, practical experience and product performance of DER/CCHP at home and abroad. In particular, I benefited greatly and had deep feelings by participating in the writing, review and design of feasibility reports for several specific projects. I feel it is necessary to summarize my experiences and lessons learned over the years, and offer them as a starting point for reference for industry professionals, so as to benefit the development of DER/CCHP in my country.
This article discusses in detail the terminology, definitions, delimitations, and related standards of DER and CCHP, and addresses some related issues.
1. Background
DER is still a relatively new technology internationally. Due to the large number of specialties involved and the complexity of the technology, its terminology, definition, and definition have been difficult to reach a consensus for more than 20 years.
The terminology, definitions, and delineation of DER/CCHP have not yet received sufficient attention from relevant government departments, academia, and industry in China. While the accuracy of DER/CCHP terminology is undoubtedly crucial for academia, it is even more important for DER/CCHP decision-makers—relevant government departments. As a technology and industry prioritized for national promotion, inaccurate terminology, unclear definitions, ambiguous connotations and denotations, and a lack of related technologies will not only affect the comprehensiveness, correctness, and accuracy of regulations, standards, and rules, but also impact feasibility study reviews, project approvals, and the comprehensiveness, correctness, accuracy, and economy of engineering designs. This seemingly simple task is of paramount importance for the healthy development and rapid promotion of DER/CCHP in my country.
Judging from the various policies, regulations, and plans related to DER that have been promulgated and implemented so far, the domestic definition and definition standards of DER are quite different from the internationally accepted definition and definition standards. The total installed capacity of DER projects currently under construction in China has reached 3120MW, and professionals would find it difficult to recognize this as DER.
Therefore, for DER/CCHP, the current challenges are not just technical and economic. Unlike many other technologies and industries, the primary issue is the problem of terminology, definition, and delineation. If these fundamental issues are not resolved, other problems will inevitably become more complex and difficult to handle properly.
2. Terminology
2.1 Terminology for Distributed Energy
Distributed energy currently uses many English terms, such as: distributed energy resource (DER), distributed generation (DG), distributed power (DP), decentralized energy (DE), on-site generation, distributed generation, embedded generation, decentralized generation, distributed energy, and distributed power system.
For a long time, the international community has used DG to describe distributed energy, while other terms are only used as synonyms for DG. This is most evident on Wikipedia, which still uses DG as the term for distributed energy, and all others are its synonyms.
As an emerging discipline, it's understandable that there's a lack of international standardization in terminology. However, in recent years, most countries and major academic publications have gradually standardized the terminology for distributed energy, especially in official documents. The most commonly used English term for distributed energy is currently: distributed energy resource (DER).
The U.S. Department of Energy currently uses the term "distributed resource." Since the beginning of this century, major professional organizations, groups, and companies in the United States, apart from government agencies, such as the American Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineers (ASHARE), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the Energy Conservation Economics Council (ACEEE), and CPSIEnergy (U.S. Urban Common Energy Services Corporation), have generally used the term "distributed energy resource" (DER).
Since 2004, the European Commission has used the term "distributed energy resource." The EU's 2004 publication, "Europe and Distributed Energy Resources Projects," became a significant document at the time. Subsequently, Europe established the European Distributed Energy Resources Laboratories, the world's largest multinational organization, and the Distributed Energy Resources Research Infrastructure, which played a crucial role in promoting distributed energy in Europe.
Due to historical reasons, some non-governmental organizations still use the original terminology. For example, the International Coalition for Distributed Energy (WADE) still uses the term decentralized energy (DE). Some other countries and regions also use DG as the term for distributed energy.
In my country, at the beginning of this century, terms such as distributed power supply, distributed energy system, and distributed energy supply system were used, which were basically translations of English terms used abroad at the time. In 2004, the National Development and Reform Commission used the term "distributed energy" in document No. 1702, and since then, various domestic documents and media, including government documents, have basically adopted the term distributed energy.
Distributed energy, in official Chinese documents, is referred to as distributed energy resource.
2.2 Terminology for Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CCHP)
The English terms currently used for combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) include: combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP), trigeneration, combined cooling, heating and power (CHCP), and combined heating and power (CHP).
Unlike distributed energy, most countries, except for the United States which typically includes combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP) within the scope of combined cooling, heating, and power (CHP), generally use the term combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP). When natural gas is used as fuel, the English term for gas-fired combined cooling, heating, and power is gas-fired combined cooling, heating, and power.
Regarding combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP), my country used various terms such as combined cooling, heating and power generation, combined cooling, heating and power supply, combined heating and cooling power generation, and combined heating and cooling power supply at the beginning of this century. Currently, the term CCHP is the most commonly used in China. When natural gas is used as fuel, there are two types of CCHP: gas-fired CCHP and natural gas CCHP.
The English term used in official Chinese documents is combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP).
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