Photo provided by Peng Hao shows staff of Shimen power supply company clean newly installed photovoltaic panels in Shimen County, Changde City in central China's Hunan Province on October 25.
BEIJING, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The first outlet of the "photovoltaic (PV) + energy storage" micro-grid project of State Grid Changde Power Supply Company under State Grid Hunan Electric Power Company Limited was put into trial operation on November 2 in Shinan Mountain, Shimen County, Changde City in central China's Hunan Province.
Shinan Mountain is located in remote and isolated area of Changde. In recent years, original residents have gradually moved to places with better production and living conditions. Currently, only one 87-year-old elderly villager lives in Shinan Mountain, with a daily electricity consumption of less than one kilowatt hour.
In remote mountains of Changde, there are another 12 areas with less than 10 residents, whose per capita daily electricity consumption is less than 1.5 kilowatt hours. Ensuring daily stable power supply and carrying out emergency repairing work in these areas remain daunting tasks, as they are far from each other and hard to access due to complex geographical environment. Furthermore, transforming power grid for these areas in conventional ways is also challenging and often incurs high costs.
To provide stable power supply, State Grid Hunan Electric Power Company Limited tried upgrading power grid in mountainous areas with a new type of "PV + energy storage" micro-grid after verifying its feasibility.
This new power supply mode exports electricity generated by sunlight to villagers, and stores surplus electricity in energy storage batteries for later use, thus addressing the concerns of having no electricity to use in cases of power failure, according to Xiang Zhongqing in charge of the project.
Xiang added that renovating the power grid of Shinan Mountain in a traditional way required a total investment 500,000 yuan, in contrast with 90,300 yuan expenditure of the transformation to the new micro-grid, which could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 706 kilograms per year once operational.
It is learned that State Grid Hunan Electric Power Company Limited plans to launch trials of the new "PV + energy storage" micro-grid in 25 outlets, so that residents can enjoy green electricity even in cold winter days. (Edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, sudan@xinhua.org)
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