National Grid Strengthens Monopoly Power System Reform

Following the decentralization of the four regional power grids by the State Grid in May last year, the last "fortress" of the regional power grid, the North China Power Grid, failed to escape the fate of being dismantled.
“This matter was announced internally in the last month. North China Power Grid will be split into two parts of the State Grid North China Branch and Hebei North Power Company.” An insider of North China Power Grid revealed that Yubei Electric will mainly Take over the five cities in northern Anhui, which are the power grid dispatch companies in Tangshan, Qinhuangdao, Chengde, Zhangjiakou and Langfang, and plan to formally establish them within this year.
According to this person, despite the fact that the newly established North China Branch of the National Power Grid will still perform regional dispatching functions, the original independent regional market position of the North China Power Grid has ceased to exist.
At the same time, on January 13, National Grid announced on its official website that all implementation plans for the “Three Sets and Five Majors” system of the State Grid Corporation of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have been approved and the work will be fully carried out.
At this point, the establishment of the district is less than 10 years. The regional grid company that had hoped to break the power monopoly has already withdrawn from the stage of history, and the monopoly of the national grid has been further strengthened.
After the spin-off of the dismantling of the North China Power Grid, the regional power grid has lost its qualification as an independent market entity, which is tantamount to the fact that the four major regional power grids were dismantled after the overhead. In fact, the fate of the final dismantling of the North China Power Grid has also been doomed. , mainly for internal and repeated discussions on the split plan, simply to bargain. "The North China Power Grid said to reporters.
Compared with other regional power grids, North China Power Grid Corporation is undoubtedly the most special, and therefore it has also become the final decomposed regional power grid.
First of all, the political status of Beijing in the area of ​​North China Power Grid is special, and the security of its power grid is naturally the most important issue. Secondly, North China Power Grid and other major regional power grids have provincial power companies first, and the model for setting up regional power grids is different. It was born earlier than provincial companies, so assets and business connections are the closest, and the dismantling resistance is even greater. Big.
In May last year, the State Grid Corporation of China has implemented comprehensive adjustments to the decentralization of assets and the centralization of power in the four major regional power grids of the Northwest Power Grid, Central China Power Grid, East China Power Grid, and Northeast Power Grid.
On the one hand, the State Grid has added the Northwest Division, Central China Branch, East China Branch, and Northeast Branch to the above four regional power grids, and implemented the “two brands and one set of agencies” management model with the original regional power grid company. On the other hand, the major operating assets of the four major regional companies, especially the EHV companies, have been transferred to provincial power companies in accordance with the principle of localization.
This is tantamount to saying that the original regional power grid was only able to retain regional dispatching functions as well as non-operating departments such as infrastructure and security, but no longer had operational functions. This made the original regional power grid virtually lost the qualification of the independent market entity and was equivalent to being Overhead.
Deviating from the direction of electric change?
“The regional grid was overrun, meaning that the original power system reform program suffered major setbacks.”
According to an insider of the East China Power Grid, the State Grid has adopted a policy of gradual encroachment on the regional power grid. Since 2005, the State Grid announced that it will implement vertical management over provincial power grids across the regional power grid. This equals the regional power grid and the province. The network has been reduced from the original mother-child relationship to a flat brother relationship. In addition, the functions of finance and personnel of the regional grid have also been received by the State Grid Corporation of China.
In fact, before the State Grid set up a branch in the regional power grid, the assets owned by the regional grid company were mainly inter-provincial tie-lines, and the main functions were the inter-provincial and inter-regional power dispatch. According to the “Power System Reform Program” (commonly referred to as “Document 5”) issued by the State Council in 2002, “Regional Grid Corporation shall reorganize the provincial provincial power companies in the region into branches or subsidiaries and be responsible for the local operations. Transmission and Distribution Business." The main responsibility of the State Grid Corporation of China is to be responsible for the power trading and dispatching among the regional power grids, to deal with the problem of inter-network coordination in the daily production of regional power grid companies, and to participate in cross-regional power transmission and transformation and networking related to investment, construction and operation. engineering.
“Under the design idea of ​​'Document 5', regional power grids play an important role, and with regional power grids being overhead, this means that the original power system reform program suffered major setbacks,” said Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of China Energy Network.
“The design of the No. 5 document for China's electricity market is based on the development of regional grids. This is from the perspective of safety and management. Now the brand of regional grids is still in place, but its functions have been lost, especially once UHV exchanges form a national The network means that the 500 kilovolt grids between provinces and provinces must be split and become distribution networks, which is equivalent to returning to the state of the national grid." said Han Xiaoping.
On the other hand, after the completion of UHV power grids, transmission and distribution will be more difficult to separate in order to ensure grid security and smooth management.
“The separation of transmission and distribution is a measure that must be taken to break the grid monopoly power market. And the State Grid will, in fact, strengthen its dual monopoly on power purchases and sales through UHV technology,” Han Xiaoping said.
The State Grid will return to "grand unification"
With respect to the collection of power, decentralization of assets, and the integration of the general departments, the reunification of the “big unity” is the focus of the entire network of the State Grid in the near future.
Recently, Liu Zhenya, general manager of the State Grid Corporation of China, emphasized in several internal speeches that "the construction of the 'Three Sets and Five Majors' system is the top priority for the work of the State Grid this year."
The so-called “Three Sets and Five Greats” refers to the direction of intensive, flat, and specialized, unified information platforms, unified management standards, and unified support services as guarantees, to strengthen corporate headquarters, establish provincial companies, and realize company-wide resources. Business and management are centralized at the headquarters and provincial level. A simple understanding is that power is received, assets are decentralized, and the overall department is fully integrated.
This concept was first proposed in 2009, followed by pilots in Chongqing and Jiangsu provinces in early 2011, and this year it will be rolled out across the national grid.
Obviously, the overhead of the regional grid level is the most important part of this system.
In addition to the re-concentration of resources to the headquarters, the State Grid has been constantly breaking through the exclusion zone of the original policy.
The first step in implementing the reform of the power system in 2002 was the separation of factories and networks.
However, in recent years, with the opportunity of the rapid development of new energy sources, the State Grid has successively invested in a number of new energy power generation projects, which has broken through the restrictions on the power grids that do not operate power generation business.
“The National Grid's participation in power supply construction is definitely contrary to 'Document No. 5'. In the future, new energy generation will become more and more popular. The State Grid will participate in investing in wind power PV, which is both a seller and a buyer. It is difficult to be fair. It may become a new problem." Han Xiaoping said.