restructuring, continuous efforts to improve
energy efficiency and reduce emissions across all
industries. These are the principal features of
China’s new normal and the foundation of the
energy revolution.
3.1.2 Energy Growth Drivers Are
Shifting
from Manufacturing
to Services and Households
Traditionally, as drivers of energy use weaken,
new ones gradually arise to take their place. Take
power consumption, for example. Average
annual growth in power consumption in the tertiary (service) industries and in households during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011–15) was 4.8
and 2.4 percentage points higher respectively
than in the secondary (manufacturing) industries.
In 2016, power consumption in the service
industries and households grew 11.2% and
10.8% respectively, much faster than the growth
in manufacturing (2.9%). This shows that the
major driver for power consumption growth is
shifting from high energy-consuming industries
like manufacturing to the service industries and
households.
3.1.3 Growth of New Energy Business
Models Represented
by Smart Energy
and Internet+
A third driver of the energy revolution is the
integration of energy with digital and Internet
technologies. The rapid development of smart
energy and Internet + (Energy Internet) is
expected to diversify energy production and
supply and stimulate new business models.
Energy carriers will shift from single supply
mode to a diversified one, in which conventional
coal businesses, utilities and oil and gas companies transform themselves into integrated energy
suppliers with multiple types of energy sources
and the flexibility to provide various energy
services that meet different user requirements.
Internet + smart energy technologies can coordinate and optimise the control of energy storage
equipment and controllable loads by: (1) building
information interconnections between distributed
energy systems and users and between various
local energy networks; these will leverage the
spatio-temporal complementarity of distributed
power supply systems in a wide area network and
the system control capacity between energy
storage equipment and demand-side controllable
resources; and (2) enabling “horizontally complementary energy sources and networks and the
vertically coordinated development of energy
sources, networks, loads and energy storage”.
These measures will help control the impacts of
intermittence on local grids and are a feasible
way to connect distributed renewable energy at
scale, thus substantially increasing the share of
clean electricity in the energy mix.
6
As the Internet + smart energy sector develops, its most striking feature is the rapid growth
of electric vehicles (EVs). On the one hand, EVs
are electrifying the transport system, which
reduces oil dependency in socioeconomic
development. On the other hand, EVs are the
only way to fully connect the transport sector
with Internet + and build a new and modern
intelligent transport system enabled by artificial
intelligence technologies, including remote control and unmanned driving. By 2016, China’s EV
ownership exceeded 1 million cars; there were
more than 150,000 public charging stations and
more than 200,000 private recharging points.
3.1.4 More Clean Energy
and Optimisation
of the Energy Mix
Global energy systems are increasingly turning
to clean electrification.
7 They are investing in
and developing clean power generation and new
technologies like smart energy and the Energy
Internet to create a new power supply system of
integrated distributed and centralised energy.
Such a system will increase electrification levels
in manufacturing and living. And they are
decarbonising non-electricity energy applications
6
Gao Shiji and Guo Jiaofeng et al., Energy Internet Boosts
Energy Transformation and Institutional Innovation in
China, China Development Press, 2017, pp.11–13.
7
The Energy Transitions Commission, Better Energy,
Great Prosperity: Achievable Pathways to a Low-carbon
Energy System, 2017.
Special Report 1: A Study of China’s Energy Supply Revolution
125
energy efficiency and reduce emissions across all
industries. These are the principal features of
China’s new normal and the foundation of the
energy revolution.
3.1.2 Energy Growth Drivers Are
Shifting
from Manufacturing
to Services and Households
Traditionally, as drivers of energy use weaken,
new ones gradually arise to take their place. Take
power consumption, for example. Average
annual growth in power consumption in the tertiary (service) industries and in households during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011–15) was 4.8
and 2.4 percentage points higher respectively
than in the secondary (manufacturing) industries.
In 2016, power consumption in the service
industries and households grew 11.2% and
10.8% respectively, much faster than the growth
in manufacturing (2.9%). This shows that the
major driver for power consumption growth is
shifting from high energy-consuming industries
like manufacturing to the service industries and
households.
3.1.3 Growth of New Energy Business
Models Represented
by Smart Energy
and Internet+
A third driver of the energy revolution is the
integration of energy with digital and Internet
technologies. The rapid development of smart
energy and Internet + (Energy Internet) is
expected to diversify energy production and
supply and stimulate new business models.
Energy carriers will shift from single supply
mode to a diversified one, in which conventional
coal businesses, utilities and oil and gas companies transform themselves into integrated energy
suppliers with multiple types of energy sources
and the flexibility to provide various energy
services that meet different user requirements.
Internet + smart energy technologies can coordinate and optimise the control of energy storage
equipment and controllable loads by: (1) building
information interconnections between distributed
energy systems and users and between various
local energy networks; these will leverage the
spatio-temporal complementarity of distributed
power supply systems in a wide area network and
the system control capacity between energy
storage equipment and demand-side controllable
resources; and (2) enabling “horizontally complementary energy sources and networks and the
vertically coordinated development of energy
sources, networks, loads and energy storage”.
These measures will help control the impacts of
intermittence on local grids and are a feasible
way to connect distributed renewable energy at
scale, thus substantially increasing the share of
clean electricity in the energy mix.
6
As the Internet + smart energy sector develops, its most striking feature is the rapid growth
of electric vehicles (EVs). On the one hand, EVs
are electrifying the transport system, which
reduces oil dependency in socioeconomic
development. On the other hand, EVs are the
only way to fully connect the transport sector
with Internet + and build a new and modern
intelligent transport system enabled by artificial
intelligence technologies, including remote control and unmanned driving. By 2016, China’s EV
ownership exceeded 1 million cars; there were
more than 150,000 public charging stations and
more than 200,000 private recharging points.
3.1.4 More Clean Energy
and Optimisation
of the Energy Mix
Global energy systems are increasingly turning
to clean electrification.
7 They are investing in
and developing clean power generation and new
technologies like smart energy and the Energy
Internet to create a new power supply system of
integrated distributed and centralised energy.
Such a system will increase electrification levels
in manufacturing and living. And they are
decarbonising non-electricity energy applications
6
Gao Shiji and Guo Jiaofeng et al., Energy Internet Boosts
Energy Transformation and Institutional Innovation in
China, China Development Press, 2017, pp.11–13.
7
The Energy Transitions Commission, Better Energy,
Great Prosperity: Achievable Pathways to a Low-carbon
Energy System, 2017.
Special Report 1: A Study of China’s Energy Supply Revolution
125