SERC strengthens wind power safety supervision

Wind power converters are an important support for wind turbines to obtain low-voltage ride-through capability. Under the background of increasing wind power safety in the domestic wind power industry, the market demand for wind power converters has suddenly increased, and the years of domestic wind power converter industry in the next few years Both will have a compound growth rate of more than 20%. “Li Shengmao, a senior research fellow of China Investment Advisors, told the China Economic Times in recent days that the future of the converter industry is promising.

On December 2, the State Electricity Regulatory Commission issued the “Wind Power Safety Supervision Report” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”), which pointed out that from January to August 2011, there were 193 wind turbine generator disconnection accidents in the country, including one loss of wind power output. 5.4 million to 500,000 kilowatts of off-grid accidents occurred in 54 incidents, and 12 incidents of off-grid accidents with wind power output exceeding 500,000 kilowatts were lost.

"Insufficient low-voltage ride-through capability of wind turbines is the main reason for massive off-grid networks," said Li Shengmao.

The "Report" pointed out that most of the wind turbines that have been put into operation do not have low-voltage ride-through capability. The progress of the transformation of the low-voltage ride-through capability of wind farms is unbalanced, and some wind farm reconstruction plans and plans have not yet been determined.

According to industry analysts, as the competent authorities are increasingly strict with wind power safety requirements, the converter industry that allows wind turbines to obtain low-voltage ride-through capability will gain growth opportunities.

According to the forecast of Guosen Securities, the total global converter market capacity will reach 179.75 billion yuan in 2015, 328.98 billion yuan in 2020, and 671.37 billion yuan in 2030. In 2015, the total domestic market capacity of converters will reach 45 billion yuan, reaching 79.07 billion yuan in 2020 and reaching 152.49 billion yuan in 2030.

“At present, the market capacity of the domestic wind power converter industry is about 18 billion yuan, and the market is basically occupied by foreign brands. Most domestic companies are still in the stage of product R&D and project construction, and they are developing R&D equipment for wind turbines with a capacity of more than 1.5MW. The capacity is relatively weak," said Li Shengmao.

It is understood that wind power converters are only a few of the wind turbines that have not yet achieved localization. Currently, the domestic market for wind energy converters mainly relies on imports. Foreign brands such as ABB, Converteam, and U.S. Superconducting occupy the major market share of domestic wind energy converters. The proportion of domestic-funded enterprises accounts for only 5%, and there is ample room for market substitution.

“The wind power converter belongs to the key parts of the wind power machine. The import substitution of the product will be relatively good for a long time in the future. The average profit rate of the industry is high. This industry has a large number of wind power companies for the domestic industry. Market opportunities," said Li Shengmao.

Li Ling, an analyst at ChinaVenture Investment Group, believes that the large-scale fan off-net accident caused by this year has caused a surge in fan transformation? Smoke also brings good development opportunities for the wind power converter industry.

An executive from China’s West Power Company stated that despite the frequent occurrence of wind power accidents in recent years, he is still optimistic about the development prospects of wind power in the comparison of various new energy sources. He disclosed that the company has invested tens of millions of yuan in R&D of wind power converters and research and development of complete sets of wind power access systems.

However, due to the high cost of retrofitting some wind turbines, the cost of converters accounts for 7% to 10% of the cost of the whole machine, and companies are facing huge financial pressure. It is understood that Goldwind's direct-drive wind turbine retrofit price is about 100,000 yuan, and the double-fed air blower is still more expensive than 100,000 yuan due to its more complicated structure.

Li Shengmao suggested that for wind power plant enterprises, it is necessary to actively incorporate wind power converters into their own business sectors and enhance their cost control capabilities; for enterprises specializing in wind power converters, they must increase the size and size of large wind turbines. Wind power companies cooperate with each other to strive to establish a stable sales channel; on the other hand, they must use their own professional advantages to develop and produce high-power wind power converters.