Towering at an unparalleled elevation above sea level and holding endless snow-capped mountains and glaciers, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is crowned as the “Roof of the World”. Its unique topography creates enchanting natural landscapes, yet poses significant challenges to the local people’s daily life and social production.
As we are approaching the New Year, the world’s highest-altitude photovoltaic (PV) and energy storage project, the 50MW “PV + Energy Storage” power generation project by the Tibet Branch of China Huadian Corporation in Caipeng, Shannan City, was successfully connected to the grid and officially put into operation. With an annual average electricity generation of 90 million kilowatt-hours, the project can save 28,000 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 92,000 tons annually.
The Caipeng “PV + Energy Storage” power station is located on the plateau at an altitude of 5,100 meters. The construction involves a 50MW PV power generation project along with a 10MW/40MWh energy storage system. The project will significantly alleviate regional and seasonal power shortage, effectively improve the safety and stability of the Tibet power grid, enhance the local residents’ living standards, and promote regional development.
NR provided a complete set of energy storage AC-side equipment for the Caipeng “PV + Energy Storage” power station. The energy storage system in Caipeng can not only shift energy over time for PV power generation, extending the supply time of the PV system, but also coordinate control through an energy management system and PV system. This helps smooth out the fluctuations and intermittency of PV power, enabling peak shaving, frequency regulation, voltage regulation, power prediction correction, planned curve fitting, etc. This enhances the grid-friendliness and benefits from PV power generation.
The Caipeng “PV + Energy Storage” power station is the world’s first successful application of energy storage equipment at an elevation of more than 5,000 meters above sea level. Since the air density decreases with the increase in altitude, the dielectric strength of equipment decreases by 8% to 13% for every 1,000 meters rise in altitude. The dramatic fluctuations in temperature between day and night, coupled with extreme weather conditions, imposes extremely high requirements on the operating environment temperature of energy storage equipment.
The success of the project is attributed to NR’s extensive experience in the construction of the Tibet power grid over the years. From the Qinghai-Tibet Interconnection Project in 2011 to the Sichuan-Tibet Interconnection, Central Tibet Interconnection, NR has provided a large number of power equipment, including HVDC transmission equipment, large-capacity FACTs equipment, power grid stability control equipment, protection control equipment, etc. for the Tibet power grid. NR is well-versed in the characteristics and requirements of electrical equipment in high-altitude areas and has developed a comprehensive high-altitude solution for such scenarios. Given the ultra-high altitude of this project, precise calculations were made in the stages of project design and equipment selection. Key components underwent environmental simulation testing, followed by adjustments in component selection and parameter adaptation, ensuring the safe operation of equipment and the personal safety of maintenance personnel.
Since the project is situated at a remote location with harsh natural environment and rugged roads, NR’s team conducted thorough site surveys based on project requirements, formulated professional and reliable equipment transportation plans, organized efficient on-site service personnel, optimized on-site commissioning processes, strictly adhered to project progress milestones, and successfully completed the task with high quality.
The successful commissioning of the Caipeng “PV + Energy Storage” power generation project reflects NR’s corporate mission of “creating value and serving the society”. NR will continue to improve Tibet’s power supply and grid power capacity, ensuring a balanced and orderly power supply.