Between the 2nd and 21st of July North China Electric Power University with support of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, was giving educational course in the field of Power Systems for Pure Energy.
The program was provided for citizens of Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan. The MPEI representative in the project was the associate professor of the Department of HRES Petr Shurkalov.
The educational program included lectures about history of China, development and contemporary state of the Power Industry in China, Renewable Energy Sources and corresponding power plants, clean technologies applied in the domain of traditional power industry.
A large part of training was dedicated to technical visits to power generating objects of China and prominent companies in Power Industry.
The opening of the program happened on the 3rd of July and gave the participants of the training an opportunity to become acquainted to the administration of the University, professors and fellow students. The training group consisted of the representatives of different jobs related to power industry: teachers in technical subjects, electric power stations and substations, technical consultants and sales managers.
Photo from opening ceremony of training on clean energy systems
The first half of the training was mainly dedicated to lectures and work with the scientific and technical base of the university. The material taught was quite various, but the following topics could be selected as the most interesting ones:
- Power Industry of China. In the framework of the lectures given the contemporary state of power industry branch of China and its prospects. The students were told about the distribution of the resources, both renewable and not, inside the country, about main types of the electric power stations included in Chinese power system, basic distribution networks etc.
- Virtual and augmented reality, electric power station modelling – these lectures gave students the opportunity to learn about the VR equipment that is currently used for the university education and for training of the staff of different electric power plants. This equipment allows the students to explore the heat power plant and to maintain the generator of the wind power plant.
3D model of wind power installation. Inside view of gondola
- Photovoltaic materials and technologies
- Wind power development in China
- Biomass power
- Clean and power efficient technologies in heat power
During the lectures on solar and wind energy, biomass energy and clean technologies in thermal power industry, the lecturers of the institute reminded the trainees of the basic foundations of these fields, showed the advanced technologies and software that was used in development, design an research of the work of energy stations, and the types of these stations. The time was given to modern mainstream research in renewable energy that are conducted at NCEPU.
Science and technical base of the University is so massive and various that it cannot be fully demonstrated in such short time, but the small part demonstrated was very impressive for the trainees.
This is what of it is worth mentioning:
- On the most of the roofs of the buildings situated on the territory of the Campus there are solar photovoltaic panels or solar collectors to heat water supply.
Solar photovoltaic panels on roof of one of university buildings
- On the territory of the Campus there is a big solar collector with a parabolic concentrator. The station works like a sunflower, so the collector is always aimed at the sun, and this is how the efficiency is increased. The collector is used both for education and scientific research.
Solar collector with parabolic concentrator
- In the Campus for Renewable Energy there are multiple laboratories that are needed to conduct research in the fields of solar, wind and biopower. The whole floor of the building is dedicated to the laboratories equipped for creating the solar elements out of different materials and then testing them.
Laboratory for manufacturing solar cells
The second half of the course included lectures as well, but the main focus was on technical visits to electric power generating objects and power companies of China. Thus, in the framework of the course the trainees could visit the following power plants and companies:
Hanergy Energy group Ltd. – a multinational company that produces ecologically pure energy and keeps international leadership in producing thin-film solar batteries. The main branches of the company embrace hydropower, wind power and thin-film solar power. https://www.hanergy.eu
Hanergy's headquarters, whose walls are made of thin-film photovoltaic panels
At present, the general set project hydropower of Hanergy exceeds 6 GW, wind power – 131 MW.
In the field of thin-film solar energy, the company controls all the stages of production of thin-film systems, including research and development, production of high-quality equipment and thin-film solar modules and building thin-film solar power plants. In the framework of the visit, the participants got acquainted with the Hanergy activity and its modern research features, such as different types of solar modules, solar energy consuming electromobiles, satellites, transportable chargers etc.
Solar powered electric car
Demonstration project for the storage and transmission of wind and solar energy located in Zhangbei. At present the project includes:
- Zhangbei National Wind/PV/Energy Storage and Smart Transportation Demonstration Power Station
- 5 Wind Power plants with combined power of 500 MW including wind stations of different types (vertically axial and horizontally axial) and different power (1,2,2.5,3 and 5 MW)
- 14 solar powerplants with the combined power of 100 MW with different types of solar elements (monocrystalline, polycrystalline, amorphous silicon) and supporting structures (sunflower type, for example)
- Storage system of full capacity of 30 MW that consisted of chargeable batteries of different types (lithium ion, vanadium redox, lithium iron phosphate)
The applications of energy storage include the integration of wind and solar power and other renewable energy sources, frequency control and voltage maintenance. This project is based on the chargeable battery usage for interactive power system control.
Solar photovoltaic station, part of the demonstration project Zhangbei
Wind power station, part of the demonstration project Zhangbei
- SPIC – one of the five largest producers of electric energy in China. The total installed capacity is 126 GW, including 72.43 GW of thermal energy, 22.03 GW of hydropower, 4.48 GW of atomic energy, 11.66 GW of solar energy and 13.73 GW of wind energy, with the 45% rate of clean energy overall. http://eng.spic.com.cn
During the visit to SPIC trainees found out about basic fields of the company’s activity, and as well made small reports on the issues of the contemporary state of fuel power complexes in their countries.
- China Huadian Corporation Ltd. (CHD) also is one of the five national electric energy producers totally belonging to State. In course of the visit to CHD, trainees made reports similar to SPIC ones, http://eng.chd.com.cn
- China Huadian Corporation Ltd. (CHD) – также является одним из пяти национальных производителей электроэнергии, полностью принадлежащих государству (http://eng.chd.com.cn). Во время визита в CHD участники программы сделали аналогичные доклады, что и в SPIC.
- National Institute of Clean Energy (NICE) – scientific research that conducts research and development in the field of low-carbon and ecologically pure power technologies. NICE as well concentrates on the research in the fields of:
- Conversion and utilization of the pure carbon and carbon materials
- Hydrogen energy usage
- Water filtration
- Distributed power
- State Grid Ultra High Voltage Test Base is a test base that includes: a part of a test line of the direct current of extra high voltage, corona cage, opened and closed test areas, laboratory of the investigation of the environmental pollution, isolatory laboratory, discharger laboratory, electromagnetic test area etc.
Photos from the test base State Grid UHV Test Base
Jingqiao Thermal Power Co. Ltd - a thermal power plant that supplies electricity to the Beijing power system and provides steam to nearby commercial and government facilities (https://www.powermag.com/jingqiao-power-plant-beijing-china/)
On July 18, the resulting session was held, where all the participants of training spoke about what had touched them mostly in the program, what was useful, and also gave their main impressions and recommendations for program improvement.
After the session, the trainees were given Diplomas of completion of the education in Pure Energy Power Systems.
After completion ceremony
To celebrate the end of the training program, a trip to the summer imperial palace of Yiheyuan was organized on July 19. Despite the cloudy weather, the trip was great.
At the entrance to the "park ensemble" of the summer imperial palace
On the way back from the summer palace, the trainees managed to visit the Temple of Heaven situated nearby the center of Beijing
Temple of Heaven