Shanghai moving full steam ahead with green, advanced charging facilities

Shanghai has put in place 1,526 green charging pile units since the beginning of this year for recharging new energy vehicles, State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Co said.

These charging facilities are among the city's latest efforts to boost green power consumption through the creation of a new energy system that is clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient.

According to a deal signed between operators of charging facilities in Shanghai and new energy electric power plants in Shanxi province in December, a total of 180 million kilowatt-hours of green electricity will be delivered through the charging facilities to power Shanghai's NEVs, according to the power utility.

"There is a common query during the recharging of NEVs — how to ensure that the electricity in the recharging facilities is also from renewables. With this batch of facilities, we can say that the electricity powering these recharging units is certified new energy electricity," said Tang Xiaodong, head of the municipal platform for public data collection and monitoring of charging and swapping facilities in Shanghai.

The green charging units are currently available at charging stations for the exclusive use of public buses and NEVs, as well as at venues including commercial buildings and airports that are located in regions including Qingpu, Jinshan, Baoshan, Jiading, Pudong New Area, Minhang and Chongming.

In accordance with the city's green electricity procurement schedule, Shanghai will work on making more qualified charging piles into green ones this year, so as to let as many NEVs as possible become truly green by using green electricity.

This will assist Shanghai's high-quality development through green and low-carbon transition, said Yang Jing, chairman of Shanghai Power Exchange Center.

A survey was carried out in December of the city's 134,000 public recharging facilities and more than 500,000 private ones by State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electric Power, to check the feasibility of using green electricity in various recharging facilities.

The research finally led to the nation's first provincial-level green electricity procurement program that is powering these charging piles.

"In the first 11 months of 2023, China's public and private charging piles saw a year-on-year growth of 50 percent and 71 percent, respectively, taking an absolute lead worldwide," Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association wrote on his official WeChat account.

"The thriving growth of NEVs calls for a high-quality system of charging infrastructure facilities," Cui added.

China has unveiled an implementation guideline to strengthen the integration of NEVs with the power grid, said the National Development and Reform Commission.

The guideline, jointly released by four authorities, including the NDRC and the National Energy Administration, aims to give full play to NEVs' important role in the electrochemical energy storage system, consolidate and expand NEVs' development advantages, and support the construction of a new energy and power system.

By 2025, China's preliminary technical standards on the integration of NEVs with the power grid will be established, and the time-of-use electricity pricing mechanism for charging NEVs will be fully implemented and further optimized, according to the development targets put forward by the guideline.

By 2030, NEVs will become an important part of the electrochemical energy storage system, the guideline stated.