Driven by the country’s “dual carbon” goals, there is a strong demand for renewable energy on the Chinese mainland, and the related market is growing rapidly. The Group has officially launched integrated smart energy projects since 2016, focusing on zero carbon in its business development.
The Group made good use of digital technology to promote low-carbon transformation of the industry and the transition towards adopting renewable energy. Based on a smart energy platform, we developed source-grid-load-storage integrated solutions and provided regional comprehensive energy management and services, involving the investment in and construction and operation of distributed photovoltaic, energy storage, battery charging and swapping, multi-source energy supply and other energy infrastructure as well as smart value-added services such as energy efficiency management, carbon management, virtual power plant and green power trading. Empowered by the Smart Energy Ecological Platform, we had achieved source-grid-load-storage integration and upgraded energy management with digital and smart technology, in an effort to build zero-carbon smart industrial parks and low-carbon factories, facilitating enterprises with ESG management and helping the country achieve its “dual carbon” goals.
Zero-carbon Smart Industrial Parks
Towngas Smart Energy established the Towngas Energy brand in 2016, to provide energy planning, energy conservation consultancy and other one-stop services for the Group’s city gas project companies. Building on these strong foundations and riding this positive wave, we have been making significant investments in zero-carbon smart industrial park scenario-based smart energy projects since we officially changed our name to Towngas Smart Energy. Moving forward, we will continue to focus on our three major strategic areas – integration, decarbonisation and digitalisation, as we advance the development of zero-carbon smart industrial parks, photovoltaics, energy storage, as well as charging and swapping station projects.
As at the end of 2023, the Group had developed 124 zero-carbon smart industrial parks, and laid out more than 1,000 renewable energy projects in 23 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. Moreover, we also signed contracts in an aggregate photovoltaic capacity of 2.96GW and connected 1.8GW to the grid.
Zero-carbon Industrial Park in Hailing, Taizhou
As one of the flagship projects of Towngas Smart Energy, we leverage the Towngas Smart Energy Ecological Platform to provide the government, industrial parks, enterprises, and individuals with a comprehensive range of digital and smart services in the fields of energy, carbon, and green power. This has greatly facilitated the Hailing District government's efforts in constructing a zero-carbon smart city.
To date, distributed PV installations had been installed on the roofs of more than 10 government buildings in Hailing District, such as the government offices and the offices of the Procuratorate. More and more industrial and commercial plants and rural houses had also been equipped with such facilities. By the end of 2022, more than 10% of enterprises in the park were connected to the Towngas Smart Energy Ecological Platform to support the park’s smart management, analysis, prediction and enhancement of energy data, which in turn boosted energy efficiency and helped the government of Hailing District move towards a solar city.
Virtual Power Plant
In July 2023, the first virtual power plant for a public institution in Shenzhen was officially commissioned at Futian District Party Committee Compound. Jointly developed with Shenzhen Fuxin Dual Carbon Industry Operation Management Company Limited, the project integrates technologies such as photovoltaics, energy storage, charging piles, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), central air-conditioning systems and other distributed power supplies, with a load capacity of 3.6 MW and a real-time adjustability of 300 kW. During peak electricity consumption periods, the virtual plant can output excess electricity to the grid in order to ensure stable operations.
Looking ahead, the virtual power plant is set to integrate more energy resources among public institutions in Futian district and will play a significant role in balancing the supply and demand of the power grid in Shenzhen.
Building A Green and Low-Carbon Power Plant
For this company’s Guangzhou-based factory, Xinhao Precision Technology, we provided an integrated smart energy solution based on the four-pronged approach of “Green Power + Energy Saving + Intelligence + Offsetting”. It includes a 5.2MW distributed photovoltaic system with the capacity to generate 5.4 million kWh of green power annually. We also upgraded their industrial central air-conditioning and air compressor systems and installed a waste heat recovery system that supplies domestic hot water for 3,000 customers. With our solutions, the client has obtained the 2021 carbon-neutral certification issued by the Guangzhou-based China Emissions Exchange.
Our seven key businesses include Towngas Carbon Asset, Towngas Green Power, TCSET, Towngas Smart Energy Power Engineering, Towngas Energy Efficiency, Towngas Digital Energy, and Towngas Energy Academy. These business units target seven main service areas in the renewable energy field, including zero-carbon technology, intelligent operation and maintenance, low-carbon factories, energy storage in industrial parks, virtual power plants, carbon management and trading, as well as green power trading. We believe these seven business units will work synergistically to provide personalised and one-stop low-carbon services to meet the diverse needs of our customers.