China‘s National Energy Bureau (NEB) approved a series of technical standards designed to improve standards and process in the country’s wind industry.
The 18 technical standards concern grid access for large wind farms, offshore wind-power development, wind-turbine operation monitoring, wind-farm electric-energy quality and wind-power crucial-facility manufacturing.
These technical standards will go into effect on 1 November.
NEB deputy director Liu Qi said a number of issues have been caused by the rapid expansion of China’s wind-power industry. The focus on constructing large-scale wind farms has led to reduced quality control and poor management.
Liu said wind-power standards have lagged behind wind-farm construction. While the biggest bottleneck for wind farms is in terms of sending wind power to the grid.
Industry officials say the implementation of the new technical standards is likely to set off changes in the industry.
Shu Yinbiao, vice general manager of State Grid, said China has over 80 wind-turbine makers, whose gross production capacity exceeds domestic demand.
Improving Chinese technical standards will facilitate consolidation within the country’s wind-turbine manufacturing sector.
Shu said that in the course of revising and improving the Chinese wind-power-standard system, China also needs to participate in establishing international standards.