How to motivate enterprises to update equipment, save energy and reduce carbon emissions?
Enterprises should reduce costs and increase efficiency through energy saving, technology improvement, and equipment renewal is an important means. On March 7, the State Council releasedAction Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in of Consumer Goods(hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan") to promote the renewal and transformation of equipment in key industries.
The National Development and Reform Commission preliminarily estimates that equipment renewal will be a huge market with an annual scale of more than 5 trillion yuan. However, the willingness of enterprises to renovate equipment has yet to be stimulated. In 2023, China's investment in technological transformation in manufacturing will increase by 3.8% over the previous year, which is 2.7 percentage points lower than the growth rate of fixed asset investment in the manufacturing industry.
Attract enterprises to focus on energy conservation and carbon reductionModernize equipmentIt is not only necessary to support policy funds, but also to improve the confidence of enterprises in the market, link the incentive mechanism with actual business development, and pay attention to fairness, so as to drive the enthusiasm of investment from the root.
Pay attention to high-energy-consuming industries and key energy-using equipment
Chen Hong, president of the Shanghai Energy Conservation Engineering Technology Association, believes that in order to achieve energy conservation and carbon reduction, equipment renewal and transformation need to focus on high-energy-consuming industries and key energy-using equipment to achieve intelligence, digitalization and low-carbonization. For example, the petrochemical, chemical, and power industries in the industrial field have high energy consumption, so it is necessary to focus on energy-using equipment such as boilers, motors, transformers, air conditioners, and lighting.
Among these key energy-using equipment, boilers have high energy consumption and are widely used, and their electrification and low-carbon transformation are continuously promoted. China's boilers consume about 2 billion tons of standard coal annually, accounting for about 40% of the total carbon emissions, making them the energy-consuming equipment with the largest energy consumption and the largest carbon emissions. However, there is still room for improvement in the energy efficiency and carbon emission control level of boiler systems in some industrial and power stations, and there is great potential for energy-saving and carbon-reduction transformation.
In November 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departmentsAction Plan for Green, Low-Carbon and High-Quality Development of BoilersIt is proposed that by 2025, the average operating thermal efficiency of industrial boilers and power station boilers will be increased by 5 percentage points and 0.5 percentage points respectively compared with 2021, the boilers of coal-fired power stations will fully achieve ultra-low emissions, the elimination of coal-fired small boilers will make positive progress, and the level of standardized disposal and recycling of waste boilers will be effectively improved, and by 2030, the thermal efficiency of industrial boiler products will increase by 3 percentage points compared with 2021, and the average operating thermal efficiency will be further improved. It is reported that Shanghai will inspect key energy-using units every year, involving the benchmarking requirements for enterprise energy consumption limits, hoping that more enterprises will use high-efficiency energy-using equipment, and electrically replace more energy-using equipment, boiler transformation is one of the important tasks.
At present, China's motor ownership exceeds 3 billion kilowatts, and the electricity consumption of motors accounts for more than half of the electricity consumption of the whole society, and the proportion of high-efficiency motors in service is only about 20%. Formulated in Shanghai in 2022Shanghai's "100-one" action plan for energy conservation and carbon reduction in the industrial and communication industryFocusing on key energy-using systems, we will carry out special projects to improve energy efficiency. Among them, the motor system improvement project takes the energy-saving transformation of the motor system as the main line, continues to promote the elimination of inefficient motors, the promotion of high-efficiency motors, and the matching transformation of motors and driving equipment, and promotes the improvement of energy efficiency of fans, pumps, air compressors, chillers, etc.
Lack of willingness to invest
Chen Hong said,Programme of ActionIt covers a wide range of areas and has programmatic significance. However, the premise of enterprise equipment modernization is to have funds. He believes that in order to seek development, enterprises have reached a consensus on energy conservation, carbon reduction and strengthening digitalization, and enterprises are still mainly waiting and seeingProgramme of ActionSpecific fiscal and tax measures after the introduction. "Support policies should be introduced as soon as possible. Some companies already have equipment modernization plans, but are worried that it will not be cost-effective to implement them before the introduction of support policies. If you wait like this, it will affect the progress of equipment modernization and transformation. He analyzed.
The motivation for enterprise equipment modernization and transformation is related to financial support, and investment decisions are also affected by corporate strategy and market confidence.
ABB's equipment modernization is mainly driven by the company's internal demand for energy conservation and carbon reduction. Luo Hui, head of ABB's Shanghai base in China's Motion Control Division, said that ABB's own zero-carbon operation is the company's core concern. All subsidiaries and subsidiaries of the Group, including ABB China's motor business, have formulated annual equipment upgrading and energy-saving plans, and have closely implemented them, and relevant progress will be disclosed in the Group's annual or quarterly reports in due course.
From the perspective of the supply chain, enterprises also put forward requirements for upstream suppliers to reduce carbon emissions, and terminal demand drives enterprises on the chain to collaborate on carbon reduction, bringing impetus to equipment modernization and transformation. ABB's electric motor products are used in a wide range of industries, including power and new energy, chemicals, oil and gas, mining and cement, metals, paper, wastewater treatment, ships and port machinery.
More businesses need to leverage. Because if the payback period is long and there is no further economic or social benefit incentive, it will be difficult for companies to modernize their equipment for carbon reduction. Taking motors as an example, although high-efficiency motors, especially high-efficiency inverter application motors, have significant energy-saving effects compared with low-energy-efficiency fixed-frequency motors, they will also increase equipment investment. In addition, modernizing equipment will not only increase the fixed investment, but also increase the cost of equipment maintenance.
On the macro level, the reason why enterprises lack motivation for equipment renovation and transformation is that they are more cautious about investment due to the current market environment, and second, they lack confidence in business development and market profitability, and are uncertain about the return on investment. Chen Hong believes that if enterprises have confidence in the market, are optimistic about future development, and hope to reduce costs and increase efficiency through energy conservation and carbon reduction, they will be more willing to upgrade and transform equipment.
Effective incentives are needed from the government
Even if enterprises have the motivation to update and transform equipment, some large-scale equipment transformation often requires tens of millions of yuan of investment, which may also affect production activities. This makes it difficult for businesses to make up their minds. To stimulate the motivation of enterprises, it is necessary not only to pass subsidies or tax exemptions, but also to bind energy conservation and carbon reduction with the actual interests of enterprises for effective incentives.
First of all, the incentive mechanism needs to strengthen the connection with the interests of enterprises and pay attention to fair evaluation. Taking the identification of "zero-carbon factory" as an example, it should not just be "one more brand", but should bring business increment or competitive advantage to the enterprise. In addition, the different local standards for the recognition of "zero-carbon factories" may lead to uneven levels of listed companies, which is unfair to enterprises that truly meet the "zero-carbon" standards, and will also reduce the incentive effect of the designation.
Second, the replacement of energy-efficient equipment is conducive to energy conservation and carbon reduction, and market supervision needs to be implemented. It is understood that there are some motors on the market whose energy efficiency level is calibrated as IE5, and after actual measurement, the energy efficiency level cannot reach IE4, or even close to IE3. If such shoddy equipment is procured and used, it may lead to companies that appear to have updated energy-efficient equipment, but the actual energy saving effect is greatly reduced.
Experts believe，Programme of ActionPay equal attention to incentives and constraints, and strive to reduce the input cost of enterprise equipment renewal by improving comprehensive support policies such as fiscal and taxation, finance, and factor guarantees, and form a long-term mechanism for promoting high-efficiency, energy-saving and carbon-reducing products on the basis of optimizing the market environment.
“Programme of ActionThe core is to promote enterprises to update and transform equipment, encourage enterprises to increase investment, save energy and reduce consumption, and reduce emissions. The government needs to guide large enterprises that perform well in sustainable development and social responsibility to play a leading role. Chen Hong said that it is necessary to gradually drive more enterprises to update and transform their equipment, form a better market environment, and make policy and financial support loud.
