Aiming at the ubiquitous power Internet of Things, Huawei helps State Grid build a first-class distribution network

A new round of energy revolution marked by the large-scale development and utilization of new energy and based on re-electrification is developing in depth around the world. At present, the 10 kV and below distribution network, as an important link in the energy transformation and development, has become a key node in energy production and consumption.

"In the past decade, my country's distribution network has achieved rapid development," said Wang Peng from the Power Distribution Institute of the China Electric Power Research Institute. The distribution network in the core areas of many cities in my country has reached the world's first-class level. However, from a national perspective, the overall development of the distribution network is unbalanced and insufficient.

The distribution network is responsible for both energy production and energy consumption. It not only carries the two-way flow of energy, but also directly faces customers and affects customer experience.

How can we meet the needs of various levels at the same time?

Products that adapt to the trend and proactive solutions

As early as two years ago, Huawei had already invested in distribution network research and development under the deployment of State Grid Corporation of China, together with China Electric Power Research Institute, NARI Group and Xuji Group. In August last year, Huawei, together with China Electric Power Research Institute, State Grid Shandong Electric Power Company, State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company, NARI Group and Xuji Group, jointly released a new type of intelligent distribution transformer terminal.

The new intelligent distribution transformer terminal adopts the design concept of "software-defined terminal" based on the open edge computing architecture. It can flexibly upgrade or add functions through software APP, enabling the distribution network to have stronger resource allocation capabilities and faster demand response speed.

In addition, the new intelligent distribution transformer terminal uses HiSilicon dual-core CPU, edge computing operating system, State Grid core security chip and dedicated national secret algorithm.

As an important part of the power distribution Internet of Things, the intelligent distribution transformer terminal needs to fully consider the current status and development trend of the low-voltage distribution network to meet the needs of flexible, rapid development and safe production of the distribution network business. Wang Peng commented: "The new intelligent distribution transformer terminal is based on the existing power distribution Internet of Things architecture, and its application functions can be freely expanded in an APP-based manner. In essence, the biggest change brought about by the intelligent distribution transformer terminal is to change the original production-determined demand mode of distribution network equipment to a mode where demand determines production."

So far, this innovative product has been promoted and applied nationwide. It can realize plug-and-play and interconnection between devices, conduct local comprehensive analysis and intelligent decision-making on various types of collected data, effectively support business needs such as power outage fault analysis, power distribution equipment status control, orderly control of electric vehicle charging, and customer quality service, and meet the requirements of comprehensive energy services, and is widely welcomed by users.

According to Guo Hao, general manager of the Power Business Department of Huawei Enterprise BG China, Huawei and its ecosystem partners have provided power distribution IoT solutions to Jiangsu, Shandong and other places. This year, they will continue to work with customers and partners to cooperate in the cloudification and IoT of distribution automation master stations and the intelligent technology of substation equipment. All achievements will be fully implemented in the five power distribution IoT demonstration areas of Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Qingdao and Hangzhou.

From seeing the smart island to promoting the implementation of intelligence

In the Smart Experience Island of the "Huawei China Ecosystem Partner Conference 2019", the "Power + AI" exhibition area focuses on the key links of smart grids, showing how ICT technology can help power companies transform from traditional grids to intelligent and digital ones, improve energy production efficiency and ensure safe and reliable operation of grids. The smart applications jointly created by Huawei and its ecosystem partners are even more exciting.

In the field of power distribution, Huawei and China Electric Power Research Institute demonstrated end-to-end remote upgrade scenarios: IoT intelligent communication unit upgrade and low-voltage terminal equipment upgrade. If the cooperation between China Electric Power Research Institute and Huawei is compared to a milestone, Huawei provides more powerful computing power and infrastructure at the bottom layer, and China Electric Power Research Institute builds on this foundation to give full play to the world's leading intelligent algorithms and make power distribution data generate real value.

In addition, Huawei also demonstrated the IoT-G230MHz power wireless private network solution in cooperation with XJ, NARI, Huayun, Xinlian, and Kelin. They matched the needs of power business and created the IoT-G230MHz solution based on 4.5G and oriented to 5G. They took the lead in introducing 5G key technologies such as air interface slicing and Grant free, and created the best communication channel with strong anti-interference ability, low latency, low power consumption, and easy evolution.

All these efforts are aimed at realizing ubiquitous intelligence as soon as possible.

Create a fertile ecological soil for a win-win intelligent era

The distribution network is only a part of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things. Industry analysts believe that this year will be the first year for investment in the ubiquitous power Internet of Things. They predict that the annual investment of power grid companies will increase from the current 10 billion yuan to 40-60 billion yuan, and the industry growth rate will be more than 50% annualized in the next three years. The orders of related companies will increase by 50%-100% annually starting this year.

Judging from the pace and volume of the beneficiaries, the first beneficiaries are the State Grid Corporation's information and communication industry units that have comprehensive strength in the overall solution of ubiquitous power Internet of Things; the second are power secondary equipment companies and related software companies that have been deeply involved in the field of power informatization for many years; and the third are sensor monitoring and related application companies. Almost all of these leaders have already started cooperation with Huawei.

In the face of different industry demands, Huawei hopes to make AI an accelerator of ecological collaboration by taking advantage of the trend and taking the initiative. The focus of the power industry is the power Internet of Things and the Industrial Internet.

Huawei believes that making the pie bigger is more important than making the market share bigger, and managing cooperation is more important than managing competition. Therefore, in 2019, Huawei's enterprise business strategy evolved from "platform + ecology" to "platform + AI + ecology", and the cooperation direction of ecology also evolved from "ecological cooperation" to "ecological synergy". Standing at the entrance of the intelligent era, from "being integrated" to "Huawei Inside", it reflects Huawei's determination to become the foundation of digital China and the core of the digital world, and its ambition to make the pie bigger and achieve a win-win situation.

Huawei regards its ecosystem partners as a community of shared destiny in the intelligent era, and has proposed a "Solution Partner Program" to provide partners with a powerful "troika": digital platform, OpenLab, and Marketplace, providing full-process business support from joint solution development, verification, release, listing to sales, so that everyone can more easily create scenario-based solutions that are close to customer business needs. At the same time, Huawei also released the industry digital transformation methodology and announced Huawei's practice summary.

In 2019, Huawei hopes to enhance the fertility and penetration of Huawei's ecological "black soil" through differentiated policies, resource inputs, and enhanced ecological operations for various partners, help Huawei's ecosystem achieve strategic synergy, resource synergy, and capability synergy, and ultimately achieve legion operations, and achieve diversified win-win results for customers, partners, and Huawei through transparent cooperation.

We are striving forward and working with partners to continuously create new value

At the Power Internet of Things Forum of this year's "Huawei China Ecosystem Partner Conference 2019", Guo Hao, General Manager of Huawei Enterprise BG China Power Business Department, emphasized: "With the maturity of technologies such as AI, IoT, and cloud computing, the process of digitalization and intelligence has brought huge business opportunities to various industries. Huawei will continue to adhere to customer-centricity, enable the digital transformation of the power industry, create value for customers, and achieve quality growth."

The in-depth application of intelligent technologies related to the power distribution Internet of Things is expected to drive the upgrading and transformation of industries related to the distribution network. Standing at the entrance of a new intelligent era, we do need to think about the interaction between enterprises and society, and actively use the close connection between the two to achieve change. The ecosystem of co-construction, co-governance and sharing is full of imagination.