NARI: Building a "Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things" to Open a New Starting Point for Industrial Development

The clarion call of ubiquitous power Internet of Things has been sounded. As the "vanguard" with advantages in the entire industrial chain, NARI Technology Co., Ltd. may usher in a "new era".

Leng Jun, chairman of NARI, said in a recent interview with a reporter from the Shanghai Securities News, "NARI has long-term technical accumulation in the secondary field of smart grids. After the reorganization in 2017, it has a complete industrial chain in the field of information and communications, and has a complete industrial system of related terminals, networks, platforms, security, applications and other links. It is the main force in the construction of ubiquitous power Internet of Things."

How will NARI welcome the “new era” of its power grid?

Walking into NARI located in Nanjing Jiangning Economic Development Zone, the reporter found that this is not a traditional equipment manufacturing company, but more like an IT company. The company's power equipment production line has achieved a high degree of intelligence, and most of the work such as assembly and welding is completed by robots, and the staff is mainly responsible for computer control related operations. "In fact, the company is an outstanding IT company in my country's energy, power and industrial control fields." Fang Feilong, the company's secretary, told reporters.

Since its listing in 2003, nearly 16 years have passed. Calculated by the dividend reinvestment method, the share price of NARI has increased by more than 28 times, and its latest market value exceeds 90 billion. "After so many years of listing, the market's valuation of our company has been determined by the level of the company's business development," said Fang Feilong. "Faced with the historical opportunity of the State Grid's construction of 'three types and two networks' and a world-class energy Internet company, NARI has great potential in the future."

Building an energy internet ecosystem

After the "Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things" attracted attention, there was an endless stream of institutions coming to NARI for research. "The Securities Department receives three or four groups of researchers on average every week, not including various domestic and overseas conference calls," said Fang Feilong. The reporter saw that the exhibition boards about the "Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things" were being arranged in an orderly manner in the company building.

On March 8 this year, State Grid held a video conference to deploy the construction of ubiquitous power Internet of Things, proposing to initially build a ubiquitous power Internet of Things by 2021, realize business collaboration and data connectivity, initially realize unified IoT management, and achieve an online rate of 70% for electricity-related businesses; to build a ubiquitous power Internet of Things by 2024, and fully build an energy Internet ecosystem of co-construction, co-governance and sharing.

At the same time, State Grid Corporation of China proposed six areas of construction to be invested in and promoted first, including: internal business, external business, data sharing, basic support, technical research and development, and security protection.

What is “Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things”?

It is to fully apply modern information technologies such as mobile Internet, artificial intelligence, and advanced communication technologies around all aspects of the power system to achieve interconnection of all things and human-computer interaction in all aspects of the power system, and to build a smart service system with the characteristics of comprehensive state perception, efficient information processing, and convenient and flexible application.

Gao Feng, deputy director of the Energy Internet Innovation Institute of Tsinghua University, believes that the core of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things is "increasing revenue and reducing expenditure". Reducing expenditure means making substantial adjustments to internal business to improve efficiency. Increasing revenue means expanding external business, extending services to customers, and extending services to areas that the power grid has not previously covered, thus finding new growth points for the industry.

The blueprint for building a ubiquitous power Internet of Things has been drawn up. What technical key points need to be broken through?

Leng Jun, Chairman of NARI, believes that there are currently three technical challenges:

First, the ubiquitous power Internet of Things has put forward higher requirements for existing information and communication technologies. The Internet of Things technologies adopted by TMT companies cannot fully meet the requirements of the State Grid's construction of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things.

Second, the further development and deepening of energy technology can meet the construction needs of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things;

Third, the construction of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things has broken through the original security protection framework, and the breakthrough in security protection technology is also the basic guarantee for the construction of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things.

Where there are difficulties, there are business opportunities. Taking the example of how power equipment companies can deeply integrate with TMT, it is understood that in order to meet the construction needs of the ubiquitous power Internet of Things, NARI will deeply integrate with TMT at multiple levels such as perception, network, platform, and application.

Taking electricity consumption information collection as an example, State Grid Corporation has connected more than 530 million terminals such as smart meters, with the daily increase in collected data reaching 10TB. The relevant technologies and products are deeply integrated with TMT technology.

NARI will give full play to the technical advantages of deep integration of smart grid technology accumulation and new generation information technology to form an energy Internet ecosystem with advanced technology and complete products.

The pilot project is expected to be finalized within six months.

Specifically, in the process of supporting the State Grid in building the "Ubiquitous Power Internet of Things", what can NARI do and what new development opportunities will it have?

Leng Jun said: "NARI has the ability to fully support the State Grid Corporation of China in six aspects, 11 key directions and 57 key projects in the field of ubiquitous power Internet of Things, and will actively promote the implementation of the construction of the State Grid Corporation of China in the field of ubiquitous power Internet of Things."

It is understood that all parties are currently reporting specific pilot demonstration construction projects, and the State Grid is expected to determine the demonstration projects within half a year.

It is reported that in the construction of ubiquitous power Internet of Things, NARI will focus on improving grid efficiency, strengthening lean management, cultivating emerging businesses, and expanding value-added services to promote the research and development of key technologies and products.

The company will use information security technology to support the construction of a full-scenario security protection system for the ubiquitous power Internet of Things;

Improve the holographic perception and ubiquitous connectivity of devices through intelligent sensing terminals;

Through the new generation of power grid control system, support the improvement of the safe operation level of the power grid;

Through the new generation trading system, it supports spot trading, ancillary service trading, distributed power generation trading, etc.

Through the smart energy integrated service platform, we will realize the expansion of emerging industries such as Internet of Vehicles, photovoltaic cloud network, and integrated energy services;

Support multi-dimensional lean management of enterprises through application systems such as integrated media, mobile office, and modern supply chain;

And through technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, visual computing, and natural language processing, we will build the brain of the power Internet of Things to support the all-round intelligent transformation of the power generation side, the grid side, the customer side, and the government.

From the perspective of technological applications, cutting-edge technologies such as big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, mobile Internet, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and edge computing will bring new industrial development opportunities to NARI.

"The ubiquitous power Internet of Things is the starting point for the innovative development of NARI's industry." Leng Jun said, "Related technologies, products and solutions will be widely promoted in the fields of power energy, industrial control, public utilities, energy conservation and environmental protection, bringing continuous momentum to NARI's industrial development."

It is worth mentioning that NARI’s automated dispatching system D5000 will also soon launch a new upgraded product.

At present, D5000 has been widely used in the dispatching and control centers of power grids at all levels of the State Grid, China Southern Power Grid and multiple industries, effectively supporting the safe and stable operation of my country's ultra-high voltage power grid. In the high-end market at the provincial level and above, NARI has fully implemented major projects including the State Grid Dispatching, China Southern Power Grid Dispatching, North China, East China, Northwest China, Southwest China and other provincial dispatching projects, and has a very high market share in the high-end market and domestic local dispatching market.

Fang Feilong revealed: "The new generation of automated dispatching system will integrate the latest technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. It is expected to be launched soon. The core function development will be completed this year, and the pilot construction will begin next year, and then it will be gradually promoted. The replacement cycle of the new generation of dispatching system from national to provincial and local levels is expected to take 8-10 years, which will be a major highlight of the company's performance growth."