5G puts the power grid on the communications highway

5G network can not only bring us a better bandwidth experience and realize the connection between people and things, but also enable vertical industries. Industry insiders predict that vertical industries represented by power grids will complete digital transformation in the 5G era, complementing the mature 4G, optical communication and other technologies, and comprehensively improving the informationization and intelligence level of power grids.

Promoting resource sharing between the power and communications industries

"An unprecedented energy revolution and digital revolution is taking place around the world, with greening, intelligence and the internet becoming the common themes of change. 5G enables vertical industries, with electricity taking the lead." Wang Jieye, deputy director of the State Grid China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI), believes that smart grids are the basic carriers of the energy Internet, cyberspace supports the interconnection of energy production, transmission and consumption with electricity as the core, and new ICT technologies such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain support the control, management and operation of the energy Internet.

In July 2017, Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) announced its support for 5G construction and opened power towers to operators for the installation of 5G base stations and antenna equipment. From the perspective of partnership, TEPCO's vision is obviously not just to provide base station sites and communication towers for operators, but to take the co-construction and sharing of future 5G network infrastructure as its long-term goal.

In April 2018, State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Power Grid signed strategic cooperation agreements with China Tower Corporation Limited respectively, launching a new "shared tower" agreement. The transmission towers of the two major power grid companies will be open to China Tower Corporation to achieve resource sharing. At the same time, they will carry out more extensive cooperation in communication business services, smart grid construction and other aspects. This marks a breakthrough in resource sharing between my country's two major industries of electricity and communications.

Tong Jilu, chairman of China Tower, said that China Tower will work with the industrial chain to jointly promote the standardization of multi-pole integration. It is expected that more than 80% of 5G ground micro stations will be built using social resources such as street light poles and monitoring poles to achieve the goal of resource conservation and environmental friendliness.

According to statistics from China Tower Corporation, the average cost of building a new ground communication tower and its foundation is 142,000 yuan, covering an area of ​​30 square meters. Using the existing power grid tower poles for base station construction can shorten the construction period of each station by about 60 days on average. Taking Yunnan Power Grid Company as an example, preliminary estimates show that in 2018, Yunnan Power Grid Company can match and share thousands of towers and poles for the construction of additional communication base stations, which can save land resources, reduce steel and concrete consumption, and reduce duplicate construction costs, with high economic and social benefits.

Providing application scenarios for energy Internet industry upgrades

The power communication network is an important infrastructure supporting the development of smart grids. For power grid companies, reducing power outage time is an important indicator that they always pursue.

After years of construction, optical fiber resources have achieved full coverage of 35 kV and above factories and stations, self-owned property offices and business premises, but on the distribution communication network side, communication has become one of the bottlenecks in the development of smart grids.

Since the beginning of this year, various units in the State Grid Corporation of China and China Southern Power Grid Corporation have carried out research on the application of 5G technology in the power grid industry, providing application scenarios for the implementation of 5G technology in the power sector.

"At present, the application of 5G technology in the ubiquitous power Internet of Things is in the stage of exploration and pilot verification, and there is no large-scale commercial use. In terms of application scenarios, there are three main aspects: ultra-large bandwidth applications, such as 4K high-definition video surveillance and drone inspections; high-reliability and low-latency applications, which are suitable for control-type power services with high requirements for communication latency and reliability, such as distribution network differential protection; massive connection applications, which are suitable for IoT data collection applications such as sensor data collection in power grids." said Wang Yang, chief engineer of the Information and Communication Research Institute of the China Academy of Electric Power Research.

In addition, with the rapid development of large-scale new energy access and power load demand-side response, the communication needs of various power terminals and power users have exploded. Massive equipment needs to be monitored or controlled in real time, and information is frequently exchanged in both directions. It is urgent to build an economical, flexible, two-way, real-time, safe, reliable, and all-round "ubiquitous, full-coverage" terminal communication wireless access network. Experts predict that perhaps in the near future, 5G will allow the power grid to drive onto the communication highway.

"Slicing" technology solves information "congestion"

Although 5G transmission delay is getting shorter and faster, if the amount of information transmitted is too large, it will still affect the time. How to avoid information "congestion"? Experts say that slicing technology can solve this problem.

Unlike ordinary users, slicing is a necessity for power grid companies. The power grid transmits massive amounts of data 24 hours a day, which places extremely high demands on channel reliability, security, and service quality assurance.

Just like traffic jams, lanes can be reserved in cities for buses. "The same is true for slicing. A dedicated BRT channel (bus lane) can be set aside to create a 'wireless private network' for power information transmission in the power grid industry." Hong Danke, director of the Communications Department of the System Operation Department of the China Southern Power Grid, is very optimistic about the application prospects of slicing technology.

In June this year, China Southern Power Grid, together with China Mobile and Huawei, completed the industry's first 5G end-to-end slicing field functional test of wireless, transmission and core networks based on SA architecture in Bantian, Shenzhen. The preliminary verification showed that slicing can achieve hard isolation and ensure the quality of business services.

"The in-depth integration of 5G with new-generation information and communication technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence will change the form of the power grid and even the concept of production services at a deeper level, and promote the traditional power grid with one-way flow from the production end to the user end to accelerate the upgrade to an energy Internet with two-way interaction between power companies and users." Wang Yang believes that in the future, 5G technology will make it possible for the power grid to transform from a traditional energy supplier to a comprehensive energy service provider based on big data.