Guangdong Power Grid builds a strong and reliable power grid to help the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

After 70 years of hard work and perseverance, Guangdong Power Grid has grown from a single light to a huge number of lights, from nothing to something, from weak to strong, and has taken on a new look. China Southern Power Grid Guangdong Power Grid Company is committed to building a safe, reliable, green and efficient smart grid, with the goal of creating a world-class provincial grid enterprise, serving the construction of a vibrant and internationally competitive Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and providing safe and reliable power guarantees for the economic and social development of Guangdong Province and the lives of residents.

Seventy years of transformation: Per capita electricity consumption reaches the level of developed countries

Over the past 70 years, Guangdong Power Grid has been innovating itself and working hard to unleash its institutional advantages, unleash corporate vitality, and develop at a breathtaking speed.

In 2018, Guangdong Province ranked first in the country in terms of total electricity consumption. After becoming the first province in the country to have a unified load of over 100 million in August 2016, Guangdong Province became the first province in the country to have an electricity consumption of over 600 billion kWh. The "double breakthrough" demonstrates the strong driving force of Guangdong's economic development. Guangdong Power Grid has provided solid power guarantee for industrial transformation and upgrading, regional coordinated development, and the construction of a well-off society in an all-round way, helping Guangdong to "be at the forefront of the country in four aspects".

The growth of electricity consumption supports the rapid growth of Guangdong's GDP. Guangdong's GDP has increased from 1.86 trillion yuan in the reform and opening up to 9.73 trillion yuan in 2018, and the total electricity consumption has increased from 9.506 billion kWh to 601.2 billion kWh, an increase of 62.24 times. On average, every kWh of electricity supports Guangdong's GDP output of 16.18 yuan.

The National Energy Administration predicts that the national per capita electricity consumption will reach 5,000 kWh in 2020, close to the level of moderately developed countries. Based on Guangdong Province's 100 million permanent residents in 2018, Guangdong Province's per capita electricity consumption reached 6,000 kWh, reaching the level of developed countries.

However, people who experienced the early days of reform and opening up in the 1980s still remember Guangdong’s power shortage dilemma: due to the power shortage, factories were forced to "operate four days and stop three days", and power was cut off in batches in turns. The insufficient power supply greatly restricted the development of the national economy.

With the spirit of "fighting a bloody path", Guangdong has adopted a series of major reform measures: implementing the power industry development target contracting system, "using electricity to support electricity", raising funds through "multi-channel fundraising and multiple power companies", introducing foreign capital to run power companies, and at the same time reforming the electricity management system and gradually implementing household meter reading.

The shortage situation was gradually reversed in the 1990s. In the 1990s, the province's installed power generation capacity once ranked first among all provinces (cities and regions) in the country. At the beginning of 2016, Guangdong's installed capacity exceeded 100 million kilowatts, making it the second province in the country to exceed 100 million kilowatts.

We firmly implement the national strategic deployment on the implementation of the western development. Since the 1990s, a series of "West-to-East Power Transmission" power transmission and transformation projects have been put into operation. The transmission of clean electricity in the west has played an important role in alleviating power shortages and reducing pollution emissions in Guangdong.

The power grid construction is "step by step" to promote the rapid development of the province

The power grid system in Guangdong Province has evolved from being scattered in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China to being interconnected throughout the province and reaching both urban and rural areas. As of 2018, a 500 kV backbone grid has been formed with the main ring network in the Pearl River Delta as the center, extending to the east and west wings and northern Guangdong, achieving long-distance, large-capacity, AC and DC mixed operation. The power supply has changed from severe shortage to relatively abundant, providing an inexhaustible driving force for local economic and social development.

Over the past 70 years, building a strong power grid has always been the eternal theme of Guangdong power workers. In 2018, Guangdong Power Grid Company invested 32.764 billion yuan to build a strong power grid, adding 7.378 million kilovolt-amperes of distribution capacity. Through reasonable arrangements for the operation of the power grid, continuous improvement of the risk control mechanism of the power grid, and the commissioning of provincial integrated power grid operation intelligent systems and other technical means, the power grid has achieved continuous and safe operation for 23 years. We will do our best to carry out the "three major articles" of differentiated transformation of coastal power grids, construction of a guaranteed power grid, and improving the power supply guarantee capacity for Australia and nuclear power, and optimize the emergency response system and mechanism. In recent years, Guangdong Power Grid has successfully responded to major natural disasters such as "Rainbow", "Tiangu", and "Mangkhut", and protected the economic and social development of Guangdong Province.

At the same time, Guangdong Power Grid also completed the transformation and upgrading of power grids in 2,277 provincially designated poor villages on time and with high quality, as well as the construction of power grids in seven well-off power demonstration counties and six characteristic towns, benefiting 710,000 poor households and 1.76 million relatively poor people. The overall voltage compliance rate of rural power grids in the province reached 99.9%, and smart meters and low-voltage centralized meter reading were fully covered, providing a more superior power supply service experience for the majority of rural users.

Smart grid "acceleration" pursuit of excellence and par with the world's top level

In recent years, Guangdong Power Grid Company has actively implemented policies such as the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the acceleration of the development of smart grids, and has focused on improving the quality of power supply and reducing the electricity costs of enterprises, and strived to build a good electricity business environment. Guangdong Power Grid Company has proposed a "one-hour" regional power outage time target: the six urban areas in the Pearl River Delta have basically eliminated the impact of planned power outages on customers, and minimized power outages due to faults. In 2018, the average power outage time for urban customers was less than 1 hour, reaching a world-class level.

"We will build seven smart grid demonstration zones in Foshan, Zhuhai, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Shaoguan, Yunfu and Shantou, covering different types of areas such as cities, rural areas and islands, to create models and explore paths for smart grid construction." said the head of the company's strategic planning department.

It is understood that the smart grid in Foshan Nanhai Financial Hi-tech Zone focuses on optimizing and improving power supply reliability and power quality; Zhuhai Hengqin Demonstration Zone focuses on the intelligence of power grid infrastructure, full information flow and interactive production and consumption; Dongguan Songshan Lake Demonstration Zone focuses on increasing the proportion of clean energy in terminal energy consumption; Zhongshan Demonstration Zone explores the deep integration of smart grid technology and urban development.

"The distribution network in the smart grid demonstration zone has achieved power supply transfer within 2 seconds, with a power supply reliability rate of 99.999%, and has effectively solved the control, protection and operation problems caused by the large-scale access of distributed energy to the distribution network." This series of eye-catching data comes from the Foshan Smart Grid Demonstration Zone—the core area of ​​Guangdong Financial Hi-Tech Service Zone, and has been recognized by the Chinese Society of Electrical Engineering as "the main innovations have reached the international leading level."

It is reported that Guangdong Financial High-tech Service Zone is aiming at the goal of "world-class smart grid demonstration zone" with its unique location advantages, and vigorously promoting the sustainable development of the smart industry in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. It is expected that by 2020, the average annual power outage time for customers in the area will be less than 2.5 minutes, the coverage rate of smart meters will reach 100%, the proportion of remote services will reach 90%, the access rate of diversified loads and distributed energy and the consumption rate of clean energy in the area will reach 100%, and through the construction of an intelligent operation information comprehensive monitoring platform, efficient comprehensive management and control of the power grid in multiple links, multiple functions and full business will be achieved.

The high carrying capacity of the smart grid has further enhanced the comprehensive economic competitiveness of the region and has become a "golden signboard" for attracting investment. At present, the Guangdong Financial High-tech Service Zone has achieved a total power transmission load of more than 300,000 kVA in the region, with an installed power transmission capacity of 500,000 kVA and a load density of 47 megawatts per square kilometer, which is comparable to Shanghai Lujiazui Financial and Trade Zone and Shenzhen Futian Central District. It has attracted more than 260 well-known domestic and foreign companies such as American International Assurance Company, Japan Fujitsu Data Center, and China Insurance Group Southern Information Center to settle down, with a total investment of more than 55 billion yuan.