Smart grid is a means, not an end

Ordinary people don’t want to buy smart meters at all. Ultimately, they are buying electricity, so the cheaper the electricity, the better, not the smarter the better.

We are now talking about smart grids and ubiquitous power Internet of Things, which are very fashionable words and grand concepts. But we must be clear that these are means and ways, not needs and goals at all.

"People don't want to buy smart meters at all. In the final analysis, they are buying electricity, so the cheaper the electricity, the better, not the smarter the better." On November 13, at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society of Electrical Engineering, Han Yingduo, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at Tsinghua University, was greeted with applause as soon as he finished speaking. "We are now talking about smart grids and ubiquitous power Internet of Things. These are very fashionable words and grand concepts. But we must be clear that these are means and ways, not needs and goals at all."

"First of all, we need to clarify the goal. Is the development of smart grids and ubiquitous power Internet of Things simply to make traditional power grids smarter? What fundamental problems of the power system need to be solved?" At this point, Han Yingduo began to flip through the documents in his hand. "This is the full text of the 'Decision' adopted by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China - 'Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Several Major Issues Concerning Upholding and Improving the System of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Promoting the Modernization of the National Governance System and Governance Capacity'. It also mentioned 'promoting the energy revolution and building a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system'. This is our fundamental need." Han Yingduo deliberately emphasized the four words "energy revolution".

"To put it simply, the energy revolution includes the transformation of the energy structure, but it does not mean simply increasing the proportion of renewable energy. When it comes to energy structure, the first thing that comes to mind is a high proportion of renewable energy. How much installed capacity, what proportion, how to use wind power, photovoltaic power and hydropower, everyone is discussing these issues. But they ignore the sentence behind it - to stop the extensive development of energy." In Han Yingduo's view, solving the problem of extensive development of energy is one of the goals of the energy revolution. "China's electricity consumption per unit of GDP is about twice that of the United States and more than twice that of Japan. Should this problem be solved? The load rate of my country's distribution equipment is only about 30%. Is it okay not to solve such a large redundancy of power equipment? How to achieve high efficiency? Whether it is the development of smart grids or ubiquitous power Internet of Things, they are just a means, a way and a method, and should be used to solve similar problems. Therefore, we must first clarify the purpose and needs and focus on the fundamental problems of the power system, rather than playing various tricks first."

According to Zheng Jianchao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and honorary president of the China Electric Power Research Institute, the development of smart grids is still in progress and still faces many challenges. "Smart grids have put forward higher requirements for data collection and processing. If we want to transmit big data at high points to the ground, we need more advanced sensors, and a large number of sensor measurement methods and technologies need to be upgraded and optimized."

Zheng Jianchao believes that the balance between safety and economy is not only a technical challenge, but also a difficult problem that smart grids need to solve. "For example, we need to research some new or transform existing traditional power equipment to adapt to the needs of smart grids. The primary challenge these devices face is safety. As voltage levels get higher and higher, once an accident occurs, the impact on the power grid will be very large. But ensuring safety costs money, and if you spend too much money, you will lose competitiveness in the market. Smart equipment is not just electronic equipment, but safe, reliable and economical power equipment that is suitable for future power grid needs."

Similarly, in the development of ubiquitous power Internet of Things, Han Yingduo also believes that there are still many uncertain and unclear "black box" problems at the main power grid level. "Now when we go to the dispatching center of the power grid company, the various screen curves are often dazzling and look particularly impressive. But in fact, some values ​​are not scientific enough or even false. The professional term is "state estimation". This method is used to get an average value. In fact, there may not be such a value in the power system. It may not be this number at all in an instant. This is a "black box." "For example, the stability boundary of the power system, we say that the transmission capacity of a transmission line is 5 million kilowatts, but 6 million kilowatts is not acceptable. In fact, this is also an inaccurate "black box." "How do power electronic equipment cause oscillations in the power system? The basic parameters are still unclear. This is also a "black box."

Han Yingduo said frankly that the core issues to be solved in smart grid and ubiquitous power Internet of Things are to stop being blind and stop making decisions based on one's own ideas. "I was too frank. There are also leaders of power grid companies here today. I'm sorry that my words may not sound nice."