China Southern Power Grid: Promoting leapfrog development of charging infrastructure

In the next four years, the State Grid Corporation of China will invest 25.1 billion yuan in the construction of charging facilities, build 150 large-scale centralized charging stations and 380,000 charging piles, more than 10 times the current number.

Recently, the focus is on deploying centralized charging stations in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Hainan Free Trade Zone, and key cities in Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou, to achieve full coverage of the intercity highway fast charging network in the five southern provinces and regions.

Developing new energy vehicles is the only way for my country to move from a large automobile country to a powerful automobile country. Promoting the construction of charging infrastructure is a strong guarantee for the implementation of this strategy. It is understood that China Southern Power Grid plans to invest 25.1 billion yuan in charging facilities in the next four years through investment or mergers and acquisitions, and build 150 large-scale centralized charging stations and 380,000 charging piles, which is more than 10 times the current number. It is estimated that it will effectively drive investment of about 200 billion yuan in related industries such as power grid construction, component and equipment manufacturing, operation and maintenance, vehicle sales and after-sales service.

From January to March this year, China Southern Power Grid invested nearly 30 million yuan in charging infrastructure, and 5 charging stations and 86 charging piles were officially started. It plans to invest 1.2 billion yuan in charging infrastructure throughout the year. As of December 2019, China Southern Power Grid has invested 3.18 billion yuan and built 31,600 charging piles.

In early March this year, China Southern Power Grid launched four cooperation models of "venues, fleets, charging stations, and sales channels" to the public, and widely invited the whole society to cooperate in the construction of charging piles. In just one month, well-known domestic universities, research institutions, Internet and other fields, and upstream and downstream companies in the automotive industry chain have all extended olive branches, and relevant cooperation is being actively promoted.

"In the near future, the focus will be on the layout of centralized charging stations in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Hainan Free Trade Zone, and key cities in Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou, to achieve full coverage of the intercity highway fast charging network in the five southern provinces and regions." said the person in charge of the Emerging Industries Department of the State Grid Corporation of China.

It is understood that in terms of charging station construction, the State Grid Corporation of China pioneered the construction of the Lianhuashan Charging Station with a "substation + charging station" model in the country, adopting an operating model of "self-generation for self-use and surplus power access to the grid" to promote the transformation of traditional substations into comprehensive energy stations.

In fact, charging piles are not just independent and physical existences. Behind them are new infrastructure fields such as 5G, big data, and industrial Internet. Smart charging networks are also part of smart cities. The construction, operation and maintenance of cloud platforms and the analysis and management of big data are crucial. At the end of last year, China Southern Power Grid completed the integration of seven electric vehicle charging platforms in the five southern provinces and regions, and realized the "Shun Yi Charging" App throughout the five southern provinces and regions. At present, the number of registered users of the Southern Power Grid's "Shun Yi Charging" platform has increased from 300,000 to 470,000, and there are 130,000 interconnected charging piles; during the epidemic, from January to March this year, the platform has completed 2.51 million charging times, with a charging capacity of 59 million kWh, saving 42 million liters of fuel and reducing motor vehicle pollutant emissions by 63.98 million tons.

At the end of last year, China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd. issued and implemented the "Opinions of China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd. on Further Accelerating the Development of Electric Vehicle Charging Service Business", which clarified the strategic positioning, development goals, business layout and management system mechanism of China Southern Power Grid's electric vehicle service business. At the same time, it compiled the 2020-2023 charging infrastructure investment and construction plan, established electric vehicle regional operating companies in the five southern provinces and regions, focused on the planning and construction of "centralized fast charging stations", and promoted the leapfrog development of its charging infrastructure through investment in new construction and external mergers and acquisitions, and built an electric vehicle service ecosystem.