Digital grid accelerates low-carbon energy transformation

China Energy Storage Network News: On November 13, the 17th China Southern Power Grid International Technology Forum and the "Digital Grid White Paper" conference were held in Qianhai, Shenzhen. The world's first "Digital Grid White Paper" (hereinafter referred to as "White Paper") was publicly released at the conference. At the same time, the conference discussed the theme of "jointly building a digital grid and sharing smart energy", and communicated on promoting the construction of digital grids and actively promoting power cooperation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

"China Southern Power Grid will deeply integrate advanced digital technologies with its business, implement digital transformation, build a digital power grid, and promote the company's transformation into a smart grid operator, energy industry value chain integrator, and energy ecosystem service provider, and build a world-class enterprise with global competitiveness." In his speech, Meng Zhenping, Chairman of China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd., expressed his expectation to jointly promote the digital transformation and innovative development of the energy and power industry, promote the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient modern energy system, and make greater contributions to the optimization and upgrading of the economic system and meeting the people's electricity needs for a better life.

Digital grid accelerates the formation of a new energy ecosystem

The white paper reveals that the digital power grid is a new energy ecosystem formed by the core driving force of new-generation digital technologies such as cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, mobile Internet, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, with data as the key production factor, and modern power energy networks and new-generation information networks as the foundation. It continuously improves the level of digitalization, networking, and intelligence through the deep integration of digital technologies with energy companies' business and management.

"The digital grid itself provides a lot of information. This information is not isolated but systematic, not simple but comprehensive, not static but dynamic. These data help us better understand the grid and the power system." Li Lixuan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chairman of the Southern Power Grid Expert Committee, believes that with the digital grid as the foundation, not only the management of the grid itself, but also the majority of users and customers, anyone who has something to do with energy and electricity, can understand and participate in the management of the entire power system and energy system through the digital grid.

Li Lixuan said: "We often talk about marketization. We hope that everyone can save electricity during peak load of the power grid and turn on power-consuming equipment during low load. This is good for users and also for the power grid. Such a win-win situation can be achieved with the digital power grid technology platform, which is of great significance."

At present, the company has built a basic platform system including the Southern Power Grid Cloud Platform and the Internet of Things platform with the ability to access tens of millions of smart terminals, formed a unified power grid data model, and built the first digital twin substation; it has achieved widespread application of artificial intelligence, and all electricity users in the network can handle all business online around the clock without having to run around; it has achieved docking with Guangdong Government Services, Guangdong Provincial Affairs, Guangdong Business and other platforms, and issued the country's first electricity invoice based on blockchain technology in Shenzhen.

Seize the commanding heights of international innovation in digital power grids

In October 2020, under the promotion of the State Grid Corporation of China, the China Electricity Council Digital Grid Standardization Working Group, the first digital grid standardization working organization in the power industry in China, was established to create a digital grid ecological cooperation circle integrating scientific research, technological innovation, industrial practice, and standard setting, and to elevate the practical results of digital grids to national standards and international standards, seizing the commanding heights of international innovation in digital grids.

"The energy and power industry has a relatively good information technology foundation, and its combination with artificial intelligence has entered a state of rapid and high-speed development." Wu Tian, ​​vice president of Baidu Group, said that energy and power have two characteristics that are very important advantages. One is the large amount of data. What is valuable is that the data is very real and timely, which is a very important foundation for the application of artificial intelligence. Another advantage is the rich scenarios. A large number of scenarios provide opportunities for new technologies to solve problems.

Currently, massive data sensors are being deployed on power grid equipment, which will eventually form a digital twin power grid, and the power grid operation efficiency will be greatly improved.

Not only the power grid itself is digitalized. The White Paper believes that through open cooperation, the digital power grid will integrate upstream and downstream data resources of the industrial chain, jointly develop the energy data market with upstream and downstream enterprises, and promote open cooperation, mutual benefit, symbiosis and collaborative innovation among stakeholders in the energy ecosystem through digitalization.

The digital capabilities of the power grid overflow and extend to upstream and downstream enterprises. At present, China Southern Power Grid has achieved real-time interconnection and interoperability with 252 upstream and downstream suppliers and logistics companies in core business scenarios such as contract performance and logistics management, involving the interaction of more than 900 business data fields such as contract scheduling, finished product warehousing, delivery arrival, transportation tasks, transportation plans, and in-transit tracking.

Looking ahead to industry development, the White Paper believes that digital grids are an important foundation for global energy interconnection. Promoting the standardization and mutual coordination of digital grids on a global scale will achieve cross-border and cross-regional grid interconnection and promote regional energy cooperation and mutual benefit and win-win results.

"Electricity + computing power" coordinated dispatch of renewable energy

In recent years, China Southern Power Grid has driven the coordinated dispatch of large-scale renewable energy by building a digital power grid with powerful "power + computing power". By the end of October, the utilization rate of hydropower dispatched by the entire China Southern Power Grid reached 99.3%, far higher than the 95% target set by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, and hydropower clean energy was basically fully consumed.

The White Paper analyzes that under the new situation of energy revolution, the energy supply and demand pattern will undergo many changes. Renewable energy will gradually replace fossil energy, energy supply will change from centralized to distributed, energy consumption will change from long-distance balance to local balance, and energy flow on the load side will change from one-way supply to two-way flow. Using digital technology, it is possible to accurately predict the output of renewable energy and power supply load, achieve local balance of distributed energy supply and demand, and improve the capacity to consume renewable energy.

In the past, people sought major breakthroughs in technologies such as superconducting energy storage to improve the utilization of distributed energy. Today, digital power grids directly bypass the energy storage problem and achieve local balance of power supply and demand.

Equipment owners can set up "virtual power plants" online. During the peak period of urban electricity consumption, they can independently output electricity to supply those in need. In the future, they can also participate in the electricity trading market and the ancillary service market to obtain additional income. "These decentralized power sources can be aggregated into many, and can provide huge energy for the city very flexibly. This is impossible in traditional physical power grids, but it can be achieved in digital power grids." said a relevant person in charge of the Guangdong Zhuhai Power Supply Bureau of the Southern Grid.

Continuously improve customers' sense of gain and satisfaction with electricity use

The White Paper shows that the digital power grid collects a massive amount of energy operation data and electricity consumption behavior data from energy production to consumption. After being desensitized, these data are combined with government data, economic data, and commercial data to amplify the value of data and prosper the digital ecology and digital economy.

It is understood that China Southern Power Grid has always been committed to providing users with reliable power supply. Among the top ten cities in the country with the highest power reliability at the prefecture-level, the company's power supply area accounts for 6 seats and the top 3; in 2019, Shenzhen and Guangzhou won the top two places in the "Access to Electricity" evaluation of China's business environment. The average annual power outage time for customers in Shenzhen Futian High Reliability Demonstration Zone is only 0.19 minutes, which is the world's top level and better than Manhattan, New York.