"5G+UHV" protects the safety of the west-to-east power transmission artery

China Energy Storage Network News: At the 2021 World Manufacturing Conference held in mid-November, the top ten innovative applications of "5G+Industrial Internet" in Anhui Province this year were released, and "5G+UHV dense channel and distribution intelligent operation and maintenance" was one of them.

UHV dense channels are important energy channels. How does 5G technology empower and protect the safety of tall iron towers and high-voltage lines suspended in the air? Recently, the reporter went to the scene to find out.

Climbing up a small hill near Xuqiao Village, Dunshang Street, Guichi District, Chizhou City, Anhui Province, you can see dense transmission towers and high-voltage lines "penetrating" from the distant mountains, which is a spectacular sight.

"This is the Jiuhua ultra-high voltage intensive channel in Chizhou, and it is one of the major arteries for transmitting electricity from west to east." Chen Yakui, director of the Jiuhua Operation and Inspection Station of Anhui Power Transmission and Transformation Engineering Co., Ltd., said that the maximum rated transmission load of the channel section is 30.6 million kilowatts, which is equivalent to the current largest electricity load in Anhui Province. It transmits nearly 71.4 billion kilowatt-hours of clean energy to the Yangtze River Delta region every year, which is close to half of the annual electricity consumption of Shanghai.

The reporter found at the scene that there was a relatively "small" 5G wireless base station not far from the tall UHV tower. "This is a 5G base station built specifically for dense channels, which was completed at the end of September this year." Xu Fan, manager of the project support room of the network management center of China Mobile Anhui Company, said that 5G technology has the characteristics of low latency and large bandwidth, which can provide guarantee for the implementation of intelligent management and control of dense channels.

It is reported that Jiuhua UHV dense channels are located in mountainous areas with dense vegetation and complex geographical environment. There are high risks of wildfires, foreign objects, ice disasters, geological disasters, etc. Once an accident occurs, it will endanger the safety of the East China power grid. The original channel inspection business has problems such as slow data transmission and low resolution of tower-mounted cameras, inconvenience of single-soldier inspection in mountainous environments, and low automation of drones.

Xu Fan said that in order to solve this problem, State Grid Anhui Electric Power Co., Ltd. and China Mobile Anhui Company have established a 5G virtual private network for the power industry to carry out intelligent operation and maintenance services for dense channels, realize 5G smart inspections of ultra-high voltage dense channels, and use 5G network capabilities to establish 5G drone inspections, high-precision positioning, intelligent AI processing and other operation and maintenance application systems.

"This project has built a new 'dual network integration' model of 5G network and power communication network, providing on-demand network construction and edge computing capabilities, supporting full-state perception and panoramic monitoring functions of dense channels, and achieving a communication reliability rate of 99.99%. Performance indicators such as network bandwidth and latency have been greatly improved, enhancing the real-time perception and diagnosis capabilities of equipment and ensuring the safety of energy channels." said Lin Hang, deputy director of the control center of State Grid Anhui Xintong Company.

In order to reduce the impact of UHV transmission lines on the natural environment, comprehensive consideration is given to various factors such as saving land resources, and scenic areas and nature reserves are avoided as much as possible when selecting routes, thus forming a dense channel where multiple lines converge. There are 6 such UHV dense channels in Anhui Province, with a total length of 463 kilometers.