"Digital Technology + Power Business" supports the construction of new power systems

China Energy Storage Network: Building a new power system with new energy as the main body is an important strategic measure to ensure the security of energy supply and an important means to achieve the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. It has great historical and practical significance.

There are many challenges in building a new power system with new energy as the main body. First, the randomness, volatility and intermittency of clean energy generation represented by wind and solar power, as well as the random distribution of electric vehicle load in time and space, have further increased the uncertainty faced by the system, put great pressure on power and electricity balance, and made the operation and control of the power grid more complex and changeable; second, the tolerance of new energy to extreme weather is fragile, and it is more difficult to ensure the high proportion of new energy grid connection and absorption, system safety and reliable power supply; finally, the gigawatt-class coal-fired power units in the traditional power system will be replaced by a large number of megawatt-class wind turbines or even photovoltaic power generation with lower capacity, especially the distribution side of the power grid will change, the distributed characteristics will be more obvious, the number of power generation equipment in the new power system will reach tens of millions, and the data that the system needs to process will show explosive growth.

The solution to new problems requires the application of new technologies that are compatible with them, and the characteristics of new power systems will inevitably give rise to new technologies. In order to meet the challenges brought by the construction of new power systems, it is necessary to further deepen on the basis of "observable, measurable, and controllable", and to use cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, mobile Internet, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other new generation digital technologies as the core driving force to continuously improve the digitalization, networking, and intelligence of the power grid, and accelerate the transformation of the traditional power system from rigid to flexible and resilient new power systems. It is necessary to use digital system theory to promote the optimization and reconstruction of the operation control system, and to enhance the full-domain interconnection and efficient perception capabilities of the power grid based on the characteristics of digital technology.

For the construction of new power systems, we should focus on the digitalization and intelligence of power grids, use data flows to lead and optimize the energy and business flows of power grids, support business innovation, and based on the "cloud-pipe-edge-end" architecture of the global Internet of Things, centering on the "source-grid-load-storage-use" business scenarios of new power systems, adopt the "series sensors + edge technology + multi-type communications + unified platform + data fusion + business intelligence" technical route to form an overall solution from terminal to system application, and create a global Internet of Things with "full state perception, full equipment connection, full data integration, and full business intelligence", to enhance the extensive interconnection and comprehensive perception of new energy, flexible loads and other entities.

On the end side, the functions and performance of terminal devices will be more defined by software, developing in the direction of intelligent processing and multi-functional integration. The rapid improvement of chip computing power and integration and the gradual maturity of lightweight IoT operating systems have solved the problem of insufficient edge computing power. The "multi-professional function integration, intelligent layering" technical architecture and "intelligent processing" edge devices have become important forms of new power systems. On the distribution network side, plug-and-play and remote maintenance between multiple types of sensor terminals and intelligent gateways are realized.

On the edge side, intelligent AI applications will gradually deepen. Combined with the needs of the new power system for "source, grid, load, storage and use", a large number of edge IoT computing nodes will be needed in the future to achieve unified access, data analysis and real-time computing devices or components for various on-site smart sensors and smart business terminals, and two-way interconnection with the IoT platform to achieve on-site integration and sharing of cross-professional data, regional autonomy and cloud-edge collaborative business processing. Combined with the differences in business scenarios, edge IoT computing nodes will gradually present three functional forms: edge-end separation, edge-end fusion and edge nodes. They will have the characteristics of hardware platformization and software containerization, and realize functions such as hardware and software decoupling, unified and universal architecture, personalized customized applications, and an open and shared terminal application ecosystem.

On the pipe side, scenarios for multi-type communications will be further enriched. Load-side resources are becoming increasingly diverse and dispersed, and hundreds of millions of sensor devices need information networking. The business needs of the power communication network have been developing in the direction of large connections, low latency, high reliability, and large bandwidth. As the development direction of the new generation of wireless communication systems, 5G will provide important support for the construction of digital power grids and provide better solutions for the "last mile" wireless communication access of the power communication network. With its characteristics and advantages of ultra-high bandwidth, ultra-low latency, and ultra-large-scale connections, as well as its two core capabilities of network slicing and edge computing, the 5G network can better meet the security, reliability, and flexibility requirements of digital power grid services, and promote the intelligent upgrade and development of power communication networks.

On the cloud side, the processing capacity of massive data will be further improved. With the construction of new power systems, massive devices are connected to the distribution network. The distribution network side needs to obtain the electrical quantity and status quantity data of distributed power sources and low-voltage distribution station field equipment in a timely manner. There are problems such as request priority division, protocol diversification, and intermittent scale and push for collection. The platform should increase the request priority division, dynamic expansion of specifications, and dynamic node management capabilities, strengthen the platform connection capabilities, equipment management capabilities and cloud-edge collaboration capabilities, and the platform side should extend new applications such as distributed photovoltaics, new energy sites, wind energy, new energy storage, and smart charging piles. It should be based on a unified power grid data model, with maps as the entrance, and carry the editing, analysis and management of all types of power grid equipment graphics, topologies, and ledgers, realize the integration of geographic, physical, and management data, and support new power system-related business applications in a flexible, open, and fully compatible manner.

Digital technology combined with power business scenarios will stimulate greater value. In terms of digital dispatching, the digital power grid technology architecture based on cloud-edge collaboration, with virtual power plants and microgrids as aggregation carriers, is based on artificial intelligence multi-energy complementarity, distributed control with autonomous optimization, edge cluster computing, and main-distribution integrated collaborative control technology to achieve cloud-edge collaboration, ubiquitous access, flexible customization, and on-site decision-making, meeting the massive access and large-scale collaborative optimization of different types of power sources and microgrids, and supporting autonomous cruising of large power grids and intelligent management of park microgrids.

In terms of digital power transmission, based on the Internet of Things platform, new technologies such as WAPI, Beidou positioning, intelligent deviation correction and mission routes are applied to upgrade the drone patrol system, create a new cloud nest patrol mode, and realize intelligent route planning and remote automatic driving of drones. Simple drone nests, power transmission sensing terminals, communication terminals and power transmission intelligent gateways are developed to realize comprehensive monitoring and data collection of overhead and cable lines, realize panoramic information fusion of power transmission, and global intelligent decision-making, and improve the safe operation and disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities of the power transmission network.

In terms of digital substation, relying on digital technology, we optimize and upgrade the intelligent gateway of substation to realize the full data collection of the second and third zones of the substation; relying on the Southern Power Grid Cloud and the global Internet of Things platform to build a substation operation support system, strengthen the research on artificial intelligence algorithms, improve the accuracy of identifying meters and equipment defects, develop the optimization configuration function of inspection points, and implement smart inspections; focus on procedural operations, optimize intelligent operation functions, and ultimately build a digital twin substation with panoramic perception, risk visualization, and accessible operations.

In terms of digital power distribution, we will be guided by the front-line needs of distribution network production, with distribution intelligent gateways, intelligent sensors, and intelligent primary and secondary fusion equipment as the core, and based on supporting platforms such as the global Internet of Things platform and Southern Power Grid Zhikan, we will create a distribution network production and operation support system to achieve transparency in the equipment and operation status of the distribution network, support intelligent operation and maintenance, intelligent services, and intelligent operations of the distribution network, and comprehensively improve power supply reliability and customer service levels.