Photo taken on Nov. 7, 2021 shows a robot arm equipped with compound eye imaging system at the Intelligent Industry& Information Technology Exhibition Area of the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)
BEIJING, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- To accomplish the "dual carbon" goals, China's electric power industry sets the construction of a new energy-dominated electric power system as its transformation and development target.
A number of energy professions interviewed believed that as more new energy will be integrated into power grids, the lack of electric power system regulation means is about to be more prominent. Digitization, however, is expected to serve as a vital lever in the new-type electric power system, playing a role on all fronts including the power supply, power grid, load, and energy storage, which will meet customers' need for the integration of new energy into power grids, reported Securities Daily.
At present, all industries aspire to digital transformation and for the energy industry with distinctive features, digitization and intelligentization, where the cost of electric power system transformation lies, will make great contributions to solving the instability in the integration of new energy into power grids and balancing the electricity supply and demand, said Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University.
To boost the development of the new energy-dominated electric power system, digitization and intelligentization has become a consensus in the energy industry. Large energy enterprises have stepped up efforts to propel digital development, while some of China's centrally administered State-owned enterprises have set up subsidiaries engaging in digitization, to blaze a trail for the energy industry to realize digital growth.
— All enterprises in industry chain work together for digitization
The energy industry has gradually introduced information technology and smart systems into the production and operation process, improving productivity and reducing resource consumption and costs via digital transformation,according to Shao Junsong, co-founder of Jiangxing Intelligence, an Internet of Things (IoT) edge computing product and service provider.
For instance, digital technology considerably facilitates the operation and maintenance of new energy equipment. In recent years, China's new energy industry developed rapidly. With the continuous increase of installed capacity, the operating conditions are more complicatedandmany wind turbines are challenged by frequent breakdowns.Thus, an effective smart operation and maintenance system is in dire need.
According to China Energy Engineering Corporation Limited (CEEC), although called "high-end equipment", wind power products still rely on manual maintenance and overhaul. At the same time, problems with new energy power stations such as remote location, harsh environment, and insufficient manpower are emerging.
CEEC also considers that to practically improve the stability and reliability of wind turbines, the foremost thing is to realize preventive maintenance and further upgrade the smart monitoring and detection system, in addition to improving the design. The development and application of digital technology is the only way to achieve smart operation and maintenance.
Besides, the energy profession told Securities Dailythat digital management in both traditional and new energy can make energy supply more convenient and energy management more efficient.
In fact, digital transformation and development are seen not only in new energy electric power enterprises but also in traditional thermal power and fossil fuel enterprises, including China National Offshore Oil Corporation and Beijing Jingneng Power.
— Electricity trading market allows more possibilities
In January 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and National Energy Administration made it clear in a document that by 2025, China will initially build a unified electricity market system.
Several industry insiders believe that as the construction of a unified electricity market across the country is completed, digitization of the energy sector will have a brilliant future in aiding electricity trading services in addition to empowering business production processes of the sector.
Beijing Energy International Holding Co., Ltd. strives to become a first-class international operator of clean energy and ecological investment. It is very optimistic about the future value of digitization in corporate development.
The company has applied digital technologies in such aspects as production, operations and marketing, involving the technical supervision platform of the production system, spot-price trading and marketing of electricity, targeted control of carbon emissions from operations, the intelligent system of statistics, analysis and decision making, etc. These digital systems play a role in rapid decision making, manpower reduction and efficiency improvement during the company's production and operations. The spot-price trading system and electricity marketing system are the main contributors to the company's share in the electricity market.
The digitization of the energy sector allows better calculation of the electricity transmission and distribution costs and the electricity trading costs, and digital technologies can make electricity trading more transparent by tracking the entire chain of electricity from production to use, said Pan Helin, a researcher and co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center at Zhejiang University's International Business School.
— Demand for digital energy services raises climate indexes of energy IT sector
With the deep integration of energy revolution and digital revolution, emerging digital technologies such as cloud computing, big data, IoT, mobile Internet, artificial intelligence, and blockchain play an increasingly prominent role in the energy sector, which profoundly change all aspects of energy production, transmission, trading, consumption and regulation, and also bring a huge demand to the integrated energy service market, according to Beijing E-techstar Co., Ltd, a provider of integrated energy services, communication design and IoT application solutions.
Quite a few centrally administered State-owned enterprises of China in the energy sector, including China Energy Engineering Group Co., Ltd., State Grid Corporation of China, China Southern Power Grid, China Petrochemical Corporation, China Energy Investment Corporation, and State Power Investment Corporation Limited, have set up dedicated digital companies.
Besides, technology-based Internet enterprises, represented by Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., ZTE Corporation, and Alibaba Group Holding Limited, are also competing for market shares in the digital energy sector by setting up separate division or a subsidiary. Lots of third-party integrated energy service providers have also emerged.
In addition, some digital service providers have appeared in the traditional fossil fuel industry. The construction of smart coal mines, as the main driving force of the industry's high-quality development, has engaged information and communications technology (ICT) enterprises like Huawei and ZTE Corporation in smart construction of the coal industry, said Li Shoubin, vice chairman of Beijing Tianma Intelligent Control Technology Co., Ltd.
The construction of smart coal mines has applied the most advanced ICT technologies and digital technologies in the field of coal. They helped ensure the safety and enhance the efficiency of coal mining, improve the energy consumption management of coal mines, and facilitate green development and energy conservation, he added.
(Edited by Gao Jingyan with Xinhua Silk Road, gaojingyan@xinhua.org)
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