Power Grid 2.0 is ready to go

On March 18, 2014, the 500-kV Wuning Substation in Dongyang City, Zhejiang Province was formally put into operation. In a matter of moment, the powerful current made the 500-kilovolt Wuning Substation and the Zhejiang Power Grid “connected”, marking a new stage in Zhejiang's smart power grid. .

Right now, we are witnessing the magical changes that have taken place in the traditional industries such as commercial retail, tourism services, education and training, and information technology almost every day. However, the process of upgrading the power grid, which has an extraordinary role in the development of the national economy, is a little unfamiliar. It should be noted that with the increasing demand for electricity safety and economy, various clean power generation and energy storage systems are encouraged to access the grid. The grids of most countries in the world are facing challenges and urgently need intelligent upgrades.

There are various indications that the global power grid has entered the peak of the upgrade version 2.0. At the recent Hannover Messe, the smart grid became a shining star, and Germany’s iNES smart grid management system became the winner of the Industrial Technology Innovation Award. A number of overseas well-known consulting organizations believe that the global smart grid will maintain an alarming compound annual growth rate in the next 3-6 years. Investment in smart grid information technology will reach as much as $140 billion. In China, it is expected that the capital investment for the construction of ultra-high voltage, transmission and distribution intelligence by 2020 will be nearly RMB 400 billion.

Smart net

Interactive Web

“GRID2030” published by the US Department of Energy Transmission and Distribution Office outlines the concept of smart grid as a fully automated power transmission network that can monitor and control each user and grid node and ensure the entire transmission and distribution process from the power plant to the end user. Bidirectional flow of information and power between all nodes.

The relevant research institutions in China are biased towards the view that smart grids are a digital upgrade of power generation, transmission, substation, power distribution, power consumption, and end-user equipment for energy storage and energy. Through the improvement of automation technology, the grid will be able to operate more efficiently. Safe and efficient.

Regardless of Europe and the United States or China, the definition of the smart grid includes an interactive concept that allows end users to participate in the rational allocation and utilization of power resources.

In this huge system project, the accurate collection of user's electricity information is undoubtedly an important and need to be implemented first.

New Stars at Industry Fair

At the recent Hannover Messe, smart grids have attracted much attention. This can be seen from the winners of this "Hermes Industrial Technology Innovation Award". The prestigious award was won by Germany's solar power system integrator SAG iNES smart grid management system. The company's technology can help transform traditional low-voltage distribution networks into smart grids.

Researchers from the Fraunhofer Energy Alliance in Germany exhibited their own "mini-smart grid" solutions at this industry expo. According to the plan named “Joint Energy Device 2”, several small-scale power generation equipments have been consolidated into centralized management of virtual power plants.

“Wind energy, solar energy and biogas are sources of energy. They have their own advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of each of our energy sources are linked in an intelligent way so that we can ensure a sustainable supply of German energy.” Fraunhofer Wind Energy And Kurt Rohrig, deputy director of energy systems technology, said.

In the above display technology, the two major advantages of the smart grid have been well demonstrated. The first is to use advanced information technology to improve the distribution of electricity resources and improve the efficiency of electricity use. The second is to provide more reliable protection for clean energy generation.

Smart Meter: Small Market

Smart meters allow customers to monitor power usage and provide timely feedback to utilities. Utilities can then use relevant data to set prices and straighten demand fluctuations. In February of this year, Bloomberg New Energy Finance released data showing that currently China has installed nearly 250 million smart meters. Europe is expected to install 180 million by 2020, and it has now reached 55 million. "The Asian and European markets will drive growth to 2020. The focus in North America will continue to shift from hardware to software. Utilities will seek to squeeze more value out of existing grid data." BNEF Senior Analyst, Energy Intelligence Technology Colin McKerracher said.

Related electric power industry analysts told the Shanghai Daily reporter that at present, China's smart meter intelligence is only reflected in the meter reading and payment, once the smart grid construction is fully rolled out, the functions involved in the smart meter will be extended to orderly power management, with Statistical analysis of electricity conditions, abnormal electricity analysis, statistics of power quality data, etc. The industry will also face a large market with an annual scale of over 5 billion yuan. The electronic multi-function energy meter with communication function will be the dominant direction of the development of the State Grid Corporation.

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission is also promoting the construction and application of a project called “National Power Demand Side Management Platform”. This is also part of the electricity information management. Its purpose is to help end users realize "digital, network, visualization" of electricity, and share information with users, so that users can choose to allocate and utilize power resources based on time-of-use price. This will also help to reduce peak load and increase utilization of power grid facilities. Power industry experts believe that the smart grid electricity information management system will eventually be upgraded to an automated marketing system service.

It is noteworthy that the two major neighboring countries, Japan and South Korea, have also focused on the use of electricity in the construction of smart grids in recent years. As Japan encourages the active use of households for solar power generation in recent years, it needs to have a timely grasp of the solar power consumption of all households, and smart meters will usher in a wide range of installations. It is expected that the demand for smart meters in Japan will be around 50 million by 2020, and each unit will cost approximately 20,000 yen.

The goal of South Korea is to fully complete the construction of smart grids by 2030, and the focus before 2020 is to realize the intelligentization of electricity use. Complete the application of smart meters throughout the country by 2015. By 2017, the construction of electric vehicle charging stations in seven major cities will be completed, and smart grid construction will be carried out in seven major cities in South Korea.

Smart grid investment is hot

The smart grid fully meets the global demand for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and is dedicated to the development of new energy generation and energy efficiency. Currently including the United States, China, Japan, Germany and other countries are overweight smart grid construction. Global smart grid investment has also entered a peak period.

Research and Markets recently issued a report saying that the global smart grid management service market will achieve an astonishing 51.29% compound annual growth rate from 2012 to 2016. The biggest contributor to this market is the emergence of smart grids and government support. For example, China has a national grid expansion plan. The total investment in the 12th Five-Year Plan's smart grid is close to 200 billion yuan. The U.S. government launched a smart grid investment appropriation plan and invested USD 4.3 billion in the construction of smart grid facilities.

According to a report released by TechNavio last month, the market scale of global smart grid network security will rapidly expand at a compound annual growth rate of 29.43% from 2012 to 2016. Research firm Navigant’s forecast stated that between 2014 and 2020, investment in smart grid information technology will reach as much as US$140 billion.

According to the report of the Merco Capital Group, a clean energy consultancy, in the first quarter of this year, the global smart grid industry attracted $101 million in venture capital. These investments were completed through 21 transactions. In the same period last year, there were 11 transactions with a total investment of 148 million U.S. dollars.

Look at our country again, because the energy resources are concentrated in the western area, and the main energy consumption area is concentrated in the east central area, this kind of imbalance urges our country to implement the optimal allocation of energy resources nationwide. It is necessary to build a strong smart grid to provide safer, more economical and efficient protection for energy transmission and regulation.

During the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, China’s investment in the intelligent link of electricity use was the largest, approaching half of the total intellectual investment.” Ye Xuchen, director of the British Great Securities Research Institute, said that only the user information collection system will be used in China. Smart grid investment accounts for 1/3 of the total, with an investment of more than 75 billion yuan, followed by distribution automation and communications information platforms. The three investments together account for about 80% of the total investment.

A number of electric power industry analysts said that in China's electricity consumption information collection business, according to the current situation, subordinate enterprises of the national grid will still have obvious advantages. The essence of the competition of smart meter companies is the competition of chip companies. As the current electric energy service management platform is still in the initial stage of construction, the Guotai Junan Research Report believes that the relevant systems and software development companies have much room for development during the platform construction process.

In addition, with the epoch-making electric car “Tesla” entering the Chinese market, Beijing and Shanghai have clearly defined the supporting policies for electric vehicles, and another important area for the intelligentization of electricity use—the construction of supporting charging stations (pile) will also set off climax.

Obviously, a big game of smart grid construction has begun!