SHANGHAI, June 3 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- As an emerging industry globally, smart grid includes many fresh and vital technologies that are needed to make enormous progress in power grid development. A smart grid sends electricity from power suppliers to end users using digital technology to save energy and increase reliability. This modernized electricity network is being promoted by some governments as a way of addressing energy independence or environment issues. The smart grid is a disparate set of goals including facilitating better competition between suppliers; enabling better use of different energy sources; and setting up the automation and monitoring abilities needed for grid at cross continent.
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To reduce power demand during peak usage periods, communications and metering technologies inform smart devices in the house, factory or business building when energy demand is high and track how much electricity is used and when it is used. Electricity price increases during peak usage periods, and decreases during low demand periods. The end user will tend to consume less during peak usage periods if it is made possible for users and user devices to be familiar with the high price premium for using electricity at peak periods. When end users see a direct economic profit to become more energy efficient, it is more likely that they will make wise decisions on consumption.
Based on the United States Department of Energy's Modern Grid Initiative report, a smart grid should be able to heal itself; motivate consumers to actively participate in operations of the grid; resist attack; provide power of a higher quality that will save money wasted due to power blackouts; accommodate all generation and storage options; and enable electricity markets to flourish.
In China, The Eastern China Grid Corporation, a subsidiary company of the State Grid Corp of China (SGCC), started a feasibility research on "smart grid" technology in October 2007. Zhenya Liu, General Manager of the State Grid Corp of China (SGCC), China's largest power grid builder, met with the Minister of Energy of the United States on April 24, 2009. Liu said that "the SGCC is constructing Ultra high and extra high voltage direct current (+/-800KV, +/-500KV) and alternating current transmission system (1000kV, 500kV, 220kV), and coordinating the development of a smart grid based on information technology and automation technology."
Known as the largest utility in the world, the SGCC serves 26 provinces and 1.08 billion people throughout China. The SGCC released that it is speeding up the construction of the power network on May 7, 2009.
According to Pinky Wang, consultant of Energy and Power System practice, Frost & Sullivan China, smart grid in China focuses more on the transmission side than the distribution side at present. Based on the fact that coal is the main energy source in China and coal mines are far away from the main load centers, it is the right choice that the power grid development be focused on the transmission network. China has been constructing a unified national power grid network. The project includes what is known as the "West-East Electricity Transfer Project," which includes three major west-east transmission corridors construction. The transmission capacity of each corridor will be 20 GW by 2020. Through these transmission grids, electricity distributors in China will bond regional power grids in different areas of the country, and improve cross-region electricity transmission ability. This will balance the power generation disparities in different regions.
Frost & Sullivan foresees that smart grid will play more and more important roles in the development of China's national economy in the future. Strong and robust smart grids can solve the current problems and improve the economy of electricity supply, saving energy, assuring a high quality power supply, and serving environment protection.
SGCC has made power grid construction its core business operation for the time being and a strategic objective in the long run. In developing power grid for transmission network, SGCC has been deploying several technologies such as Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) and information system integration project etc.
Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) uses the Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU) based on the Global Positioning System (GPS) to develop the stability of power grids. SGCC is building a Wide Area Monitoring system (WAMS) and by 2012 plans to have PMU sensors at all generators of 300 megawatts and above, and all substations of 500 kilovolts and above. SGCC has been deploying extensive fiber-optic networking throughout China high-voltage substations. This network amounts to over one million kilometers of fiber-optic channels. In recent years, SGCC has been applying the SG 186 project, an information system integration project.
According to Wang, there will be a lot of business opportunities for smart grid relevant industries, such as smart metering system, power storage device, telecommunication device, and software.
She concludes, "The development speed of smart grids in China depends on these key decision-makers of state grid. In the future, the best way to occupy the Chinese smart grid market is to form alliances between several relevant companies and provide a bunch of solutions for the implementation of smart grid in a special area, like how General Electric, Cisco Systems and Silver Springs Networks teamed up to work on the Miami smart-grid in the United States."
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For more information, please contact:
Riona Jin
Corporate Communications - China
Tel: +86-21-5407-5783 x8652
Cell: +86-139-1698-7828
Email: riona.jin@frost.com
