Next-Digital transformation boosts the construction of a new power system

Electricity Trading Market

Further open up the imagination

In January 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a National Unified Electricity Market System", anchoring the new direction of the construction of a new power system and the reform of the electricity market under the "dual carbon" goal, and proposed that it be completed by 2025. In 2008, the initial establishment of a unified national electricity market system was promoted.

Many industry insiders believe that with the establishment of a unified national power market, digitalization of the energy industry will not only empower the business production process of the energy industry, but also have great potential in assisting power trading services.

As a pursuit of becoming a first-class international clean energy ecological investment operator, Jingneng International is very optimistic about the value of digitalization in enterprise development in the future. At the same time, other power companies are also targeting this market. Jingneng Power told reporters that the digital technology implemented by the company is currently used in production, operation, marketing, etc., such as the technical supervision platform of the production system, spot transactions in the power market, Electricity marketing, precise management and control of carbon emissions in business operations, intelligent statistical analysis and decision-making systems, etc. These digital systems play a certain role in the company's rapid decision-making in production and operation, reducing personnel and increasing efficiency. At present, most of the company's electricity market strives for spot trading. systems and power marketing systems.

"The development of energy digitalization will bring a new business model of power supply." Guori Xinneng introduced to reporters. For example, through the construction of virtual power plants, power suppliers and aggregators can connect distributed energy to the power grid, according to power demand. Change the situation to supply power to the grid and earn revenue from it. It is understood that a virtual power plant is an Internet of Things technology that integrates distributed generation, demand-side response and energy storage resources in a unified and coordinated manner, and responds to power grid dispatching instructions. .

In addition, Guori Xinneng revealed that the company has built a set of digital management platforms using innovative technologies such as the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and high-performance computing. Extend, expand the power prediction business to the power transaction business, and transform the power control technology to an intelligent direction.

Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of Zhejiang University International Business School, said in an interview with reporters that the digitalization of the energy industry can better calculate the cost information of power transmission and distribution. Costs are helpful, and digital technology can also make electricity transactions more transparent by tracking a unit of electricity from production to use.

Urgent demand for energy digital services

Promote the prosperity of the energy IT industry

"With the deep integration of the energy revolution and the digital revolution, emerging digital technologies such as the 'cloud, big things, mobile intelligence chain' and other emerging digital technologies are playing an increasingly prominent role in the energy field, profoundly changing all aspects of energy production, transmission, trading, consumption and supervision. It will bring huge demand to the comprehensive energy service market." Hengshi Technology, a provider of comprehensive energy services, communication design and IoT application solutions, told reporters.

Similarly, in Qi Haishen's view, my country's energy industry has transformed from the "single production era" to the "comprehensive energy service" era. For the energy industry to achieve high efficiency, energy saving, safety, reliability, green and low carbon, "digitalization" of the energy industry is very important and critical, so energy digital services have become very urgent.

It is worth mentioning that, in order to promote digital transformation, in December 2021, Energy China has specially established Energy China Digital Technology Group Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Digital Technology Group"). The reporter learned from China Energy Construction that in the future, it will promote the listing of the whole or part of the digital group, promote the integration of industry and finance, and explore the use of capital to promote digitalization and technological innovation industrialization to form a positive cycle, so that the technology research and development platform will continue to iteratively evolve.

The reporter noticed that not only China Energy Construction is accelerating its digital transformation, but a number of central energy enterprises such as State Grid, China Southern Power Grid, Sinopec, State Energy Group, and State Power Investment Corporation have also established specialized digital companies. In addition, technology Internet companies represented by Huawei, ZTE, Ali, etc. have also joined the digital energy track by setting up independent departments or subsidiaries, and third-party integrated energy service providers have also emerged.

In addition, digital service providers have already entered the traditional fossil energy industry. "As the main driving force for the high-quality development of the industry, the construction of intelligent coal mines has driven ICT companies such as Huawei and ZTE, and they have also joined the intelligent construction of the coal industry." Li Shoubin told reporters that the construction of intelligent coal mines integrates some of the most advanced ICT The application of technology and digital technology to the coal field, on the one hand, solves the safety and efficiency problems of coal mining; on the other hand, it also improves the energy consumption management level of the entire coal mine and helps green energy conservation.

Many pain points are difficult to solve

Digital development has a long way to go

Many interviewees said that although the digital transformation of the energy industry is the general trend, there are still many pain points and difficulties in the transformation.

In Shao Junsong's view, the previous data barriers within the energy enterprise sector and the data barriers between the energy industry and other industries are widespread. To break through data barriers, we must solve all aspects of mechanism design and technical support. In addition, the energy industry has gradually introduced information technology and intelligent systems into the production and operation process, but the application of digitalization is mainly in tapping the potential of traditional production processes. In terms of production efficiency, it is only in the early stages of exploration.

Jingneng International also told reporters that although the current digital transformation of the energy industry has become a consensus among enterprises, due to the high cost of digital investment and insignificant short-term benefits, some small and medium-sized energy enterprises have insufficient investment in digital development and weak motivation. The "too effect" is obvious, especially in the field of integrated energy services, where the business model is still in the process of gradually maturing, and it is prone to the situation of "applause but no crowd". In addition, the degree of digitalization in the energy industry is related to the company's management philosophy, and a large part of the degree of digitalization is derived from the maturity of the company's management system.

In terms of traditional energy industry, Li Shoubin said, "Overall, the concentration of my country's coal industry is still not high enough, and further intensification is needed. At present, there are more than 3,000 mines in the country, and about 1,000 are under construction of intelligent coal mines. In addition, from a technical point of view, China's coal mine conditions vary widely, the scope of application of unmanned mining technology has not been fully reached, and there are still some technical difficulties that need to be overcome."

Lin Boqiang said that with the increasing proportion of new energy, the requirements for digitalization will become higher and higher, and the process of digital transformation of the energy industry should match the development of the industry.