Thrive with Digital, Accelerate Intelligence for Electric Power

David Sun

Vice President of Huawei, CEO of Electric Power Digitalization Business Unit, Huawei

From October 20 to 23, the 24th Conference on the Electric Power Supply Industry (CEPSI 2023) was held in the eastern Chinese coastal city of Xiamen. The event was co-sponsored by the Association of the Electricity Supply Industry of East Asia and the Western Pacific (AESIEAP) and the China Electricity Council. Huawei was deeply involved in this year's CEPSI, delivering a keynote speech titled Thrive with Digital, Driving the Green and Low-Carbon Development of New Power Systems, as well as showcasing a variety of innovative scenario-based solutions.

Huawei is going all out to unleash digital productivity and drive intelligent electric power.

Digital Technologies are Enabling the New Power System Comprehensively

The new power system is faced with five main challenges: the green structure on the power generation side, the electrification and interaction on the load side, flexible power grid regulation, management and interaction across the power source-grid-load-storage system, and the need to build an effective market mechanism and a complex electricity-carbon trading system.

Building a new power system involves green and low-carbon transformation, digital transformation, and business continuity management (BCM). Green and low-carbon transformation is the main mountain the power industry must climb to progress, which can only happen if the entire industry joins hands on it. Digital transformation and BCM can systematically support the execution of green and low-carbon transformation strategies.

The digital transformation of power enterprises is well underway; and as digitalization deepens, mindsets and interests are being reshaped. Technologies and scenarios are seeing extensive integration, industry and cross-border capabilities can be used by companies on demand, and green and low-carbon strategies are being implemented more successfully than ever before. Digital transformation involves changes in production relations (consciousness, organization, and talent), leaps in productivity (computing, transmission, and digital capabilities), and three-dimensional innovation (architectures, models, and ecosystems).

Thrive with Digital, Accelerating Intelligence for Electric Power

Boosting digital productivity requires the systematic construction of core capabilities. Upgrading computing power and transmission capacity in particular is crucial to accelerating the construction of a new power system.

1. Building a new power system centered on electric and computing power

New energy will profoundly change the form, characteristics and mechanism of traditional power systems. The integration and collaborative development of power source-grid-load-storage systems are placing higher requirements on intelligent electric power. From general computing to AI computing, and from single-point computing to cloud-edge-device collaborative computing, a systematic computing architecture is required to achieve digital intelligence and reap the dividends. Based on the governance style typical of power enterprises, we proposed the Spark architecture with cloud-edge-device synergy. This architecture can support power enterprises as they evolve from single-point digitalization to architecture-based, systematic, open and evolvable digitalization. This helps power companies build professional and service-oriented HQs, centralized business systems, and unstaffed/least-staffed sites, which is critical to asset-heavy energy companies.

2. Powerful transmission is the guarantee

Transmission is the key to communications. It is estimated that by 2030, the number of connections will have increased 100-fold. By the end of this year, the installed capacity of new energy will exceed 800 million kilowatts and the capacity of distributed PV will reach 230 million kilowatts, both multiplying dramatically. Considering this, we need to prepare more advanced transmission capacity sooner rather than later. It is vital to stay one step ahead of the game.

At the same time, we need to find the right communication technologies for different scenarios. We should select technology based on the mainstream direction they're headed in, security and reliability, cost-effectiveness throughout the lifecycle, evolvability, and openness.

Only when on-demand, secure and smooth connections are made available in every aspect can we experience intelligence at our fingertips.

3. Innovation is the starting point of improving productivity. Architecture innovation, model innovation and ecosystem innovation are vital

Architecture innovation: From the reference architecture of enterprise digital transformation (such as the "Tiandi Tree Architecture") to the technical architecture (computing architecture and target communication network architecture), innovation must permeate every layer. Model innovation: By developing new model of integrated business and digital technology, we can bridge the gap between business and digital technology, bring historical achievements to the future, and help power companies go digital as they grow rapidly, which is like changing the tire of a speeding car. The key lies in empowering power experts with the latest specialist info, lowering the threshold for digitalization, and incorporating and stimulating the creativity of all employees.

Ecosystem innovation: No single company can solve pain points experienced by the entire industry alone. In the digital era, the open Costa Rica mode proposed by James Moor is much better suited for the industry. An open ecosystem model allows everyone to unleash and share their respective strengths, while also share industry and cross-industry capabilities among all participants.

Helping Energy Companies Execute Transformation Strategies

At this year's CEPSI, the transformation of energy enterprises received the most attention as a topic. Representatives of power enterprises from around the world had extensive exchanges on the issue as well as on scenario-based applications.

We can refer to the '532' model while helping energy companies go digital. That is, for digitalization to succeed, 50% depends on a company's own staff teams. Internal factors are the key, and digital organizations need to be strengthened. 30% depends on policies and the environment. Currently, global governments and industries are vying to build a favorable external environment for energy companies, which must in turn seize the opportunity. 20% lies digital technologies, which are the foundation of transformation. Enterprises must apply digital technologies methodically.

Digital scenarios are jointly defined by power companies, think tanks, and industry organizations. Digitalization is a systematic project that requires not only capable solution providers and integrators, but also ICT vendors and partners — all have a role to play in this challenging campaign.

Huawei is committed to laying the foundation for a Digital China and providing the world with One More Beautiful Choice. We focus on what we are good at in the digital field, and work with industry customers and partners to build a better future of intelligent electric power.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, products, and technologies of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. If you need to learn more about the products and technologies of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., please visit our website at e.huawei.com or contact us.