Supporting the Effective Implementation of the Phased Tasks and Long-Term Strategies of Power Companies from Business, Economic and Technical Perspectives

David Sun

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

China is leading the world in the new energy sector. The rapid development of new energy has posed major challenges to power grids, which can only be solved through new forms of productivity. The unpredictable nature of renewable energy and fast electrification of loads posed a range of challenges to the power system, including difficult power control, high line loss, low energy absorption and consumption, and difficult operations. To address the challenges, we need to find technologies for scenarios as well as scenarios for technologies. The integration of digital and electric power technologies is crucial.

Huawei believes that there are five key components to systematically embracing digital and intelligent transformation — the communication base, massive data, AI breakthroughs, digital rules, and cyber security. On top of this, we also need to resolve the contradiction of production relationships brought by the extensive development of digital intelligence in the power industry.

To support the implementation of enterprises' phased key tasks and long-term strategies, we need to develop scenario-based services and build digital and intelligent scenarios. We should approach the digital and intelligent transformation of key scenarios from business, economic and technical perspectives.

The business perspective is the most important factor when it comes to the integration of digitalization and business systems. It is built upon business KPI guidance and business drivers. Take the power distribution and consumption scenario of the power system as an example. Key services include line loss reduction, power supply reliability improvement, new energy load management, O&M efficiency improvement, internal and external satisfaction improvement, and agile innovation support. In different countries and regions, power companies have different key challenges and service priorities.

For example, line loss reduction is the biggest challenge in Africa, while in Saudi Arabia, power customers are more concerned about power supply reliability. In China, the biggest concern is about the massive access of new energy and new loads. Take the distributed PV access in China as an example. Solar power is difficult to absorb and consume at noon, which may cause reverse heavy loads or overloads and damage to transformers. To solve this problem, edge computing can be used to monitor the voltage and reverse active power in minutes, as well as perform smooth adjustment in seconds according to threshold values and rules.

The economic perspective requires quantitative ROI evaluation for quick decision-making. In one example, Huawei's intelligent distribution solution (IDS) was deployed, which is expected to have a lifecycle of 10 years. The total amount of CAPEX and OPEX involved will be $2.5 billion. If the line loss is reduced by 3%, it will generate $6 billion in revenue for the customer. In the 10-year lifecycle, the self-built communication network solution will reduce the OPEX by about $700 million, and the lifecycle of optical fibers can exceed 30 years.

Huawei's IDS provides digital and intelligent enablement to help power companies increase the value of human resources and assets. For example, it can help customers support 2-fold business growth with the same number of staff. In addition, the solution helps power companies improve customer satisfaction, embrace green development, and improve brand and social image.

From the technical perspective, we should build a future-oriented, open and sustainable technical architecture to ensure we are moving in the right direction in long-term digital development.

To be specific, the communication target network needs to solve two major problems regarding 400V communication and medium-voltage backhaul in distribution network communication. The network must be secure, reliable, flexible and affordable. The vertical block architecture in the information age is evolving into a cloud-edge-device architecture featuring horizontal layering and decoupling in the digital era. There has also been a change from single-point digitalization to architecture-supported, open, evolvable, and systematic digitalization. The enterprise OS is the "root capability" of enterprise digital transformation. We need to support heterogeneous deployment across the cloud, edge, and device, as well as shield differences and enable the flexible access of massive devices. This way, complex services can run agilely at each layer and interact with each other across layers. Software and hardware of edge devices are decoupled, similar to how the feature phone evolved to the smartphone. This implements software-definition, supports the OTA upgrade of protocols, operating systems, and apps, and enables flexible autonomy under centralized governance.

In the digital era, from information-based integration to agile innovation, the innovation platform must support interconnection between clouds, between edges and between devices, and massive cloud-edge-device synergy. This ensures quick response to enterprise needs.

In summary, from the business perspective, we should focus on scenarios, solve problems and create value. From the economic perspective, we should pay attention to return on investments as well as the appreciation of human resources and data assets. From the technical perspective, we must always move in the right direction in our journey of digitalization. We believe these three perspectives can support quick decision-making, drive the implementation of phased business strategies, and promote the sustainable development of power companies.

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.