Lighting Up Energy: CEM Deploys Future-Oriented OSU OTN Electric Power Plane B Optical Communication Networks

As the only electric power supplier in Macao SAR, Companhia de Electricidade de Macao (hereinafter referred to as CEM) provides power supply services spanning power transmission, power distribution, and the sale of high-, medium-, and low-voltage power. The company is responsible for power supply and distribution across Macao.

At present, CEM features a total power generation installed capacity of 408 MW. Its power transmission network consists of 27 primary substations, 8 customer high-voltage switching stations, and 1060 km of 66 kV, 110 kV, and 220 kV high-voltage cables. CEM's power grid is connected to China Southern Power Grid through eight circuits of 220 kV main supply lines and four circuits of 110 kV backup lines.

Increasing Demand for Power Transmission and Distribution Brings Higher Network Challenges

As Macao deeply dives into the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the city is making significant headway in smart city construction. To respond to the national low-carbon long-term development strategy and help Macao achieve carbon peak by 2030, CEM greatly accelerates power infrastructure construction and upgrade, proactively promotes smart grid construction, and improves the efficiency and reliability of power supply using digital technologies and intelligent management. All of these help to provide reliable power guarantee for Macao's economic and social development.

As the scale of power transmission and distribution networks grows and communication technologies advance, CEM's communication networks come up against new challenges:

• Unified bearing of core dispatch business and communication business: Numerous types of interfaces, different protocols, and a mix of old and new equipment in scenarios including dispatch networks, substation SCADA communication networks, and power distribution station communication networks.

• Continuous network evolution: CEM's current power communication networks were built in 2016, and mainly adopted SDH technology to cover all the substation nodes as well as active and backup dispatch centers of local power grid. The highest network bandwidth on SDH networks is 10G, which is insufficient for services such as video management as well as the long-term and continuous business development needs of CEM.

Choosing Huawei's MS-OTN Optical Transmission Products to Build Dual Planes and More Reliable and Secure Power Communication Networks

The department responsible for communication at CEM decided to look for an experienced supplier that can provide consultation, solutions, and technical support, so they could work together to build stable and reliable communication networks. After careful consideration, Huawei was singled out.

As a trailblazer in the optical transmission network market, Huawei leads the global optical industry with its optimal performance and highly-reliable optical network solutions and products. After conducting in-depth requirement analysis and verification of CEM's communication networks, Huawei suggested adopting its native hard pipe (NHP) solution and applying OptiXtrans E6616 products to help CEM build main substation nodes and the optical networks for interconnecting active and backup dispatch centers.

Leveraging the Powerful Transmission Capability to Ensure the High Security of Power Communication, Creating a Better Future for CEM

CEM's choice of Huawei as its partner is largely down to Huawei's continuous innovation in the optical network field.

• Huawei's OptiXtrans E6616 products support the mainstream 100G coherent technology, and can be upgraded to 400G/800G. Meanwhile, Huawei OptiXtrans E6616 is also compatible with NHP technologies including PDH, SDH, and OSU, and supports multi-service unified bearing and seamless upgrade of network technologies.

• Huawei OptiXtrans E6616 products are easy to deploy and can be installed in 19-inch and 23-inch cabinets. At present, CEM's OT team leverages the automatic O&M capability offered by the new solution to realize the efficient network management and monitoring, as well as fast fault diagnosis, thereby improving the efficiency and quality of manual O&M.

• Huawei OptiXtrans E6616 is one of the most cutting-edge products among similar platforms in the industry. With this product on board, CEM has fulfilled its commitment to ensuring secure and reliable development of power communication networks. According to the technical lead of CEM, the high reliability, easy evolution, and easy O&M features of Huawei NHP solution and E6616 products can fully satisfy CEM's communication network development requirements in the future.

Aiming at achieving smart energy and sustainable development as well as realizing smart and clean energy management, CEM builds a new ICT system based on OSU OTN electric power plane B optical communication networks. The communication networks can satisfy the current and future requirements of various business departments, laying a solid and reliable optical communication foundation for the digital transformation of services. This supports Macao's long-term needs as a smart city, enabling business development.