Huawei IDS Delivers Electric Power Intelligence

Countries as diverse as Albania, Iceland, and Uruguay are leading the way when it comes to meeting electricity demands with renewable energy. Hydro, wind, solar, and geothermal are all used to provide close to 100% of those countries’ electricity needs, and other countries are quickly shifting their energy sourcing from fossil fuels to renewables.

According to the recent report (March 2024) Renewable Capacity Statistics 2024 produced by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), renewables in the power sector reached 3,870GW in 2023, accounting for 86% of additional capacity.

The drive towards carbon neutrality and net zero is clearly driving the adoption of new energy worldwide. However, we are well aware of some of the challenges we face with renewables, such as an unpredictable and uncertain supply, and how to manage and store surplus energy during peak production.

“The main challenge for future power systems lies in transitioning from load-based power generation in certain environments to source-grid-load-storage interaction in uncertain environments,” says David Sun, Vice President of Huawei and CEO of Huawei’s Electric Power Digitalisation Business Unit.

He says that to systematically maximise the value of digitalisation and intelligence, we must integrate digitalisation with electric power scenarios. 

“Huawei's outlook on power scenarios may not be from an insider's point of view, but our fresh perspective can still provide valuable reference and input for power companies,” says David. 

“We need to build grid-based sources, loads and networks. Grid-based sources, like weather forecasts, can provide accurate weather data to enhance the prediction accuracy of wind, solar, and hydro power generation. 

“Grid-based loads involve the precise analysis and prediction of energy consumption behaviour. Grid-based networks enable the accurate collection of network status information, such as low voltage, reverse voltage overload, three-phase imbalance, active and reactive power, and asset running status. It is necessary to align these three grid-based capabilities with service strategies to achieve grid autonomy.”

David cites the example of a transformer district, where service strategies include traditional power consumption, distributed PV access, charging pile group management and control, energy storage interaction, and user interaction. In addition, ‘brain’ control needs to be efficiently linked to achieve grid autonomy. 

We also need to create space for market-oriented interaction. Market-oriented mechanisms support efficient and precise interaction on the demand side to achieve a balance between supply and demand.

Power companies must also build digital capabilities centred on digital foundations and open ecosystems to address the challenges of new power systems.

“The digital foundation consists of three core capabilities: ubiquitous network connection, powerful intelligent computing, and a digital platform that accumulates enterprise know-how assets,” says David. 

“These will become the new strategic assets of power enterprises. In the digital era, no single player can solve all pain points. Hierarchical decoupling, modularisation, and converged innovation are indispensable. Open, digital and intelligent ecosystems must be created, including for algorithms, applications, edge computing, and terminals. These ecosystems will allow industry and cross-industry capabilities to be used by customers on demand.”

In March 2022, Huawei set up a dedicated team for the power industry – the Electric Power Digitalisation Business Unit. Its scope covers R&D, marketing, sales, service, and ecosystem construction. Aiming to build a bridge between key power scenario requirements and digital technologies, it is committed to pairing digital and intelligent communication technologies to the right scenarios.

“The core challenge facing new power systems lies in the power distribution network,” explains David. “In addition to improving power supply reliability and reducing line loss, future power systems also need to deal with challenges brought by new energy and new loads. 

“In China, we worked with partners to help State Grid Shaanxi build the Intelligent Distribution Solution (IDS) featuring ‘cloud-pipe-edge-pipe-device’ synergy. This enabled the company to evolve from the single-point digitalisation of transformer districts and power distribution rooms to architecture-supported, evolvable, open, and systematic intelligence.”

Four key technologies were deployed in the digital foundation:

• The edge computing unit (ECU) integrated multiple terminals in the transformer district and functions as the smart brain of the edge. Powered by the cloud, the ECU enables edge devices to be quickly upgraded online. This has enabled transformer district managers to become creative mini CEOs.
• Optical fibre and wireless networks were deployed for backhaul. Building a reliable distribution backhaul communication network can be a significant challenge. Optical fibres can be deployed in cities and strategic areas to support real-time access of services. In wide-coverage areas, communication backhaul can be implemented through carrier public networks or wireless private networks.
• High-speed power line carrier communication (HPLC) dual-mode technology solved the problem of last-mile communication. HPLC can deliver 99.9% communication reliability, which supports minute-level data collection and second-level control for low-voltage transparency.
• A cloud-based, unified enterprise digital platform acts as the smart OS. By building the enterprise-level unified data foundation, unified AI model factory, and unified IoT platform, State Grid Shaanxi was able to leverage these knowledge assets.

“Huawei also helps customers build an open ecosystem,” says David. “We are committed to eliminating industry barriers and making industry and cross-industry digital capabilities available to all industry players through integration and innovation. 

“At the Electric Power Digitalisation BU, we strive to empower electric power experts with digital expertise and help customers build systematic digital capabilities for sustainable development.”

The results of using the digital foundation and open ecosystem were clear for State Grid Shaanxi. In blind tests, accuracy reached 100%, the daily frozen data collection success rate reached 99.98%, abnormal events were reported within one second, and power outages were notified within three minutes. 

This has enabled State Grid Shaanxi to change its operation model from passive response to proactive service, greatly improving user satisfaction. 

In addition to power distribution, Huawei also offers intelligent power generation, transmission, and transformation solutions. 

“Huawei will continue to focus on its core strengths of communications, digitalisation, and AI,” says David. 

“In areas such as applications, data, hardware, and integration services, Huawei will partner with industry companies and ecosystem partners to jointly solve problems and create value.”

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