Digital energy industry to boost power sector

"We will continue to research new energy, new materials and new components to make breakthroughs in key technologies, laying a solid technical foundation for green infrastructure for information and communications technology and enhancing the depth and breadth of digital technologies for traditional high-energy industries," said Chen Zhiping, vice-president of ZTE.

A report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology said digital technology should be deeply integrated with the electrical, industrial, construction and transportation sectors, which generate large carbon emissions. That would reduce power consumption, optimize energy structure and cut costs for traditional industries, it said.

The report said digital technology can play a key role in coping with global climate change and achieving carbon neutrality.

The number of newly registered domestic enterprises engaged in fields like digital energy, photovoltaic power, new energy and energy management was 56,700 in 2021, up 154.93 percent on a yearly basis, according to Qichacha, a company that tracks business registrations.

Tech behemoth Huawei invested 3 billion yuan ($471 million) in establishing a subsidiary engaged in digital energy in June. Company officials said Huawei Digital Power is committed to integrating digital and power electronics technologies to help industries save energy and reduce emissions from both power generation and consumption.

Over the next 30 to 40 years, advances in intelligence and low-carbon technology will continue to gain traction, Hou Jinlong, senior vice-president of Huawei and president of Huawei Digital Power, said at a December tech summit. "Going 'intelligent' requires digital technologies, while decreasing our carbon footprint requires power electronics technologies. As these trends progress, the global energy industry will change from resource-dependent to technology-driven," Hou said.

By pursuing innovation in clean power generation, energy digitalization, transportation electrification, green information and communications infrastructure and integrated smart energy, Huawei is working with global customers and partners to build low-carbon homes, factories, campuses, villages and cities, Hou said, adding that this will support the shift from a low-carbon world to a net-zero world.

Net zero signifies balancing greenhouse gases that go into the atmosphere with those that are taken out. It is characterized by using energy conservation and efficiency and renewable generation to account for a building's or a community's energy usage.

The company develops a clean power system that focuses on energy technologies such as wind, solar and energy storage, and leverages a combination of digital and power electronics technologies to reduce consumption during energy conversion, storage and use, thereby improving energy efficiency.

As of Sept 30, Huawei Digital Power had helped customers generate 443.5 billion kilowatt-hours of green power and save 13.6 billion kWh of electricity. This is equivalent to reducing carbon emissions by 210 million metric tons and planting 290 million trees.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, an industry association, said the application of cutting-edge digital technologies including the industrial internet, 5G and cloud computing in the process of energy collection, storage and transportation is conducive to reducing power consumption, improving energy efficiency and accelerating low-carbon transition.

Xiang highlighted the importance of fostering green and low-carbon development, which plays a vital role in promoting high-quality economic growth and addressing pollution.

In the meantime, traditional energy companies in China have also been accelerating digitalization with many of the country's traditional energy behemoths－such as China National Petroleum Corp, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp, China Southern Power Grid and State Power Investment Corpsetting up digital companies to accelerate digital transformation.

China National Petroleum, the country's largest oil and gas company, has applied operational technologies like supervisory control and data acquisition and programmable systems to optimize its digital transformation for efficient and safe operations. That also helps to achieve sustainability goals by leveraging artificial intelligence and the internet of things. IoT involves devices and other objects with software or sensors that allow them to connect and exchange data.

Oilfields are increasingly using digital technology and big data, which provide masses of instantly available information, to maintain or boost production, improve efficiency and boost production.

China National Petroleum's Tarim oilfield in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region has seen its quality control and management efficiency rise by 30 percent after its digital oilfield was set up in March.

Smart oilfields, which utilize hardware and information analysis strategies to expand the exploration and production operations of oil and gas, will become a new economic growth point for the oilfield, the company said.

As power generation is increasingly digitized, China Huaneng Group Co Ltd is also taking steps to create value from tech-enabled initiatives and establish new ways of working with lower operations and maintenance costs. The company's Ruijin power plant in Jiangxi province is the country's first large-scale smart power plant to apply the government-created Nationalized Distributed Control System and Supervisory Information System, using numerous technologies including digital electro-hydraulic controls. It was created to promote uninterrupted operation and ensure an immediate response should abnormalities occur, the company said.

China Huaneng Group said the Ruijin operation has become one of the most secure, clean and effective coal-fired power plants in the country, with tech-enabled transformation that combines new technologies with traditional improvements. The second phase of the plant was put into operation in December, it said.

Digital technologies are set to transform the global energy system in the coming decades, making it more connected, reliable and sustainable. That is expected to have a profound and lasting impact on both energy demand and supply, according to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization.

Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute, said digitalization of the sector is expected to create a more effective, economical and cleaner modern energy system with lower construction costs and higher energy efficiency.

"With the goals of reaching a carbon peak and carbon neutrality, traditional energy companies are being challenged to increase efficiency and lower costs at the same time, and only those that have been transforming the oil and gas value chain by enhancing connectivity, simplifying operation maintenance and prioritizing safety will survive," Luo said.

Big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence provide massive opportunities for traditional energy companies and will be an important breakthrough point for future energy transition, he added.