Intelligent power service helps firms, households

In Changxing county, Huzhou, Zhejiang province, Zhu Wei, the county's Party chief, has an ambitious plan to upgrade the traditional industry-heavy county to forge more industrial clusters through several projects.

Currently, the number of newly signed, newly launched and completed projects worth over 100 million yuan ($13.9 million) each have all surpassed 100 annually in the East China county.

Changxing is focusing on developing new energy vehicles and greening its key textile, building material and battery sectors, Zhu said.

"We aim to see the output value of emerging industrial clusters exceed 100 billion yuan," Zhu said, adding that manufacturing is the foundation of the county whose population tops 682,000.

At the Changxing-based production facility of NEV maker Geely, fully automated intelligent robots are working accurately and precisely, delivering a new vehicle off the assembly line each minute.

To boost local industrial development, electricity is providing a solid foundation, and its sufficient supply is vital, said local property manager Qiu Xingchao.

Qiu was a little worried after learning that two transmission lines near his property were stressed by the power needs of 50 enterprises and 2,916 households.

Located in Si'an town, his Fenglian Beautiful-Home Project is one of the support facilities for a group of enterprises in Changhe district under expansion or ready-for-operation.

"I was told that the 10 kilovolt Fuqian No 958 Line and Nanyuan 960 Line, both located within the Yangtze River Delta (Huzhou) Industrial Cooperation Zone, cannot meet people's growing needs for electric power due to their outdated old switches," he said.

So he approached Wang Xing, deputy director of the uninterrupted power operation department at Changxing Electric Power Co of State Grid, for a way out.

"We found the maximum load of the two lines had reached its limit, so we had to find a way out to keep up with the demand for higher-quality power," Wang said.

"As State Grid shoulders a dual task of safeguarding the country's energy security and also being its economic lifeline, we must promptly solve problems without affecting the normal lives of both enterprises and households," he said.

After discussions, Wang and his colleagues decided to install intelligent switches on the electric wires for the upgraded distribution network, allowing them to not have to stop transmitting electricity while technicians were at work.

On May 14, four technicians in two groups from the Si'an Substation arrived at the worksite to carry out the replacement of switches on the two lines.

Qiu was happy to see the replacement being carried out successfully in just a few hours.

"Thank you very much for the immense help," he said to Wang.

Before departing for the job, team leader Lu Wei explained precautions to the team members, noting that "as a technological breakthrough, intelligent switches will greatly benefit our clients".

"When the line trips due to a short or malfunction, the intelligent switch will automatically turn off to ensure normal power supply at the front end of the line, while the back-end contact switch will automatically turn on to ensure back-end power supply," said Lu, adding that this can also help them accurately locate and isolate the problematic section.

By focusing on digital transformation, State Grid Changxing Electric Power Co has made technical breakthroughs in upgrading local power lines, thus offering sufficient electricity for the county, Lu said.

Lu added that in order to build a modern intelligent power distribution network, they will soon upgrade projects including the 110kV Zhaoshan substation line connection, Xianshanhu National Wetland Park power supply guarantee, 110kV Si'an substation grid structure adjustment, and the diversion and automation transformation for the original 10kV line branch.