'Black technology' ensures power grid security during peak summer period

On June 24, at the 220-kilovolt Tianwang Substation in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, the State Grid Zhenjiang Power Supply Company successfully put into operation a substation maintenance auxiliary robot. During the substation renovation, it completed tasks such as high-precision and high-efficiency cable stripping, constant-temperature welding, and cable verification, effectively addressing the problems of unstable quality and low efficiency in traditional manual stripping, welding and other operation processes. This has led to the significant improvement of on-site work efficiency at the substation during the peak summer period. This is also the first set of intelligent auxiliary robots to conduct cable operations of substation control and protection systems in Jiangsu.

In the past, cable operations mainly relied on manual operations, which were tedious, inefficient, and had high labor costs. Statistics show that more than 70 percent of such cable failures are caused by unstable quality of manual stripping and welding. With the continuous improvement of the intelligence level of the power grid, the requirements for equipment stability are also higher, with the traditional substation maintenance operation mode no longer able to meet the development needs of the power grid. Since April 2023, State Grid Zhenjiang Power Supply Company successfully developed the substation maintenance auxiliary robot in two years, innovatively realizing functions such as cable adaptive stripping, intelligent constant-temperature welding, and automatic verification, effectively improving the quality of on-site operations and shortening the inspection and power outage time.

It is understood that after the robot is put into operation, for the renovation project of a 220-kilovolt substation, the power outage operation time will be shortened by more than 20 percent, and the labor cost will be reduced by about 30 percent, ensuring stable and reliable power supply during the peak summer period.