Lishui, Zhejiang: New system enhances urban flood control safety

The State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power Company has collaborated with the local Water Resources Bureau to conduct a smart joint emergency drill for hydropower in Lishui, Zhejiang on July 22. Since mid-July, Lishui, has experienced heavy rainstorms prompting the State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power Company to strengthen the smart protection of power facilities, improve flood control capabilities in key areas, and build a flood control safety defense line through scientific and technological innovation.

The drill focused on ensuring power supply during the peak summer season, with key links including accurate forecasting, blocking prevention, sensor early warning, drainage disposal, load transfer, and repair and recovery. Relying on the "Water, Electricity, Gas and Disaster Joint Prevention Smart Hub" system, dynamic data was integrated including hydrological monitoring, power grid load, and pump station operation, predicting the evolution trend of dangerous situations through AI algorithms. When the simulated strong typhoon triggered a red warning for urban waterlogging, the system immediately generated a waterlogging heat map and intelligently planned an optimal drainage path. When heavy rainfall caused a failure in the pump stations’ power supply network, the 10 kilovolt emergency generator was used to realize seamless power supply switching, ensuring the full-power operation and drainage of the flood drainage pump station, improving the response efficiency by nearly 60 percent.

During the drill, the State Grid Lishui Power Supply Company carried out preparatory work in advance based on meteorological forecast and early warning information. On duty personnel were mobilized along with emergency teams, repair materials were prepared, as well as evacuation plans, to ensure the seamless implementation of prevention and control measures by various departments in response to various flood situations and improve the accuracy and timeliness of flood warning responses. At the same time, the company also carried out meteorological research and judgment, emergency response, work order distribution, command and dispatch, and repair and disposal work by applying systems such as the precise meteorological disaster forecast and early warning system, the overflow alarm system, the intelligent power supply service command platform, and the "power grid map" and "emergency communication map". This helped test the functional practicability of multiple supporting systems.

Meanwhile, a new closed-loop management model for flood control has been established featuring "intelligent sensing and alarm - remote confirmation and decision-making - autonomous drainage in station areas". By installing cameras and low-level water immersion sensors in various substations and community distribution rooms, automatic alarms for water inflow in cable layers and cable trenches are realized. Traditional cement covers are replaced with metal grid covers and reinforced glass covers, enabling direct observation of water inflow and humidity conditions at the lowest points in the stations. Combined with the intelligent drainage system, this ensures that accumulated water in substations can be "seen, measured and drained".