State Grid Weifang powers 'dawn-star' factories

As a growing constellation of "Dawn-Star Factories" taps into China's digital economy, the State Grid Weifang Power Supply Company is deploying tailored, high-precision services to ensure uninterrupted, high-quality electricity for these data-intensive enterprises.

With a cluster in Shandong province, "Dawn-Star Factories" are highly innovative, demonstrably effective and economically efficient enterprises whose operations are fully driven by real-time data. To maintain continuous production, sub-millisecond control and nanometer-level precision, these factories demand power reliability and quality beyond standard utility benchmarks.

Inside the expansive workshop of Shandong Kuangji Huaneng Equipment Manufacturing Co Ltd, a 35-metric-ton automatic roller-press machine aligns components with sub-millimeter accuracy, while an enclosed, dust-free coating line applies corrosion-resistant finishes. The entire process is monitored by an intelligent control system. On a smart surveillance wall, each moving light corresponds to an underground worker equipped with a wearable device.

"This device integrates positioning, voice and data communications, emergency alerts, paging and environmental sensing," said Qin Decai, board secretary of Shandong Kuangji Group Co Ltd.

The established firm is incorporating digital technologies into its bulk-material handling and building-materials machinery, while also expanding into intelligent welding robots, which have shown strong market traction.

Kuangji Huaneng is a flagship example of Weifang's "smart retrofit and digital transformation" initiative. Earlier this month, Shandong released the 2025 pilot list for "Dawn-Star Factories" — 229 enterprises from Weifang were selected, the most of any prefecture in the province.

To support them, the State Grid Weifang Power Supply Company is aligning its services with the evolving power demands of digital transformation. The utility offers science-based supply configurations and engineering consulting, accelerates power-access planning and grid infrastructure deployment, and develops customized assurance plans.

These include detailed power-diagnosis reports recommending peak-load shifting, power-factor optimization and other precision measures.