As a mainstay of high-quality development, new infrastructure is a big part of stabilizing investment, guaranteeing economic growth and encouraging consumption. It is also an engine to boost economic transformation and upgrading.
Increasing new infrastructure construction, developing new generation information networks, enlarging 5G applications, building charging piles and promoting new energy cars to encourage consumption and boost industrial upgrading have been included in this year's government work report.
It was the first time the concept of "new infrastructure" was included in the report.
In response to the national deployment on new infrastructure construction, China Southern Power Grid (CSG)'s power supply bureau in Jiangmen, South China's Guangdong province has been devoted to installation of 5G base station power equipment and smart grid construction to promote high-quality development of the hometowns of overseas Chinese.
Comprehensive service to boost new infrastructure construction in Jiangmen
5G technology has become a component of the new infrastructure that promotes development of digital China, network power grids and a smart society. Its development relies significantly on power supply and all-round service.
To better serve 5G base station construction, the Jiangmen power supply bureau cooperated with China Comservice and China Tower Corporation Limited (China Tower) and launched a green passage for power use applications, electric invoicing and emergency repairs by simplifying application procedures, reducing application materials and completing all procedures at one time.
A special regional account manager has been arranged to quickly meet power demands of 5G base station construction.
The bureau will follow the national price policy and support government departments to inform direct and indirect power suppliers for 5G base station about how electricity prices for base station operation can be lowered.
To date, the bureau has helped telecommunications operators complete construction of 1,376 5G base stations and renovate 130 stations.
Moreover, the bureau has made efforts to meet power demands of new infrastructure in other fields like construction of data centers and new energy car charging facilities.
For example, the Jiangmen bureau's branch in Heshan has invested more than 8 million yuan ($1.13 million) in the Bluesea Mobile IDC Big Data Industrial Park in Guangdong to meet its long-term power demands.
A double-lane 10kV power line of automated devices was also built by the Heshan branch as were connections of optical fiber communication, which enable such automated functions as real-time monitoring of data, automatic fault isolation and exceptional data analysis and provide the park with sufficient and reliable power supply.
Developing co-construction and sharing mode to accelerate new infrastructure construction
The Jiangmen power supply bureau recently signed an agreement with China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom)'s branch in Jiangmen on cooperation in 5G applications in the smart power grid field.
According to the agreement, the two sides will make full use of 5G networks, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), big data and the internet of things and take advantage of their own specialties to develop 5G plus power grid research.
The first cooperative project is 5G technology application in the 220 kV transmission and transformation project in Paobu village of Jiangmen.
It is the first 5G plus smart construction site power grid infrastructure project in Jiangmen and multiple smart control measures including intelligent video monitoring, facial recognition-based real name management, virtual reality (VR) safety disclosure and large-scale mechanical facility group protection will be realized in its construction.
Xia Bin, director of the infrastructure department of the Jiangmen power supply bureau, said that China Telecom designed a special 5G communication network with super high bandwidth, ultra-low time delay and good connected performance. The features greatly support the constant monitoring of the construction site.
He added that the 5G network also played a role in prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The two sides will continue to develop integration of 5G and smart power grids and initiate 5G upgrading and renovation in smart shipment inspection of transmission and transformation projects, automated power distribution room construction, intelligent service hall and emergency conditions to promote high-quality development of grid construction and the regional economy.
Devoting to upgrading of smart power grid construction
Different from traditional infrastructure construction, new infrastructure construction adopts digital and intelligent technologies.
Building smart grids is a focus of the Jiangmen power supply bureau.
According to Chen Yongchang, vice-director of the bureau’s planning center, the bureau is now working on high-quality development by building safe, reliable, green and highly-efficient smart grids in accordance with China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).
He explained that the construction of a smart grid includes building a transformer substation, a power distribution room and carrying out inspections.
After years of development, the transmission grid in Jiangmen has basically realized the goal of digital information, networking of communication platform, standardization of information sharing and interaction of advanced applications, which greatly improves security and reliability of the grid's operation and maintenance.
In 2019, the bureau initiated an experimental project to build the Jianghai power grid into a smart grid demonstration model.
The project is expected to widely use technologies like the internet of things, telecommunications, state inspection, robots and big data analysis to build a digital grid network.
It's worth mentioning that the Jiangmen power supply bureau has adopted unmanned aerial vehicles in power grid inspection since this January. Carrying high definition (HD) cameras, images filmed by the drones can help maintenance technicians complete all-round and close inspections. The technology will be promoted in all grid inspections in Jiangmen.
(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)
