State Grid to ramp up innovation efforts

State Grid Corp will further its innovation efforts and continue to invest in the country's high voltage, charging pile and new digital infrastructure sectors as it looks to unlock fresh growth opportunities from China's technology upgrade and industrial reforms.

The utility firm will increase the fixed investment on high voltage, charging pile and new digital infrastructure to 460 billion yuan ($68.4 billion) this year, which in turn would stimulate social investment of up to 900 billion yuan, said Mao Weiming, chairman of State Grid.

Investments in the power grid and related industries during the next five years will exceed 6 trillion yuan, he said.

According to Mao, the company, which offers services to over 1.1 billion people across 26 regions, has been stepping up efforts to build a nationwide smart charging network, which aims to promote data-sharing between various charging companies. The network currently has 775,000 charging piles, and has effectively functioned as a green transportation platform for electric cars.

The open platform, the world's biggest charging pile platform in terms of numbers, has attracted more than 100 charging pile companies till now. At least 1 million charging piles are expected to be connected to the platform by the end of this year to help electric vehicle users in the country, according to State Grid Electric Vehicle Service Co, a subsidiary of State Grid.

Kou Nannan, head of China research with BloombergNEF's advanced transport sector, said China's future charging market looks bright as the charging pile sector is expected to see steady growth as the COVID-19 effect on the new energy vehicle sector diminishes in China.

Mao from State Grid said the company will focus on core and key technologies and invest more than 80 billion yuan by 2025 on technology research and development to promote the safe and steady operation of the country's power industry and supply chain, he said.

The State-owned enterprises play a key role in boosting the modernization and stability of industrial and supply chains in the country, he said.

According to Wei Hanyang, a power market analyst at Bloomberg New Energy, State Grid achieved a utilization rate of 56 percent in its direct-current ultrahigh voltage grids last year, compared to 44 percent in 2018, the highest since UHV became mainstream in China.

The utility firm said it would reduce electricity costs by as much as 92.6 billion yuan this year to reduce social energy costs.

After two years' efforts of reducing power costs, electricity charges in China are at a reasonably low level now, said Mao.

He said the company has also been working on improving electricity services in the country, including power efficiency and process of power access to further improve the business environment.

Its efforts have led to cost savings of more than 100 billion yuan for small and medium-sized enterprises in the past three years. State Grid will continue to focus on improving power access, ensuring a higher power efficiency and stable power supplies, which are not only important for the market operations of business entities but also guarantees a sound business environment, said Mao.