State Grid's smart grid investment will exceed 300 billion yuan this year

State Grid released its 2011 Social Responsibility Report in Beijing on the 21st, which was the first central government to publish a social responsibility report during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period. In its commitment to social responsibility, State Grid said that the investment in its strong smart grid will exceed 300 billion yuan this year, and it is expected to solve the power problem of more than 400,000 people without electricity.

Cao Zhian, deputy general manager of the State Grid, presented the results achieved in 2011 in transforming the development mode of the power grid: the 1,000 kV UHV AC expansion project was put into operation and the load was steadily transferred to 5 million kilowatts, which fully verified the safety of UHV transmission. With economy, the commissioning of the Qinghai-Tibet network project has fundamentally solved the problem of power shortage in Tibet; a number of initiatives have supported the integration of wind power into the grid; the company has installed more than 42 million kilowatts of grid-connected wind power in the company's operating area; and has installed and used 51.62 million smart meters.

“An important breakthrough has also been made in the reform of the institutional mechanism. The separation of main and auxiliary power reforms has been successfully completed. 121 subsidiaries, 85.4 billion yuan worth of assets, and 218,000 employees have been transferred smoothly,” Cao Zhian added.

As the most critical enterprise for the allocation of power resources, the State Grid Power Market completed a transaction volume of 399.687 billion kWh last year, an increase of 11.54% year-on-year. It is worth noting that in the case of only two in-service lines, a total of 12.841 billion kWh of UHV electricity was completed last year. In addition, last year also completed a large coal power trading volume of 122.44 billion kwh, a large hydropower trading power of 100.668 billion kwh.

According to another report, in order to improve operational efficiency, the State Grid is also coordinating the reform and reorganization of its directly-affiliated units, separating the scientific research and industry supporting the core business, and setting up various industrial groups and scientific research units that focus on each other. Build first-class equipment manufacturing bases such as smart grids, electricians and electrical appliances, and accelerate the industrialization of direct current transmission, UHV series compensation, and smart chips.

“In the procurement of equipment, we actively promote the localization of equipment and adopt procurement policies that are conducive to localization.” State Grid reported to reporters that the company has established a comprehensive bidding procurement standard system, covering 95 types of equipment and materials, and power grid equipment. The level of general-purpose swaps has also increased significantly. Last year, the amount of centralized tender procurement was 230.6 billion yuan.

According to the reporter’s commitment to the social responsibility of the State Grid, the company will invest more than 300 billion yuan in the construction of a strong smart grid this year, and the national power market will have a transaction volume of more than 410 billion kilowatt-hours. The funds used for the development of core technologies and key equipment are up to 8 billion yuan, and plans to implement new electricity-free regional electrification projects during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period. It is expected that in 2012, 96,000 households with more than 400,000 people without electricity will solve the electricity problem.

It is reported that this report is intended to promptly disclose to the various parties in society before the two sessions of the country the responsibility for the company’s performance in the previous year and its commitment for the following year. According to the requirements of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission meeting held at the end of last year, the Central SOE Social Responsibility Working Conference, by the end of 2012, all central enterprises must release social responsibility reports to the community.