International Forum for Energy Transition organized in China

To address challenges posed by the climate imperative and seek solutions through dialogue, State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) in collaboration with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), World Economic Forum (WEF) and leading power utilities from across the world, hosted an International Forum for Energy Transition in Beijing, China in hybrid format on Sept 9.

The forum featured leading speakers across a spectrum of stakeholders including government officials, diplomats, global energy experts and CEOs of power utilities and experts who shared insights on the urgency to address climate change, the need to accelerate the energy transition and enablers to achieve carbon neutrality.

“Clean electricity will be the backbone of the energy system and grids will be a focal point. When it comes to converting vision into action, while it is important to sustain our focus on innovation and development, most technologies to achieve near and medium-term goals already exist, we must accelerate deployment”, said Claudio Facchin, CEO of Hitachi ABB Power Grids.

China has consistently invested in the development of its power grid, with leading entities like SGCC continually pushing the boundaries of technology. Concrete examples include the Changji-Guquan UHVDC link, capable of transporting 12,000 megawatts of electricity - equivalent to 12 large power plants over 3000+ km; the ZhangBei DC grid for large scale renewable integration and delivery of clean power, with its hybrid VSC/LCC technology for the Beijing Winter Olympics; Asset performance management (APM) as an example of digitalization to realize on-line monitoring, health diagnosis of the equipment and optimize operation and maintenance of all critical assets.

”What’s needed most to accelerate the energy transition is collaboration across stakeholders, sectors and geographies and innovation in policies and regulations to achieve ‘scale’ and ‘speed’ of deployment”, said Claudio, when asked to highlight some key enablers to accelerate the energy transition.

Hitachi ABB Power Grids also showcased its leading technologies at the forum’s virtual exhibition, including the company’s pioneering HVDC technology, power quality solutions, Asset Performance Management (APM), TXpert^™ ecosystem of digital transformers and EconiQ^™ eco-efficient high voltage portfolio.