The Seventy-Two Transformations for Integrated Energy Service Practitioners (I): Introduction

The Seventy-Two Transformations for Integrated Energy Service Practitioners (I): Introduction

The venerable actor Liu Xiao Ling Tong, often praised as an artist of both virtue and skill, has a favorite saying: “Master the Seventy-Two Transformations, and face the Eighty-One Trials with a smile.” That line feels especially fitting when applied to integrated energy services.

Why is that?

Many people working in the integrated energy service industry can probably relate all too well to those “eighty-one trials”: customers seem to be everywhere at first glance, yet after pursuing them for a while they disappear without a trace; a user’s energy consumption may be as immense as the Flaming Mountains, yet somehow you still cannot find the “banana-leaf fan” that can reduce energy use and costs; and just when you finally identify the right application scenario and the right customer, they are suddenly snatched away by some little “demons” that appear out of nowhere. Whenever one runs into situations like these, it is hard not to feel frustrated and sigh at one’s lack of the Great Sage’s abilities.

In fact, if you want to work in integrated energy services, it is difficult to get by without a full set of solid, hard-earned skills—the equivalent of the Seventy-Two Transformations.

First, integrated energy spans every link in the chain: energy production, generation, storage, consumption, and conservation. Each link is itself intertwined with countless others. Practitioners often “cannot see the true face of Mount Lu because they are in the mountain themselves”: they cannot sort out the relationships, identify the crux of the problem, or know where to begin.

Second, integrated energy services involve different forms of energy and the conversion among them. Transformations between cooling, heating, motive power, and electricity bring in a wide range of technologies and methods. The deeper one goes, the more it resembles a kaleidoscope—so dazzling and complex that it becomes hard to know what to do.

Third, integrated energy services involve many different disciplines. Although the issue to be solved is energy, energy solutions do not exist in a vacuum. Their construction and implementation also require knowledge and skills in engineering, economics, and many other areas.

Fourth, integrated energy services serve many different types of users. Different users may vary completely in energy characteristics and functional needs, and even customers within the same category may differ greatly due to region, scale, and other factors. Practitioners need to understand both the big picture and the local realities if they hope to prescribe the right remedy for the right problem.

Finally—and most importantly—integrated energy services are closely tied to technological progress. For humanity, the energy problem is both real and urgent. Under such circumstances, it is far too risky to simply wait for a revolutionary technology that will solve everything once and for all. That is why we must rely on integrated energy approaches, with their continuous iteration and evolution of technologies and business models, to ease the energy and environmental crisis. Through ongoing technological and model-based improvement, we aim—within the limits of current science—to delay or even resolve the energy crisis. It is no exaggeration to say that every practitioner in the integrated energy industry is an unsung hero, like those in The Wandering Earth, working to save humanity’s future. Therefore, constantly learning about the latest technological advances and applying them flexibly in the right scenarios is both the most important requirement and the greatest challenge for practitioners in this field.

Within the foreseeable future, the rapid development of information sciences such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing is allowing humanity to accumulate, in a short time, experience and lessons that might once have taken centuries or even millennia to obtain. This creates new possibilities for scientific breakthroughs and for progress in energy services, and it is a factor we cannot ignore. Meanwhile, continuing advances in artificial sun technology and the successful imaging of black holes both reflect humanity’s tireless pursuit of nature and science. The energy technologies and products that continue to emerge and improve through these efforts also provide conditions for the advancement of integrated energy services. As a forward-looking discipline, integrated energy services therefore demand that their practitioners possess a similarly forward-looking attitude and vision.

This series of articles aims to provide practitioners in the integrated energy service industry with the basic skills needed to face those “eighty-one trials” with confidence, through systematic organization and synthesis. Of course, this skill set cannot be mastered overnight by hearing a few magic formulas in the middle of the night. It includes foundational theory, applied theory, case sharing, engineering practice, and technological foresight; it covers different energy forms and links such as wind, solar, electricity, and storage; it addresses practical work and case studies for different user types in integrated energy services; and it also involves knowledge and skills related to equipment, engineering, and economics, as well as forward-looking technologies and directions. Each part will be explained as much as possible from an application-oriented perspective, in a way that is accessible and easy to understand. Even so, true mastery still requires a basic foundation in mathematics and physics, as well as a fundamental understanding of the integrated energy industry.

Of course, the field of integrated energy is all-encompassing. Limited by the author’s own experience and perspective, this discussion will inevitably be incomplete, and errors may be hard to avoid. I only hope that readers will not hesitate to point out mistakes and will share more valuable knowledge and experience from their own areas of expertise, so that we may learn from one another’s strengths and continue to improve together.

As the Book of Songs says: “As if cut, as if filed; as if carved, as if polished.” Integrated energy services are an industry that requires constant renewal and progress, and the same is true of those who work in it. Even after Sun Wukong mastered the Seventy-Two Transformations, the journey to the West was still fraught with hardship. In my view, when facing the Eighty-One Trials, something even more important than the skill of transformation is perseverance and strength of will.

The road ahead is long and arduous.