Innovation and Pathways Forward for Smart Energy Enterprises

Innovation and Pathways Forward for Smart Energy Enterprises

“Internet Plus” smart energy is, in essence, the “Energy Internet.” It refers to the integration of internet technologies with new energy and renewable energy technologies, supported by the Energy Physical Internet and internet-based platforms, to optimize the efficiency of the entire energy system. “Internet Plus” smart energy can play a strong enabling role in advancing smart grid development for power companies. It will have a positive impact on smart electricity use in areas such as distributed power generation and microgrids, industrial demand-side power management, smart household energy use, and electric vehicle charging and battery swapping.

(1) Expanding smart electricity functions through data mining and forecasting in the internet era. In an internet-enabled environment, energy companies can use big data technologies to analyze, mine, and forecast data such as equipment conditions and power loads. This helps power companies build a strong foundational data resource pool. Through real-time collection, analysis, mining, and big data analytics of customer-side electricity loads, and with the support of existing multi-service application platforms, companies can expand integrated smart electricity functions and improve energy efficiency.

(2) Innovation in smart distribution networks in the internet era. By building an Energy Internet that enables coordination and complementarity among multiple energy sources, power companies can better leverage their technological advantages in distributed generation, energy storage-enabled smart microgrids, and active distribution networks. This will make it possible to establish two-way communication and intelligent control between power equipment and end-use terminals, gradually create an open and shared energy network, promote technological innovation and clean development, and foster integrated innovation among the internet, new energy, and renewable energy technologies.

(3) New internet-based energy service models that drive the development of electricity substitution technologies. By promoting the application of electricity substitution technologies such as electric vehicles and shore power at ports, expanding demand-side power management, and launching pilot programs for regional green electricity trading services, energy efficiency can be improved. This will help power companies better coordinate energy production and consumption, advance the application and industrial development of electric vehicles and electricity substitution technologies, enhance corporate competitiveness, and promote energy conservation and emissions reduction.

(4) Business innovation on customer platforms to enable value-added operating models. In response to the industrial transformation goals of flattening energy systems and upgrading power-use facilities with smart technologies, as well as the development of digital, networked, and intelligent electrical equipment and the broad application of cloud computing and multi-dimensional data collection technologies, power companies can make full use of open, interactive, and real-time platforms to further innovate and expand business models. They can develop new services such as home energy efficiency management, create new models for personalized customized services and energy efficiency management, and build a new shared energy network operating model based on co-construction and resource sharing.

(5) Deep integration of the internet and services to improve the user electricity experience. The deep integration of the internet and services is not simply about moving power supply services online. Rather, it means incorporating internet thinking, methods, and technologies; taking the customer as the center; being market-oriented; being driven by big data applications; and targeting customer satisfaction. By focusing on the entire service process, companies can build a service chain with highly responsive front-end touchpoints and highly coordinated back-end support, promote seamless connection among service channels, between front-end and back-end systems, and across related specialties, and transform grid enterprises from passive and extensive service providers into proactive and innovative consumer service operators.

In the internet era, low-voltage customers can apply for capacity expansion and new connections through online channels such as WeChat and mobile apps, while the work-order dispatch system automatically assigns tasks to relevant personnel for on-site operations. Using mobile work terminals, field staff can complete information verification, determine the power supply plan, sign electronic contracts, install metering devices, and energize the service on site, thus providing low-voltage customers with a “one-stop” electricity service experience.

Differentiated services based on customer credit. Power supply companies can cooperate with credit reporting agencies to jointly build and share credit information. For customers with good credit, they can provide extended services such as health inspections of receiving equipment and energy-use guidance. For customers with poor credit, they can adopt measures such as shorter settlement cycles, fee preservation arrangements (such as advance collection and account freezing), and prepaid control mechanisms.

Precision energy consumption services based on customer profiling. Companies should actively carry out big data analysis and mining, build panoramic customer profiles in the form of a “tag library,” and create multidimensional, multi-level, and multi-perspective customer views for refined characterization of customer traits. Based on different customer characteristics, they can provide differentiated services for electricity applications, bill reminders, payment collection, and consultation, and proactively and accurately recommend electricity plans, bill-advance credit services, smart home energy-saving programs, distributed power access, and other electricity-related products and services.

Self-service outage reporting and repair based on LBS (location-based services). With LBS, the location of a customer-reported outage can be automatically identified, and the fault point can be intelligently located. Through internet-based channels, the outage repair process can be completed while fault information and repair progress are communicated in real time, enabling self-service outage reporting, targeted updates on repair progress, and convenient inquiries about planned outages in specific local areas.

Proactive neighborhood load forecasting and demand-side response. By establishing cooperation channels with external parties such as manufacturers, e-commerce platforms, physical retailers, and logistics companies, utilities can obtain data on sales of high-power electrical appliances and users’ geographic information. This allows them to build neighborhood load forecasting models based on appliance sales data and provide foundational support for distribution network upgrades. During peak electricity demand periods, utilities can automatically identify customers within the supply range of overloaded distribution transformers, prompt them to reduce major appliance loads, and provide incentives and compensation to customers who respond in real time, thereby achieving demand-side response at the neighborhood level.

Operational hosting services for power retailers based on the SaaS (Software as a Service) business model. By leveraging the technical capabilities, infrastructure, service channels, and big data resources of grid enterprises, utilities can provide power retailers with the business operation platforms and differentiated managed services required for enterprise information-based operations, supporting key functions such as metering and billing, demand-side response, customer service, and distributed energy management.

Building an innovative system for smart interactive electricity services in the internet environment will help drive the transformation of grid enterprises from product suppliers to service providers, from management-oriented mechanisms to operations-oriented mechanisms, and from single-service models to diversified service offerings. This will comprehensively enhance market consumption capacity, customer relationship management, channel operation capability, resource coordination capability, and technology application capability, while successfully shaping a power service brand that is “safe, convenient, and intelligent.”

The internet economy has given rise to new economic forms, providing enterprises and individuals with a platform for mass innovation and entrepreneurship. At the same time, it is penetrating and reshaping the traditional economy, driving the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. Power companies should take value creation as the central thread, coordinate resources across all parties, and comprehensively promote the transformation from “grid enterprises” to “modern integrated energy service enterprises,” thereby supporting the energy revolution, advancing industrial transformation, and underpinning national economic and social development.

First, they should accelerate research on key technologies to support the scientific development of smart electricity use. By implementing an innovation-driven development strategy and seizing new opportunities created by the national push for smart energy construction, companies should carry out research on key technologies such as power-and-fiber co-cable transmission, integrated public service networks, distributed generation, smart microgrids, active distribution networks, and intelligent user terminals. They should also advance standards innovation and upgrading in the “Internet Plus” field, make forward-looking decisions and plans, and seize the high ground in the practical application of “Internet Plus” in smart electricity use.

Second, they should deepen end-use energy management and innovate home energy efficiency management models. By leveraging their vast user base, companies should advance the application of big data and cloud platforms, improve methods for energy efficiency assessment and intelligent control, focus on networking, intelligence, and coordination, innovate operating models, expand business development, and further improve the customer energy consumption experience.

Third, they should promote coordinated and complementary energy development and realize an open and shared energy network. This requires strengthening horizontal coordination across departments, comprehensively improving power supply service levels, deepening research into the technical conditions and operating models for integrating intermittent energy sources such as distributed generation, microgrids, and electric vehicles, standardizing the development of customer-side power sources, and building an open and shared energy network linking power equipment and electricity-use terminals.

Fourth, they should carry out operational capability assessments to promote the practical application of various functions. With practical application as the guide, companies should study market development trends, evaluate profit expectations, learn from integrated “Internet Plus” application experience, incorporate smart electricity use into local “Internet Plus” action plans, improve service and management capabilities, strengthen multi-party cooperation, achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, innovate construction and operating models, and accelerate the practical deployment of application functions.