Countries around the world are displaying the ways in which they are meeting their electricity demand with renewable sources, whether Albania, Iceland or Uruguay. These are examples of places achieving nearly 100% reliance on hydro, wind, solar and geothermal sources.

Globally, other nations are also rapidly transitioning from fossil fuels to renewables. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), renewable capacity in the power sector reached 3,870GW in 2023, making up 86% of additional capacity.

This large-scale shift toward renewable energy is driven by a worldwide commitment to carbon neutrality. There are, however, challenges that stand in the way, including unpredictability in supply and the need for effective surplus energy management during peak production.

Addressing these issues requires innovative solutions and smart infrastructure. This is the view of David Sun, Vice President of Huawei and CEO of Huawei’s Electric Power Digitalisation Business Unit, who emphasises the importance of integrating digitalisation with electric power scenarios to maximise the value of intelligence.

“The main challenge for future power systems lies in transitioning from load-based power generation in certain environments to source-grid-load-storage interaction in uncertain environments,” he says in an exclusive interview with Energy Digital.

He says that to systematically maximise the value of digitalisation and intelligence, we must integrate digitalisation with electric power scenarios.

Digital and intelligent solutions transform global renewable energy

“Huawei’s outlook on power scenarios may not be from an insider’s point of view, but our fresh perspective can still provide valuable reference and input for power companies,” David says.

“We need to build grid-based sources, loads and networks. Grid-based sources, like weather forecasts, can provide accurate weather data to enhance the prediction accuracy of wind, solar, and hydro power generation.

“Grid-based loads involve the precise analysis and prediction of energy consumption behaviour. Grid-based networks enable the accurate collection of network status information, such as low voltage, reverse voltage overload, three-phase imbalance, active and reactive power, and asset running status. It is necessary to align these three grid-based capabilities with service strategies to achieve grid autonomy.”

David continues to highlight the integration of various energy management strategies in transformer districts, emphasising the need for efficient ‘brain’ control for grid autonomy and market-oriented interactions to balance supply and demand.

He believes power companies must build digital capabilities based on strong digital foundations and open ecosystems, with key components including ubiquitous network connection, intelligent computing and a comprehensive digital platform.

“These will become the new strategic assets of power enterprises,” he continues. “In the digital era, no single player can solve all pain points. Hierarchical decoupling, modularisation and converged innovation are indispensable. Open, digital and intelligent ecosystems must be created, including for algorithms, applications, edge computing and terminals.

“These ecosystems will allow industry and cross-industry capabilities to be used by customers on demand.”

Another point he addresses is the challenge facing new power systems — which he says lies in the power distribution network.

“In addition to improving power supply reliability and reducing line loss, future power systems also need to deal with challenges brought by new energy and new loads,” David explains.

“Huawei will continue to focus on its core strengths of communications, digitalisation, and AI and, in areas such as applications, data, hardware and integration services, Huawei will partner with industry companies and ecosystem partners to jointly solve problems and create value.”

Source: Energy.DIGITAL