It is said that 4G changed lives, but 5G transforms society. With its superior network capabilities, 5G can enable various production applications across industries. In the electric power industry, State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power Co., Ltd., together with local operators and Huawei, has commercially applied 5G technologies at scale in 10 kV distribution networks, seeing more than 5,000 5G service terminals be connected. They have commercially deployed 5G exclusive slices, which widely cover more than 1,000 base stations as well as transport networks, and enabled dedicated DNNs for 17 types of services in 11 cities across Zhejiang province. They built a 5G slice management system, which covers services such as production control and data collection. Their hard work resulted in the world-leading, province-wide large-scale commercial use of 5G power virtual private networks (VPNs), which are based on 5G wide-area slicing networks.
Cutting-edge 5G technologies empower the electric power industry.
5G Helps Build Integrated and Elastic Power Grids
With the rapid construction of new power systems, a large number of distributed power supplies, adjustable loads, and energy storage devices are connected to distribution networks for grid-connected operation. This shifts the power system dispatching control from load-based power generation to generation-grid-load-storage synergy. This shift requires end nodes of power grids to be capable of real-time sensing and precise control of distributed generation, load, and storage resources, so that we can build integrated and elastic power grids, which are strategically very important.
Thanks to 5G power VPNs, Zhejiang Electric Power has securely connected a large number of second-level interruptible load terminals, and adjusted two million kilowatts of load. The average communications latency during load removal is close to 10 ms, which ensures quick restoration of supply-demand balance in case of insufficient power supply and the stable operation of power grids. 5G plays a huge role in this. 5G power VPNs can help automate power distribution through reconstruction. For example, pole-mounted switches of distribution networks can be reconstructed to support 5G-enabled automatic distribution control. This means that engineers no longer need to pay site visits in the case of power failures, but instead they can precisely control switches remotely from the centralized power control center. This shortens power recovery time from hours to seconds in case of instantaneous perturbations, creating stable power supply for households and businesses.
5G power VPNs can significantly improve the working conditions of power grid engineers. The video shows the routine hard work of power grid engineers: they travel through cities and remote rural areas in pairs to check controllers of 10 kV lines and ensure stable power supply for every household. To further complicate repair work, Zhejiang often experiences typhoons in the summer. But thanks to 5G, this is no longer a major issue. After digital transformation, engineers can work in offices monitoring line status through 5G network communications. When a line is faulty, engineers can operate remote controllers to restore power for users by switching to a backup line. This eliminates the need for traveling to the site, thereby reducing carbon emissions, and improving the work safety for engineers.
Hard Strength of 5G Addresses High Requirements
The electric power industry prioritizes highly reliable 5G networks, since power grid control services place demanding latency and channel isolation requirements on 5G communications. The conventional QoS-based priority scheduling solution is not capable of isolating physical resources. As a general slicing network, it can only be used for services such as data collection and information management. The 5G E2E VPN, which is an exclusive slicing solution, is crucial for core power production and control services when using operators’ 5G networks. Zhejiang Electric Power explored an E2E exclusive slicing solution based on the security protection research results of the China Electric Power Research Institute and others. It classifies E2E isolation of 5G network slices into RAN, transport network, and core network isolation. The RAN uses the static RB reservation to implement physical isolation of spectrum resources. The transport network uses the FlexE technology to implement physical isolation of timeslots. The UPF is deployed in the power campus to implement data isolation.
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5G network slicing technology
If 5G E2E communications services are thought of as roads, RB reservation works like reserving a dedicated lane for electric power services. This prevents congestion-triggered service interruption, as well as potential risks caused by collisions with other vehicles.
The E2E exclusive slicing solution has been a pioneer on 5G networks, and represents the fruit of the labor of numerous solution experts, as well as hardware, software, and network engineers from both operators and Huawei. The innovative application of 5G slicing networks in the electric power industry could not have been achieved without joint efforts of communications and power grid engineers. They worked relentlessly to overcome technical difficulties, creating a province-wide 5G power VPN. This endows a single 5G network with remarkable versatility, saving power and reducing emissions across industries, and setting the standard for other industries.
5G Bolsters New Power Systems
Zhejiang Electric Power has millions of distribution network devices spread across more than 100,000 square kilometers of land in the province. Optical fiber construction requires a large amount of trenching and cabling, which affects the environment. 5G is ideal for achieving full connectivity with VPNs in the electric power industry, given its fast speed, convenience, physical isolation feature, security and reliability, and better network performance. With the construction of new power systems, 5G will also help facilitate the digitalization of power grids and help power grid operators to fulfill their mission of improving the standard of living across China.
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