Effect of the Digital Transformation of Power System on Renewable Energy Utilization in China

Abstract

Renewable energy is the development direction of power system of China. To further boost the development of China’s power industry, the digital transformation of the power is underway. This study examined the panorama of digital transformation of power system of China. Through analyzing the effect of digital transformation on renewable energy utilization, three business applications were identified: short-term prediction of renewable energy output, renewable energy equipment maintenance, and intelligent power-grid maintenance. The implementation process and effect of the three business applications are analyzed by using the data covering 2012–2019 from three aspects: the short-term prediction accuracy of renewable energy output, the reduction of the fault restoration mean time for renewable energy equipment to the industry average, the reduction ratio of the mean time of power grid fault restoration to the industry average, and the rate of renewable energy utilization. The results indicated that digital transformation boosted the efficiency of renewable energy utilization. Based on the findings, the following suggestions are proposed for improving the digital transformation of the power industry and thereby promoting renewable energy utilization: 1) the first is to emphasize the scale efficiency of digital application in the early stage of digitization and renewable energy development, and emphasize the technical performance of a digital application in the middle and later stages of development; 2) the second is to enhance data accuracy, such as meteorological data, historical data for renewable energy power stations, power equipment status data, and strengthen the application of algorithms and computational models; 3) the third suggestion is to improve the overall digitalization rate of the power industry.