How can China’s energy leadership shape the grid of the future?

China is a powerhouse in energy and there’s simply no denying it.

The country is making bold moves in clean energy, building record-breaking solar and wind farms, rolling out supercharged power grids, and embracing the shift to SF6-free technology to cut out emissions just to name a few. But here’s the big question: Is China designing the blueprint for the world’s future grid?

Find out in this insightful episode where we chat with our expert guest Bin Su, Head of Hub Business Unit North Asia for the High Voltage Products business at Hitachi Energy.

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Bin Su is the Head of Hub Business Unit North Asia for the High Voltage Products business at Hitachi Energy.
 
He holds a PhD in electrical and electronics engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
 
With 20 years of experience in the energy industry, Bin is known for his precision, calm approach, and analytical mindset. He’s driven by a strong passion for sustainability, shaping the future of energy while fostering the next generation of innovators.

Outside of work, Bin spends his weekends hiking around Beijing, where the view of transmission lines reminds him of majestic Chinese dragons.

He’s deeply proud to be part of an industry that’s driving monumental change for the world and strives to make a meaningful and lasting impact.

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Visit www.hitachienergy.com/powerpulse for more information.

The Power Pulse podcast is produced and edited by Creative Chimps for Hitachi Energy. 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
High voltage takes center stagein this season of Hitachi
Energy's Power Pulse podcast.
We promise to bring you great contentfrom the brightest minds in the business.
We'll discuss challenges, opportunities,and all the hot topics
any high voltage enthusiast
or anyone interested in sustainability,for that matter, is sure to enjoy.
In this episode, we're going all in onChina's energy transformation,

(00:21):
where innovative technologies,massive infrastructure and forward
thinking policies are driving a new eraof sustainable energy.

Here's a fun fact that's bound to impress: China has the largest (00:28):
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solar capacity in the world,large enough to power a city like L.A..
To help us unpack all of this,I'm thrilled to have Bin Su,
Head of Hub Business Unit North Asiaat Hitachi Energy.
With years of experiencein the energy field, he’s our go to expert
in navigating China's bold energylandscape.

(00:48):
Hello. Hi, Bin.
Thank you so much for comingin. How are you today? Good.
Very good. Good. So let's get started.
First, I'd like to mentionthat we're just coming
to the end of the year of the Dragon.
You're about to celebrateChinese New Year. Yeah.
What animal is it next year?
Next year is the year of the snake.
The year of the snake?
Are you a snake?
I am a snake.You are a Snake. Yeah. Go on.

(01:08):
Tell us a little bit more about that.What does it mean to be a snake?
Yeah.
In China culture,a snake is intelligent, smart, flexible,
resilient.
Okay.
And you're all those things?
I try,I, I try to be as intelligent as I can.
I'm sure you are.
So shall we get stuck in?
Shall we talk a little bit moreabout China and high voltage industry,

(01:31):
SF6, SF6-free and everything that China'sdoing to become more sustainable?
So we all know Chinaas a strong global manufacturing hub.
It's known for its rapid economic
development, modern infrastructure,you name it.
All those good things.
How has it shapedthe country's energy needs?
Yeah, indeed.
Actually, in the last several decades,China has gone through such a rapid

(01:52):
economic growth and that bring also a very
substantial rise on the energy demand.
And as of today, China's energyconsumption takes 27% of the globe.
Right.
But on the other side,I think it's also worth to note
that over the last eight
years, energy efficiency of Chinahas also improved significantly.

(02:13):
And according to IEA, the total energysupply per unit of GDP
has decreased by 43% compared
with the year of 22 with the year of 2000.
This is really a substantial improvement.
How has that been achieved?
I think it's a lot to do
with the energy transition,which China is ongoing right now, driven

(02:35):
by the target or by the vision of 2030,2060 carbon neutral target.
China is undergoinga massive energy transition period.
And China has invested
significantly into the energy transitionin the last two years.
If you look at the 2023,the total investment of China
into energy transition reached670 billion US dollars.

(02:59):
And they say it’s the world's largest.
And within all the energy consumption,about
26% of the total energy consumptioncome from the clean energy.
And this percentage increased by 11% pointcompared with ten years ago.
And in the same period, the energysupply from the coal reduced by 12% point.

(03:19):
I was going to ask you about that.
So China is a global leaderin renewable energy as you just mentioned.
But coal still is quite a dominant source.
Yeah.
So why is theresuch a heavy reliance on coal?
Why is it so difficult to replace?
I mean, historicallyChina was relying heavily on coal,
mainlybecause China has abundant source of coal,
which makes it very easy to accessand very cost efficient.

(03:42):
So over the last two decades,
the China has been relying on coalas the main source of energy.
But things are changing.
With the demand side,the electrification, more and more energy
consumption are shifting from the coalto the electricity.
For example, the EV fast development,the data center, the high-speed
rail, the electrification of the allthe industry segments.

(04:05):
I think today in China,the energy consumption
– 28% of the energy consumptioncome from electricity.
But there are still quite some segmentswhich rely on coal, like the industry
segment, one third from electricity,but also one third from the coal.
Going forward,I believe this will change very fast.

(04:25):
With very high speed of electrification,the electricity will be more than 30%
and will reach like 50% in the year 2050.
Then on the supply side,meaning the power generation
side, traditionallyalso we rely on coal a lot.
But now, as you know, with the rapidgrowth of the renewable energy

(04:46):
installation
in the last ten years in China, the windand the solar installation capacity
has always been more than 40%of the total installation capacity.
Also, within 23,the renewable energy installed capacity
for the first time over the thermal powercapacity.
Right. Yeah.

(05:06):
And going forward, this percentagewill just be growing even faster.
So, Bin,if we look into the electrification
process you've just mentioned,we know that SF6 is at the base of it.
So historically that has been the gasthat has been used to make sure
the grid is reliable, to make surethat we've got electricity in our homes.
SF6 is the most potent gaswhen it comes to global warming potential.

(05:27):
What progress has China madein adopting SF6-free solutions?
It's a very good question.
I mean, SF6 is indeed a very good gasin the high voltage switchgear industry.
In the last five decades,it has been utilized so widely.
In China in the last two decades,it has also put a lot of effort
in reducing the usage of SF6.

(05:49):
For example, there is a very tight controland monitor about the usage
and emission of SF6in any of the substations.
And also in China, there is, increasingly
tight requirement on the SF6 leakage.
Several years agothis requirement has been increased from
0.5% leakage rate to 0.1% leakage rate,which is also a big step.

(06:15):
And then there is another big measurewhich China has been taking
and mainly
it was taken by State Grid of China,which is the world's largest utility,
is that to utilize a new gas mixture,which is instead of the pure SF6,
we are using SF6with nitrogen gas mixture.
So with 30% SF6 and 70% of nitrogen.

(06:38):
With this we can basically reducethe SF6 usage by about 50%.
And this is actually –
I think it's a very practical solutionto reduce the usage of SF6.
I made some rough calculation.
Consider the huge amount of switchgear
GIS, which SGCC install every year.

(07:00):
So only in the last two yearsit's about, roughly
15,000 of GIS 110 kV and 220 kV.
In total, roughly 15,000 of GIS
has been using this gas mixture.
And if we calculate it back,this is equivalent to roughly 7,000

(07:20):
unit of GIS has been totally
SF6-free – 7,000 units.
I think this is reallya tremendous achievement.
So it’s 50% reduction in SF6
and nitrogen mixture – so interms of emissions, you can do better.
There are SF6-free solutions out there,Hitachi Energy offers one of them.

(07:42):
Would you tell us a little bit about howChina is adopting the SF6-free technology?
Yes, indeed.
Although this SF6 and the nitrogen gasmixture is quite practical,
but it's only half SF6-free.
So you only take out 50% and then it willbe very hard to take out the other 50%.

(08:02):
China is taking a lot of actionsto find the
the best way to be totally SF6-free.
There have been a lot of investmentby the government, by the power grid, to
invest into the technology and the productdevelopment of SF6-free switchgear.
And also in China,they are actively piloting the application

(08:25):
of the SF6-free technologyon the switchgears in the power grids.
For example, Hitachi Energyhas been supplying EconiQ GIS since 2002.
I mean, we supply to the first EconiQ 145kV GIS
to SGCC Shanghai in 22.
And also we supplied the first EconiQ 145kV GIS to China South Grid last year.

(08:48):
And more than that in the last summerduring the CIGRE, we also announced
that we will supply China's first420 kV EconiQ Dead Tank Breaker,
which is really the first timein the transmission voltage level.
It's a remarkable milestone.
And even further, two months ago,we also announced that we will pilot
the world first 550 Retrofill

(09:10):
technologyin one of our big power plant customers.
So retrofill, that'swhen you don't replace the equipment,
you replace the gas within it.
Exactly, exactly.
We're basically,without a major site work,
you just replace the SF6
with the EconiQ retrofill gas mixture.
So with China being such a vast country,how does the adoption of SF6-free

(09:32):
technology fit in with the grid expansionproject, for example?
Yeah, as we mentioned earlier,China is still undergoing a very fast
economic development and also very fastelectrification process.
And this means the power grid is becomingbigger and bigger every day.
A rough number basically every yearonly in State Grid

(09:55):
we install roughly 10,000 units of GIS.
That's a lot of SF6 utilized every year.
So I think it's really the right momentto plan the movement
towards SF6-free,because taking this timing when we expand,
we also utilize the SF6-free technologiesand you basically

(10:16):
take two step within one.
So if you
look at the world stage,how crucial would you say
China is in decarbonizingthe energy sector?
Oh, that's very, very critical.
As we mentioned earlier,
China takes about 27% of the globaltotal energy consumption.
So the decarbonization of China for sure

(10:38):
will have a huge impacton the global decarbonization progress.
And withinall the different ways of decarbonization,
I think the power grid in Chinais playing a really pivotal role. Why?
Because the role of power grid is to,on one side, connect
the power generation, on the other sideconnect the power consumption.

(10:59):
As we know that in China,the power generation side is increasingly
more and more relyingon the renewable energy,
which is fluctuating and difficult to,to control.
And on the other side, the increasingelectrification, more and more demand
on the electricity, so the power gridhas to be able to integrate the faster

(11:19):
growing renewable energy and fulfillthe faster increasing electricity demand.
Only if the power grid can fulfillthis task,
the decarbonization of China can progressaccording to the plan.
Along this journey,I think the decarbonization of power grid
itselfis also getting more and more important

(11:39):
and to utilize the SF6-freetechnology in the switchgear
is one of the key measuresto decarbonize the power grid itself.
So could
China's transition to these SF6-freetechnologies set new international
standards for sustainable grid solutions,for example?
I mean, standardization is very importantto drive the development of the industry.

(12:04):
I remember that in the last few years,there was actually a lot of discussion
within China about whatshould be the way forward for SF6-free.
And in the autumn in 23,
in China, together with CSEE,we had the industry expert
meeting in Beijing, and in that meetingall the experts commonly agreed that

(12:26):
the C4-based technology is the right wayforward in China to replace SF6.
And also I think China has such a hugeswitchgear market.
The application of the SF6-free technology
will generate a huge amount of knowledgebase in terms of product,
in terms of operation, maintenanceand so on.

(12:47):
And this knowledge baseare really valuable for the globe.
And to transfer that knowledge into globalstandards will help a lot
to push forward as a global SF6-freejourney.
So, Bin, we've got timefor one last question – very quickly,
can you tell us what you think China's
energy landscapelooks like for the next decade?
Yeah, let me still explain

(13:08):
this question by supply side,the demand side and the power grid.
Yeah, I think right nowthe renewable energy installed
capacity in China is already morethan the thermal power plant.
And the generation based on the renewableenergy is still roughly 30%.
And this percentage will grow very fastwith the increase
the capacity of renewableenergy installation.

(13:30):
And also when the power grid
is getting stronger and strongerto integrate the renewable energy.
So by 2050, this percentage may growto like 60% or even higher.
And then on the demand side, today,the electricity is about
28% of the total energy consumption.
And with the fastgrowing electrification process,

(13:52):
this percentage will also grow to like 50%or even more than 60%.
So within this journey,
the power grid will play reallya increasingly important role.
When the power grid become more resilient,become
stronger to be ableto connect to the supply and demand.
And also in the meanwhile,the power grid itself become more

(14:12):
and more sustainable by using SF6-freetechnology more and more.
I think the entire energy systemwill be much more sustainable than today.
And the Chinese decarbonization journey
will contribute increasinglyto the global decarbonization.
Well,thank you very much for coming in, Bin.
It's been lovely having youand I hope to see you soon.

(14:33):
Thank you.
And that's it for today.
We'll be back soonwith some more great content.
But before you go,remember to give us a follow
so you don't miss an episode.
Thanks for tuning in. See you soon.
This episode was brought to you by HitachiEnergy.
Created and hosted by BárbaraFreitas-Daniels.
Content and script writing by CassandraInay and Ivy Samuel.

(14:53):
Guest speaker, Bin Su.
Studio support by Giovanni Perroneand Natalja Arbatska.
Produced and edited by Creative Chimps.