Construction of China´s smart grid: Academic viewpoint

Global concern over climate change has propelled renewed interests, with much more intense urgency, in recent years in energy research. A fundamental transformation in the way electricity is generated, delivered, and utilized must take place. The government of China is pursuing aggressively the development of renewable energy resources. Effective integration of renewable generation, whose variability and uncertainty make them fundamentally different from the conventional generation, requires a future grid that is smart, agile, resilient and reliable. Advances in information and communication technologies, power electronics, and so on, must be fully utilized for its management and control. A future smart grid is also essential for enabling energy conservation from consumers with demand response, smart appliances, etc. The Ministry of Science and Technology of China plans to develop the smart grid, as one of the five strategic new industries in energy, to a RMB Yuan 200B industry in five years. Smart grid is included as one of the new energy industries.