China is no doubt one of the pioneering regions in deploying smart grid. State Grid Cooperation of China (SGCC) announced "Strong and Smart Grid Plan" in the middle of 2009, aiming to establish a strong and smart Ultra-High-Voltage power grid.
China's energy needs are expected to double in 10 years; with that in mind, the country's dominant power distribution company, State Grid Corp., has set a goal of building a smart grid by 2020. As with U.S. efforts to add intelligence to the grid, China wants its grid to be more flexible, robust and able to integrate a higher percentage of renewable sources of energy. In the meantime, the Chinese government has been ramping up investment into power distribution; it spent more on building out the grid and making it smarter than on power generation.
State Grid's initiative will take enormous resources. An analyst with Essence Securities estimated China will need to spend as much as $10 billion a year through 2020 to build a modern grid.
In 2009, State Grid Corporation of China put forward the construction of a strong smart grid, and determined the year of 2010 to be the key year for smart grid construction and smart equipment R&D. Different with other countries, China will carry out the smart grid construction covering all the links including power generation, transmission, distribution, utilization and scheduling so as to create opportunities for the rapid development of smart grid equipment such as the energy storage batteries for power generation, the digital substation and flexible transmission equipment for power transmission and distribution, the smart meters, electric vehicle charging cabinets, distribution automation devices for power utilization, as well as the smart schedulers for power scheduling.
China’s application of smart meters is still in the initial stage, and automatic meter reading (AMR) system is given priority and widely used to replace mechanical meters. Promoted by the prosperity of smart meters such as carrier wave electronic meter and the construction of China’s smart grid, traditional meter companies have successively entered into the smart meter field. Shenzhen Clou Electronics Co., Ltd and Wasion Group Limited won the first phase bidding for smart meters in China (East & Central China) in 2009, and Clou Electronics delivered an extraordinary performance by ranking top three in terms of the number of bidding it won.
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