[Expert opinion] ＂Computing power+energy＂ supports the development of energy industry.
Computing power is a new type of productivity that integrates information computing power, network carrying power and data storage power, and mainly provides services to the society through computing power infrastructure. Computing infrastructure is an important part of new information infrastructure, which is characterized by ubiquity, intelligence, agility, safety, reliability, green and low carbon.
Six departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, recently jointly issued the Action Plan for High-quality Development of Computing Infrastructure, proposing "Computing Power+Energy", speeding up the construction of an energy computing application center, supporting an energy intelligent production and scheduling system, and realizing the interaction between sources, networks and loads, multi-energy synergy and intelligent regulation of energy demand. As the core of energy supply system, electric energy, together with computing power, is an important strategic resource and new infrastructure to support energy transformation, which will effectively promote the innovation of energy production and consumption mode, and promote the green and low-carbon transformation and high-quality development of energy industry.
Building Energy Computing Application Center and Empowering New Power System Construction
At present, computing power has become an important support to promote the high-quality development of China’s economy. The combination of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, brain like computing and other new technologies with the computing industry has expanded all-round computing capabilities, and the ubiquitous distribution of data has promoted the gradual popularization of computing from the cloud to the Internet of Things and edge computing. With computing power as the core, it integrates emerging technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and blockchain, and cooperates with smart energy, smart manufacturing, smart city, smart medical care and intelligent transportation.
The new power system is a power system driven by digital information technology and dominated by new energy. It is an important component of the new energy system and a key carrier to achieve the goal of "double carbon". With the implementation of the national integrated big data center system and the project of "calculating from east to west", the full circulation and use of data resources as new production factors are promoted, and the integration of "computing power and energy" has become an inevitable requirement for building a new power system. Based on the extensive application of advanced digital information technologies such as "the cloud moves things to the edge of the intelligent chain" in all aspects of the power system, the amount of data collection and processing has increased exponentially, and the demand for computing power has also increased significantly. Relying on distributed edge computing power and centralized large-scale computing power, we can break through the information barriers between all links of source network load and storage, enhance the "observable, measurable and controllable" ability of power system through the deep integration of energy flow, information flow and business flow, accurately implement extensive access, intensive interaction and overall scheduling of massive heterogeneous resources according to dynamic business requirements, support the coordinated operation of massive dispersed objects of source network load and storage, and accurately perceive and adjust the complex operating state of the system under various market mechanisms, and promote power as the core.
Build a big model of energy industry and empower industry application scenarios.
Building a "brain" of smart energy. Artificial intelligence is one of the core technologies to build a new power system and realize the digital transformation of power, and the demand for related applications is growing rapidly. However, due to the high threshold of artificial intelligence technology, the difficulty in obtaining samples and the high research and development cost, it has been restricting the energy and power industry to use artificial intelligence technology to empower industrial development. Based on the Energy Intelligent Computing Center, we will develop and train large-scale power models for different user groups, such as ordinary users, professional users in the power market, employees in the industry, and different business application scenarios such as customer service, power transmission and distribution, and power dispatching, so as to build a "brain" of smart energy. For example, the power model fully empowers the "transmission, distribution and distribution" of electricity with AI technology, which can effectively help the power industry to improve quality, efficiency, safety and reliability. In the power generation link, the energy big model can build a smart virtual power plant through artificial intelligence technology, aggregate distributed power generation systems, and accurately predict, coordinate, control and optimize power generation through forecasting big model and making big model. In the transmission and distribution link, the energy big model can also fully empower the intelligent operation and maintenance of power grid dispatching and substation inspection, realize the intelligent operation and maintenance, condition monitoring, accurate fault prediction and diagnosis of transmission and distribution network, and improve the operation and maintenance efficiency. On the user side, the energy big model can provide intelligent customer service based on big language model technology for power customers, create humanized and 24-hour all-weather service, and help users accurately analyze their own electricity consumption behavior, high power consumption links and improve electricity efficiency. Gather energy data set, model base, training environment, computing power and other resources to realize the call of computing power resources on demand.Strengthen the application with large models, and promote the formation of a systematic service capability that comprehensively serves the upstream and downstream ecology of the power industry.
Innovative artificial intelligence application ecology. Relying on the energy intelligent computing application center and the integrated and flexible scheduling of all kinds of computing resources, we will mobilize social forces to participate in the construction of power application scenarios in an open ecological way, make full use of artificial intelligence technology to empower, focus on solving the pain points in the construction of new power systems, enrich the application scenarios of large models in the energy industry, and unite upstream and downstream parties to create a better industrial ecology. Artificial intelligence technology is of great significance for accelerating the construction of a new power system and a new energy system. Only by jointly building a collaborative and innovative artificial intelligence application ecology can we better help the digital and intelligent transformation of the energy and power industry and promote the high-quality development of the energy industry.
The integration of computing power and energy multiplier effect focuses on integration.
"Computing power+energy" helps the green development of computing power economy. China’s computing power map accounts for 60% in the east and only 20% in the west, and the east is much higher than the west. From the perspective of the spatial distribution potential of computing power resources and energy resources, the potential of the west is much higher than that of the east. With the popularization and application of artificial intelligence and the increasing parameters and complexity of algorithm model, the data throughput and calculation amount of data center are increasing, and the energy demand is also increasing. The demand for computing power and the distribution of energy resources are increasingly unbalanced in space, and the imbalance between computing power and supply and demand of energy resources in the east and west is a prominent challenge. Building a data center requires a lot of power resources, and the resources in the east are becoming increasingly scarce, while the western region is vast in land, cheap in electricity price and rich in energy, especially green energy. Through the "east-to-west calculation" project, the spatial redistribution of computing power resources can be reasonably guided to better adapt to the energy supply pattern, which can fully resolve the contradiction between supply and demand of computing power resources and energy, not only save the cost of "power transmission from west to east", but also improve the use of green energy such as photovoltaic and wind power in the west. Improve the utilization rate of renewable energy in data center clusters, help achieve the goal of "carbon neutrality and peak carbon dioxide emissions" and promote the green development of computing economy. In addition, around the overall planning of "computing power+energy", optimizing the power supply and distribution network and network infrastructure, and promoting the coordinated development of computing power network, communication network and power grid, it is expected to realize the coordinated pattern of data flow and energy flow. Through the cross comparison and intelligent analysis of energy consumption data and calculation data, the running state of data center can be monitored in real time, and the energy efficiency can be improved.
"Computing power+energy" helps the green development of energy economy. With the continuous promotion of electricity marketization, spot real-time settlement will be carried out step by step. The normalization of spot power operation puts forward higher requirements for the computing power and system of power settlement. Relying on the support of computing power, it helps power enterprises and users to accurately predict load dynamics and electricity price changes, and promotes accurate matching between supply and demand sides. By coordinating system-wide resource adjustment, relying on the resource allocation capacity of large power grids and the peak-shifting effect in various regions, it realizes remote centralized control and multi-energy complementarity of new energy based on power market transactions, effectively solving the outstanding "pain points" that restrict the development of new energy industry, such as new energy consumption and inter-provincial and inter-regional resource scheduling.
In the future, promoting the integration of "computing power and energy" will focus on "integration", and the focus will mainly be in four aspects:
First of all, do a good job in the overall planning, connection and cooperation of computing facilities, strengthen the deep integration of computing resources and energy, and form a reasonable division of labor, scientific linkage and efficient cooperation mechanism. Do a good job in matching and accurately docking supply and demand at the business level to form a real application demand supply and a sustainable long-term dynamic mechanism.
Secondly, promote the integration and upgrading of power system and digital infrastructure such as network, computing and storage, improve the holographic perception ability of all links of energy and electricity, and promote the collaborative interaction and flexible control of source network and storage. Promote the interconnection and mutual interaction of various energy sources, support large-scale friendly access of new energy generation, new energy storage and diversified loads, and enhance the interactive ability of distributed energy and microgrid access.
Thirdly, constantly stimulate the empowerment effect of the "engine" of computing power. Innovatively apply technologies such as "moving things from the cloud to the edge of the intelligent chain", speed up the construction of information collection, perception, processing and application, promote data sharing and value mining of various energy varieties, innovatively apply artificial intelligence, enrich the application of large models in the energy industry, and build a complete "computing power+energy" ecosystem.
Finally, promote the construction of all kinds of energy cloud platforms at all levels, strengthen and improve the functions of new energy resources optimization, carbon neutral support services, new energy industry Internet, new power system technology innovation, access all kinds of energy data, gather energy industry chain information, promote the deep integration of digital flow and energy power flow, unify and share applications, build an electricity market service ecosystem, and support economic and social development in all directions.
(Source: Economic magazine; Author: Director of Information and Industry Development Department of Shan Zhiguang National Information Center; Economist, Smart City Development Research Center, Liu Yin National Information Center; Song Xinrong, Research Intern, Information and Industry Development Department, National Information Center)