The warblers fly and the grass grows long, and the ground is new green. Say goodbye to the cold winter of Shanghai, and we have already ushered in a warm and comfortable spring time. It was during these seasons that Frederic Godemel and Schneider Electric's global executive team launched their first trip to China this year. As global executive vice president of Schneider Electric's systems and services business, Goofick has a clear goal in this trip-for the energy transformation that is undergoing tremendous changes, he hopes to understand the global energy transformation through on-site visits and localized exchanges and close observations. The reshaping new pattern, especially the application status of electric vehicle charging and energy storage technology in China.

The global energy transformation is in its second stage, and the deep integration of digitalization and electrification technologies is the key to winning the battle.

Regarding the global energy transformation process, Goofick has a clear Timeline in his mind.

He believes that the global energy transformation can be divided into three stages:The first stage is a significant improvement in the level of consciousness, that is, the stage of using renewable energy to replace traditional energy; the second stage is the practical stage of applying new energy and large-scale electrification; the third stage is ten years later, when more attention is paid to systematic and balanced development. stage. The global energy transformation has now entered the second stage with the goal of improving quality and efficiency.

In Goofick's view, the biggest feature of the second stage of the energy transformation is that it touches the demand side and reconstructs the relationship between power supply and consumers by changing the original energy supply model. The power grid architecture originally designed for fossil fuels will be completely renovated with the empowerment of various electrification and digital solutions, more in line with the needs of new energy power generation, forming a new market with a high degree of flexibility between energy supply and demand.

Goofick emphasized that the second stage is the beginning of a true process and demand-side electrification transformation. Such a consensus has been formed within Schneider Electric:Deeply exploring the potential of demand-side regulation and continuing to promote the deep integration of digitalization and electrification technologies are the key to winning the battle of energy transformation. Building a new power system is an important source of power and guarantee to help China's energy transformation and achieve the "double carbon" goal. As an expert in the field of energy management, Schneider Electric believes that taking the energy demand side as the starting point can not only better serve supply-side structural reforms, but also help promote energy transformation because it involves a wide range of industries and has a high degree of marketization. Provide more sufficient and flexible resources and power.

As for the third phase of the energy transition, Goofick expects it to arrive in about 10 years. Compared with the second phase, the third phase will focus more on the balance of the entire system. "This does not mean that we shouldn't start thinking about establishing a balanced and flexible power grid system now, but we must first achieve large-scale electrification."

China leads the global energy transformation, with challenges and opportunities

"I am convinced that China is leading the global energy transformation and plays a key role."

Goofick has keen insight into the latest trends in China's energy transformation. According to his observation, in China, new energy sources or "Power 4.0" have begun to gradually scale up and introduce more energy storage systems to balance the entire power grid. "In 2023, China's ability to build renewable energy is impressive, surpassing any other country in terms of construction scale."

As Goofick said, China's installed capacity of renewable energy power generation will historically exceed that of thermal power in 2023, with more than half of the world's new installed capacity throughout the year. This year's "Government Work Report" further proposed to "further promote the energy revolution, control fossil energy consumption, and accelerate the construction of a new energy system."

In addition, the "Clean Energy Market Monitoring" report released by the International Energy Agency in early March this year shows that China is a global leader in the field of renewable energy, and clean energy technology continues to lead the world by a large margin. Many international think tanks and media also believe that China is a world leader in the field of renewable energy, and China's pace of replacing carbon-based energy with renewable energy is faster than many experts expected.

As China's high-quality development continues to advance, China's energy is facing historic transformation and innovation opportunities. Traditional energy is replaced by new energy. Energy needs to be deeply and extensively integrated with information technology. Physical power grids must become smart grids and digital power grids at the same time. Energy transformation is not only a low-carbon energy structure, but also involves the need to establish a new energy power system and a new operating mechanism, that is, the energy system revolution.

Goofick said that on the one hand, China is investing in renewable energy faster than the global average due to its scale advantage; on the other hand, China is also at the forefront of demand-side transformation in the transportation sector. As we all know, China has a high penetration rate of electric vehicles and rapid popularization of energy storage facilities. For this reason, it is possible to test the "future power grid" on a large scale here and create new solutions in a variety of application scenarios. In Goofick's view, this is an excellent opportunity for China.

Of course, China and the world are also facing challenges:"Find the right supply chain and sufficient supply capacity for energy transformation." To truly achieve decarbonization, power consumption will double, which requires the construction of a complete industrial chain. "In the future, every country will pursue electrification, which means that every country needs to ensure that it has sufficient production capacity."

Focusing on the construction of the power grid, Goofick believes that the current challenge is to provide power supply or strengthen the power grid in places where power demand was previously low. For example, it takes 20 to 30 minutes for fast charging stations along highways to charge cars. During China's Spring Festival travel period, charging demand will explode in some places. This requires strengthening power grid construction and energy storage utilization., create a highly resilient and flexible power grid to meet the charging needs of different regions and different periods of time.

In addition, two other challenges in grid construction are the correct use of energy storage and DC systems, and the optimization of every moment of the grid's output. He believes that these challenges are not insurmountable, but require execution. Schneider Electric has a large number of products and solutions related to strengthening power grid security and resilience, which can ensure power grid security and improve power distribution management efficiency.

With green development as the background, circular economy is the right time

In Goofick's view, China is paying more and more attention to recycling."Now cities like Shanghai no longer see as many tower cranes as there were 10 years ago. Urban construction has shifted from large-scale infrastructure construction to a stock stage. It is expected that in the future, there will also be more companies seeking transformation and optimization in the operation and management stage. In this context, it is necessary for us to pay attention to extending the service life of equipment, try to avoid scrapping equipment that can be reused, and at the same time promote the recycling and reuse of equipment."

At the end of 2023, the Central Economic Conference proposed that "we should promote large-scale equipment renewal and the replacement of old consumer goods with the guidance of improving technology, energy consumption, emission and other standards"; in early March this year, the State Council executive meeting adopted the "Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods" The Action Plan for the Replacement of Old Products proposes requirements such as orderly promoting the renewal and transformation of equipment in key industries and improving the level of resource recycling; During this year's National Two Sessions, the "Government Work Report" once again proposed to "promote the renewal and technological transformation of production equipment and service equipment." The above-mentioned "combination punches" of large-scale upgrading policies all point out that circular economy has become an important direction for the development of the Chinese market and will form a large-scale upgrading effect. Gao Feike said:"At present, no such plan has been deployed on a large scale in any place. It can be seen that China hopes to be at the forefront of the development of global circular economy."

Faced with the development speed and huge potential of circular economy, Schneider Electric has made long-term plans. In 2023, Schneider Electric established the EcoFit™ Adaptation and Transformation Capability Demonstration Center in Xiamen. Focusing on green, low-carbon and circular economy, it integrates the concept of circular economy into customer businesses through related services to help them achieve safer, more reliable, more economical, and Environmental protection and sustainable transformation benefits.

Goofick believes that through EcoFit™ adaptation and transformation services, corporate users will gradually change their perceptions and actively become participants in the circular economy in the process of experiencing services. "The simplest example is that the essential circuit breaker in a power distribution system is composed of three parts: plastic, metal and digital parts. Plastics and metals have a life span of about 20 years, but most digital parts have a shorter life span. In the past, once a digital part was damaged or failed, users needed to replace it as a whole. However, through the adaptation and transformation service, users only needed to replace the digital part and 'change the core but not the shell' to realize product upgrades by themselves."

Compared to a complete replacement, EcoFit™ adaptation services can help companies achieve cost savings of 43% to 65%. From the perspective of applicability, whether it is key component adaptation, partial upgrade, or system update and expansion, EcoFit™ adaptation service can provide corresponding solutions.

Schneider Electric has also introduced more sustainable solutions for sulfur hexafluoride gas, which is widely used in the power sector. Data shows that the greenhouse effect of sulfur hexafluoride is about 24,000 times that of carbon dioxide. Schneider Electric has innovatively developed a new generation of green intelligent medium voltage switchgear that uses dry air to replace sulfur hexafluoride, which can help companies accelerate the low-carbonization process and improve the sustainability of operations. Through air substitution, each AirSeT avoids the use of up to 3 kilograms of sulfur hexafluoride greenhouse gas, reducing the potential carbon footprint of 75000 kilograms of carbon dioxide.

Faced with the challenges of the global economic downturn, Goofick is also quite optimistic. He said that companies need to face up to changes and provide stock transformation services based on the infrastructure they have already established. According to his observation, economic growth is driven more by the service industry, and this trend is in the ascendant in China. This can be seen from Schneider Electric's adjustment in the proportion of digital businesses and services in recent years-Schneider Electric's digital businesses and services have accounted for more than 50% of global revenue and will continue to grow in the future.

"If I don't focus on China, I can hardly finish the job."

Whether it is energy transformation or circular economy, all walks of life in China are showing new and grand opportunities. As the most localized global company, Schneider Electric naturally attaches great importance to the broad prospects of the Chinese market.

"We are focused on the Chinese market. Currently, the largest R & D team and manufacturing team in the business field I am responsible for are all in China. If I don't focus on China, I can hardly finish the job. This is a very big market." Gao Feike said.

In his view, for Schneider Electric, the Chinese market is very special, and its model of joint development with local partners is unique in the global market. "We are confident in the local supply market, and Schneider Electric will focus on core technologies and digital innovation, which can help our partners deploy solutions. Through its ecological network with many partners, Schneider Electric integrates technical and digital elements into partners 'solutions to jointly serve the market."

When he came to China again four years later, China's level of innovation also left a deep impression on Goofick. During visiting companies, he witnessed China's innovative capabilities in cutting-edge areas such as energy storage and electric vehicle charging, and also witnessed the latest results of Schneider Electric working with local Chinese partners to explore innovation boundaries. In early March, Schneider Electric and Shuimu Mingtuo (Damao) Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd. reached a partnership. As Schneider Electric's first full-process optimization business from green electricity to green hydrogen and then to green ammonia, the two parties will open up power and process processes based on digital twin technology, and explore the process from green electricity to green hydrogen and then green ammonia through dynamic joint simulation and simulation. Full process optimization from green hydrogen to green ammonia.

In Goofick's words,"Such a heavy project was first implemented in China. It not only recognizes Schneider Electric's cutting-edge exploration capabilities, but also explains the huge potential of China's renewable energy industry." In his view and many management team members who came to China this time, China's introduction of visa-free policies for many European countries is also a sign of China's active opening up and promotion of global cooperation. With these as footnotes, everything is possible for Schneider Electric and China's future.

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作者：李可编辑：张宇校对：韩雨熹