"From the installation of power equipment, investment scale, power equipment is divided into two parts, one part is power supply construction equipment, that is, power generation equipment, including water, fire, nuclear, wind, light and other power generation equipment, the other part is power grid construction equipment, including transmission, distribution, electrical equipment and so on." In 2015, the absolute value of power generation equipment production increased, but the growth rate is gradually slowing down. And the output growth of transmission and distribution equipment is increasing." On February 17, at the "Toshiba China Forum 2017" industrial electrical sub-forum, Wang Kun, assistant president of the China Electrical Appliances Industry Association and Secretary-General of the Smart grid Equipment Committee, said.

In recent years, under a series of favorable policies such as distribution network investment, rural network transformation, urbanization construction, and distribution transformer transformation, the demand for transmission and distribution equipment has an obvious upward trend, and has experienced a highly developed process. This also requires power transmission and distribution enterprises to transform as soon as possible to meet market demand.

The demand for power grid equipment exceeds that for power supply equipment

Recently, the National Energy Administration released the 2016 national power industry data. From the perspective of power grid investment, from January to December 2016, the national power grid investment reached 542.6 billion yuan, an increase of 16.9%, accounting for 60.8% of the entire power investment.

"It can be seen that the speed of grid construction has exceeded the speed of power supply construction. In addition, according to statistics, the share of power transformation and distribution equipment below 110 kV has exceeded 58%, an increase of 35.9%, and the growth rate of power grid construction is 16.9%, which is not difficult to see by comparison, the growth rate of low-voltage distribution products and the growth rate of power grid construction." Wang Kun analysis said that this shows that on the one hand, the investment intensity of China's power grid construction has been greater than the power supply construction, on the other hand, in the power grid construction investment intensity, the share of low-voltage distribution equipment is more than half, and the growth rate is greater than 110 kV transmission equipment.

In Wang Kun's view, it is normal for the investment intensity of power grid construction to be greater than that of power supply construction. He gave a reason. First of all, in the power system, the electricity sent out must be output and distribution, and the demand for transmission and distribution equipment will increase with the increase of power supply construction. Secondly, grid construction lags behind power supply construction. The lag period is usually between 2 and 4 years. Now China's power supply construction has entered a bottoming process, 2015 ~ 2016, China's power transmission and transformation equipment has experienced a rapid development process, but the next 2 ~ 4 years later, the growth rate of power grid construction will also slow down, the fundamental reason is that social electricity demand is declining.

However, the construction of smart grid characterized by green and energy saving has always remained unchanged. Therefore, it is necessary for power transmission and transformation equipment enterprises to keep pace with The Times and change their concepts. "From the perspective of equipment, equipment is the carrier of power grid technology and the new structure of power grid, without the support of equipment, any technology, policy, development trend is water without a source." "Said Wang Kun.

Therefore, in the process of promoting the construction of smart grid, China has introduced some policies related to power transmission and transformation equipment, such as the "Action Plan on the construction and transformation of distribution network (2015 ~ 2020)" proposed that during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, China's distribution network construction and transformation investment is not less than 1.7 trillion yuan, and put forward requirements for the upgrade and transformation of distribution transformers. Another example is the "Energy efficiency Improvement Plan for distribution transformers (2015-2017)", which proposes that by the end of this year, the proportion of efficient distribution transformers in the network will be increased by 14%, and the cumulative promotion of efficient distribution transformers will be 600 million kVA. Among them, the new incremental promotion is not less than 350 million kVA.

Transmission and distribution equipment enterprises need to be guided by these policies and accelerate research and development. Wang Kun said that the future of power equipment technology will have four development trends, first, the new normal of economic development requires that the power equipment manufacturing industry must change to quality and efficiency. At present, the power distribution, transmission equipment industry overcapacity, with the country's "three to one to make up one down", capacity will become the "thirteen five" a keynote; Second, the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial revolution requires the transformation of the power equipment manufacturing industry to intelligence; Third, the transformation of manufacturing power to power requires that the power equipment manufacturing industry must implement innovation-driven strategy; Fourth, the overall strategic layout of the "Belt and Road" requires that the power equipment manufacturing industry must accelerate the implementation of "going out".

Intelligent manufacturing into power transmission and transformation equipment enterprises competitive advantage

"Recently, major countries in the world have launched national development strategies for intelligent manufacturing, taking the development of intelligent manufacturing as the strategic core. From the current point of view, the new generation of industrial revolution represented by intelligent manufacturing will be the key to releasing future competitiveness, but also the key to the industry reshuffle." Wang Kun pointed out the importance of intelligent manufacturing.

For power transmission and transformation equipment, intelligent manufacturing in a broad sense, including the product manufacturing part, refers to the design, processing, assembly, experiment, testing, operation and other intelligent, on the other hand refers to the intelligent function of the equipment itself, such as intelligent transformers, intelligent switches.

"For power transmission and transformation equipment, the current design and manufacturing of core components is difficult. The use environment is complicated, and the need of remote inspection and maintenance on site is urgent. For high-voltage and ultra-high-voltage power transmission and transformation equipment manufacturers, there is a need for unified and coordinated use of resources, unified technical management, and collaborative manufacturing processes." "Said Wang Kun.

For distribution equipment, the industry has proposed intelligent manufacturing system design characterized by flexible manufacturing to achieve customized manufacturing. At present, the profit margin of power distribution equipment enterprises is very low, affected by material cost fluctuations, rising labor costs, market terminal product price reduction and other factors, the operation and manufacturing mode of existing products does not change, then the profit margin will become more and more obvious, which will have a greater impact on the industry. It is necessary for transmission and distribution enterprises to realize intelligent product design as soon as possible, flexible management of intelligent manufacturing of low-voltage distribution equipment, including product life cycle management, digital product design and production layout simulation.

So, how to achieve flexible manufacturing? Wang Kun proposed that on the premise of digital design, a flexible automated production line should be established to achieve the balance of production process, system operation, logistics layout and production rhythm, and a digital workshop transparent information process management system.

At present, many domestic transmission and distribution equipment enterprises are taking the road of intelligent manufacturing. For example, Tianshui Great Wall Switch Factory Co., Ltd. implemented the "medium pressure air insulation switchgear manufacturing digital workshop", Zhongtian Technology intelligent manufacturing workshop, Zhejiang Yueqing low-voltage electrical intelligent equipment industrial cluster.