“Belt and Road Advanced Programme in Power and Energy 2024” successfully completed

The “Belt and Road Advanced Programme in Power and Energy” (the Programme), co-organised for the seventh consecutive year by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) and The Hongkong Electric Company, Limited (HK Electric) concluded yesterday with a graduation ceremony.

Themed “Low Carbon Transition: Latest Development of Green Energy”, this year’s Programme attracted 26 participants from 7 Belt and Road (B&R) countries and regions, including Chile, Mainland China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Portugal, Russia, and Zimbabwe. Over the course of the 13-day programme, participants engaged in various activities that included lectures, seminars, discussions, experience sharing sessions, as well as field trips in Mainland China and Hong Kong to gain valuable insights into the latest green energy development in the region.

The Graduation Ceremony was officiated by Prof. H.C. MAN, Dean of the PolyU Faculty of Engineering; Mr LI Yong, Deputy Director of State Grid Hong Kong Representative Office; Mr WANG Lixin, Deputy President of State Grid Technology College; Ms Liang LI, Chairman of Faculty of Electronic and Information Engineering, Xian Jiaotong University; and Mr Francis C.Y. CHENG, HK Electric Managing Director. The success of the event was witnessed by a number of major partners who have dedicated tremendous support to the Programme, including Ir Frank CHAN, Vice President of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers; Mrs Karina CONCHA, Consul General of Chile in Hong Kong; Mrs Alice MUDUMI, Acting Consul General of Zimbabwe in Hong Kong; Mr Petr LARIONOV, Attaché of the Consulate General of Russia in Hong Kong; and together with other senior executives of the co-organisers.

Addressing the audience at the Ceremony, Prof. H.C. Man remarked, “PolyU has been actively contributing to the B&R Initiative in various capacities. As a founding member of the University Alliance of the Silk Road, we are part of a vibrant network of 150 universities across 37 countries, dedicated to promoting collaboration and development along this historic route. With the connections built upon the success of the Programme, we are looking forward to developing new initiatives that will further strengthen our collaborations and extend our networks in the region.”

Mr Francis Cheng noted, “For HK Electric, a major milestone was achieved in March this year with the launch of L12, a new gas-fired generating unit. It is a testament to our commitment to reducing coal-fired generation. In line with this commitment, we have retired two old coal-fired units, L4 and L5 earlier this year, allowing us to increase our gas-fired generation to around 70% of our total electricity output. We are poised to progress to the next stage of our energy transition, as we continue to provide safe, reliable, green and affordable electricity to our customers. Currently, we are building a new gas-fired generating unit, L13, and at the same time reinforcing our existing infrastructure. We are glad to share with all the participants of this Programme the challenges we have overcome and those which lie ahead.”

Mr Li Yong said, “China is committed to promoting the building of a shared future for mankind, encouraging countries to join hands and share each nation’s development outcomes. The State Grid Corporation of China, as the largest public utility enterprise in the world, actively practises the principles of establishing mutual consultations, setups, and shared benefits in the process of high-quality co-building of the B&R Initiative. We strive to promote the construction of a new power system and actively foster cooperation in the energy sector globally. We also hope that this Programme will become a cooperative platform for sharing and exchanging cutting-edge technologies in the field of electric power and energy, continuously assisting countries and regions along B&R to deepen cooperation and achieve win-win outcomes.”

Mr Wang Lixin stated, “Since the proposal of B&R Initiative in 2013, its participating countries and regions have been vibrant hubs of cultural and technological exchanges, allowing different civilisations to learn from and respect each other, and enabling diverse perspectives to co-exist and integrate. Since its launch in 2018, the Porgramme has increasingly become a high-quality platform for international exchanges and interactions amongst electric-power talents, yielding fruitful results and demonstrating great vitality. I sincerely hope that everyone will continue to support and contribute to this platform, thereby further bolstering its reputation.”

Ms Liang Li said, “This Programme has been held for seven consecutive years. Through in-depth cooperation among the four co-organisers, it has successfully established a platform that connects engineers, researchers, and managers in the electric power and energy sector while also creating favorable conditions for experience sharing on infrastructure construction and engineering technology research in the power and energy field. This project has not only significantly promoted technical exchanges among the participating organisations but also deepened the friendships among the participants. The four parties have agreed to further strengthen their cooperation and jointly envision the completion of a ten-year programme and then eye on further development, with the aim of co-creating a new digital grid and a better future for all mankind.”

While many countries have drawn roadmaps to replace fossil fuel vehicles with electric vehicles, highlights of this year’s Programme included a keynote speech on “New Journey on Green Energy Revolution” by Prof. C.C. CHAN, Distinguished Chair Professor of Electric Vehicles and Smart Energy, and Director of the PolyU Electric Vehicle Research Center, who is also known as “Father of Asian Electric Vehicles”. Prof. Chan noted that the energy revolution refers to the transformation of energy generation, to enhance the efficiency of energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions through low-carbonisation, intelligentisation as well as the electrification and hydrogenation of end-use energy. He pointed out that the current new journey of electric vehicle revolution is from electrification to intelligence and internet connected vehicles. He also explained his theory that the integration of energy networks, information networks, and transportation networks and humanity networks would bring tremendous economic and ecological benefits to the society, addressing sustainability challenges facing the fourth industrial revolution, and hence the evolution from the fourth industrial revolution to fifth industrial revolution.

Moreover, the Programme provided participants with the opportunity to visit advanced power facilities, including SGCC’s training facilities in Jinan, the State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment in Xi’an, and HK Electric’s Lamma Power Station, Marsh Road Zone Substation and the Mobile Battery Energy Storage System in Hong Kong. These tours enabled them to explore cutting-edge technologies first-hand and gain a deeper understanding of energy management.

Participants were also taken to Centre for Advances in Reliability and Safety (CAiRS) jointly established by PolyU and University of Maryland from the US at the Hong Kong Science Park, and introduced to an artificial intelligence (AI) model co-developed by HK Electric and CAiRS. The model evaluates the probability of cable failures by identifying and analysing their health condition, enabling the prediction of the risk of potential failures of these components. HK Electric reported that, with the introduction of the “Three-hypers Index” and other monitoring technologies, the number of abnormal incidents with high-voltage cables has dropped by 40% over the past few years. This shows that innovative technologies have significantly enhanced power supply reliability.

This Programme is a pioneering cross-regional and multi-cultural university-industry collaboration and the first-of-its-kind in both Mainland China and Hong Kong. Since its inception in 2018, the Programme has attracted 830 industry professionals from 44 B&R countries and regions, facilitating more than 10,000 hours of exchanges, both online and offline training, as well as field trips.

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