Chinese Smart Grid Project Taps OSIsoft

Smart City implementations are reliant in no small part upon the power – pardon the pun – of a strategic Smart Grid strategy. In China, the China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI) and OSIsoft, an operational intelligence specialist company, have announced that they will team up on a smart grid project that will leverage OSIsoft’s PI System as a data infrastructure for real-time data monitoring, analytics and reporting.

The project, called the China Smart Grid Substation Operations and Communication Project, will serve as the basis of China’s future Smart grid development standards, according to the announcement.

“Smart grid information and communication technologies will be essential to meet the world’s growing demand for energy,” said Chaoyang Zhu, Deputy Director, Information and Communication Department, CEPRI. “Working with OSIsoft is an important step toward our goal of demonstrating the best practices of creating an Internet of Energy.”

The project is funded in part through grant funding from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), which connects U.S. businesses with development opportunities overseas.

The PI System is already deployed at more than 19,000 sites worldwide, and it is designed to capture operational data from assets like transmission lines, grid sensors, power plants and building management systems and then transform the data into rich information streams that can help companies conduct preventative maintenance, optimize power consumption and reduce costs.

“We are very excited to be working with the China Electric Power Research Institute, which has been a pioneer in developing and implementing smart grid technologies,” said Ann Moore, Director, Regional Development, OSIsoft. “Information and communication data management lay at the heart of smart grids. We believe the achievements we can accomplish here will ultimately have a positive impact for electric power utility business and smart grid development around the world.”

Cities getting smart by being smarter is just smart.