High Voltage Switch: Diversified Demand Drives Industrial Development

"Eleventh Five-Year" period, the rapid industrial development of China's power, under strong policy support, transmission and distribution of a number of "country the name" key projects have been started, added a new motivation for the high voltage switchgear industry .

Industry experts stated that the construction of UHV, UHV power grids, and smart grids during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period will stimulate the market demand for high-end products in the power transmission and transformation field, and further accelerate the technological innovation process in the high-voltage switch industry.

The ability of independent innovation continues to increase

In recent years, the state has vigorously promoted the localization of major equipment manufacturing as an important equipment for control and protection in the operation of power systems . The high-voltage switch manufacturers have further enhanced their awareness of technological innovation and their product technology levels have been continuously improved.

Some industry experts said that the current domestic high-voltage switch industry has formed a vacuum switch as the leading medium-voltage products and systems to sulfur hexafluoride circuit breaker (GIS) equipment for leading high-voltage, ultra-UHV product system, and the level of product design , Manufacturing capacity continues to increase.

At the same time, as the country attaches importance to localization, the proportion of domestic power grid construction using domestically-produced equipment is gradually increasing, and the proportion of imported equipment is correspondingly reduced, which also provides a better opportunity for high-voltage switch manufacturers.

In the past ten years, the major breakthroughs in high voltage sulfur hexafluoride self-extinguishing technology, super power operation mechanism and 500kV single fracture GIS and other key technologies and key components have been developed, which has laid a good foundation for the independent development of 1100kV AC switching equipment. technical foundation. At present, the domestic vacuum switch has developed to high pressure, large capacity, and high reliability, and the upgrading and development of AC, DC super, and UHV technologies have come from behind.

In 2010, the world’s first 1100kV/6300～63000A circuit breaker successfully passed all the breaking tests at the National High Voltage Electrical Appliance Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, and announced that China has made a major breakthrough in the UHV high-capacity circuit breaker test field, indicating that China has become a world The first country to be able to perform all breaking tests on 1100 kV/63 kA breakers.

In terms of industry standard formulation, in 2010, the high-voltage switch industry has issued and implemented three compulsory countries such as GB17467-2010 high-voltage/low-voltage prefabricated substation, GB25284 12~40.5kV high-voltage AC automatic recloser and GB 25081 high-voltage live display device. standard.

Today, three substations in China, the first 1000kV Jindongnan-Jingmen UHV AC pilot demonstration project, were developed by three leading companies - Xi'an Xikai High Voltage Electric Co., Ltd., Shenyang High Voltage Switchgear Co., Ltd. and Pinggao Electric Group. The complete switchgear has been operating stably for more than one year, which has played a significant comprehensive benefit and laid the foundation for the subsequent localization of UHV equipment.

It is reported that the current high-voltage switch industry due to higher requirements in terms of technology, funds and qualifications, resulting in the industry showing high barriers and high profits. In the process of competing with foreign brands on the same stage, several domestic high-voltage switch manufacturers are stepping up the development of new products in the fierce competition of “internationalization of the domestic market”, accelerating technological transformation, and continuously improving production capacity and product quality.
Products show a variety of trends

Analysts pointed out that starting from the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, investment in the electrical equipment industry will show a trend of “polarization” in the next five years: UHV backbone network and distribution network transformation will become the theme of grid investment, and “intelligent” will drive secondary equipment. The increase in the proportion, high-performance high-voltage switch market in this process will also achieve greater scale of development.

According to statistics, the “Twelfth Five-Year” UHV DC will build 9 lines, and the total investment is expected to reach 217 billion yuan; UHV exchanges will complete the construction of “three horizontal, three vertical and one ring” and optimistically estimate that the investment will reach 298.9 billion yuan. It is expected that the investment in UHVDC converter stations will be 101.4 billion yuan, that of UHV AC substations will be 122.5 billion yuan, and in terms of equipment, the proportion of DC-commutated transformers and converter valves is more than 50%, and GIS switches and AC transformers are among them.

In this regard, Wu Huaiquan, a well-known expert in the high-voltage switch industry and director of the Xi'an High-Voltage Electric Research Institute, said in an interview with the media that the UHV, environmental protection, intelligence, miniaturization, and diversification will become the development trend of the high-voltage switch industry.

He believes that at present, China's major energy resources and the distribution of electricity load center, the UHV transmission technology has become the best choice for long-distance transmission of electricity, and it will also promote the rapid advancement and development of power grid technology and overall technology of power equipment manufacturing industry; Green environmental protection, energy saving, sustainable use of products will become the inevitable development of energy products, the development of low-carbon, environmentally friendly switching equipment has broad prospects; strong smart grid puts new higher requirements on high-voltage switch primary equipment, secondary control, etc. switchgear intelligence will become the mainstream of development of the industry; miniaturization, high reliability, low (free) is the national advocate maintenance and power users want products, highly reliable vacuum switch, C-GIS practical and economical combination of switches and other equipment to be Enterprise R&D focuses; and with the above trends, miniaturization, compound products and DC switchgear, intelligent, informational switchgear, 24kV switches, etc. will be further promoted, and the demand for some special occasions and scarce products will also be It is constantly proposed that the future industry products will show a diversified trend.

“The acceleration of UHV and smart grid construction will open up a vast market for the high-voltage switch industry. At the same time, the construction of UHV DC transmission projects will drive and promote UHV DC transmission technology research and open up a new technology field and new market. Experts in the industry suggest that during this period, the high-voltage switch industry should take the opportunity to build a strong smart grid in an all-round way and rely on UHV AC/DC transmission projects to enhance its independent innovation capabilities and achieve a transformation of the high-voltage switch industry from large to strong.

According to the forecast of the International Energy Agency, the cumulative power investment in the world from 2005 to 2030 will exceed US$11.3 trillion, of which power transmission and distribution will account for 54% and the cumulative investment will reach US$6.1 trillion. At present, China has become the world's largest electricity market and the largest transmission and distribution network in the world. In equipment- producing countries, a huge market will provide more space for technological innovation and progress of enterprises.