The smart grid demonstration project in the Hainan Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, one of the first smart grid projects built in South China's Hainan province, has been completed, the pilot zone administration said on May 25.

The project boasts a power supply reliability rate of up to 99.999 percent and it only takes 300 milliseconds to handle faults of the power distribution network.

Since the establishment of the Boao Lecheng Pilot Zone, the Qionghai Power Supply Bureau of the China Southern Power Grid has been putting increasing efforts into power grid construction in the pilot zone and has invested 158 million yuan ($22.11 million) in seven tranches. The pilot zone aims to become a low-carbon comprehensive demonstration area in three stages featuring smart energy and a smart grid.

The smart grid demonstration project includes upgrading the smart power distribution network, optical cable and 5G communication, a solar and energy storage integrated smart parking lot, smart street lights, and an intelligent power Internet of Things application system, hoping to create a safe, reliable, green, energy-saving, intelligent and efficient digital power grid.

"The power distribution network in the pilot zone is an intelligent and automatic system, and it can sense the grid faults and operating conditions in real time with digital terminals. The faults can be quickly handled on the spot through high-speed peer-to-peer communication and edge computing technology," said Liu Darong of the Electric Power Management Center of the Qionghai Power Supply Bureau.

The system helps slash the fault handling time from 30 minutes to 300 milliseconds, which is as short as the time of one blink, enabling removal of distribution network faults without causing power outages, Liu added. "The reliability rate of the power supply in the pilot zone reaches 99.999 percent and ensures customers' average annual power outage time is shorter than five minutes, greatly improving the reliability of power supply."

Based on the development plan of the pilot zone, the Qionghai Power Supply Bureau will invest more than 30 million yuan to construct supporting power grids in the undeveloped plots in the southern area of the pilot zone and in its three resettlement areas, and will also build a 110 kV substation.

"In addition, we have improved our custom-centered service system and optimized the electricity business environment, so that we can fully and quickly meet customers' needs," said the person in charge of the Qionghai Power Supply Bureau's customer service center.