The results of the 2025 Energy Innovation Awards hosted by the China Energy Research Society were recently announced. A joint project titled “Hybrid AC–DC Transmission Technology for Provincial Power Grids and Its Engineering Applications,” co-developed by Zhejiang University (ZJU), State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company, China Energy Construction Group, and other collaborating partners, was honored with the First Prize at 2025 China Energy Research Society’s Energy Innovation Awards. The project was led by Wang Zhiwei, an adjunct expert at Zhejiang University and a senior principal engineer at State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Company, with the participation of ZJUI Assoc. Prof. Diao Ruisheng. The team championed the adoption of an embedded DC transmission approach in the Yangzhou–Zhenjiang project, hailed as the world’s pioneering demonstration initiative that converts a 220-kilovolt AC long-span transmission line into a ±200-kilovolt embedded DC system.