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.
▲
During the project's development, the research team led by Assoc. Prof. Diao Ruisheng at ZJUI leveraged its interdisciplinary expertise and profound foundational research capabilities to develop a reinforcement-learning-based online scheduling and decision-making approach. These innovations have notably improved operational and control flexibility in power grids, while bolstering grid safety and resilience amid complex operating conditions. Such advancements lay a robust technical foundation for large-scale renewable energy integration and carbon emission reduction, establishing a new technological benchmark for hybrid AC-DC power systems globally.
▲
In its first phase, the Yangzhou–Zhenjiang project boosted transmission capacity to 1.2 gigawatts, all without requiring additional transmission corridors, overcoming a long-standing global bottleneck in grid expansion for space-constrained areas. This solution provides a scalable, replicable benchmark for the development of urban energy infrastructure globally. Since its commissioning, the system has transmitted a total of 6.2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in its first year of operation, with renewable energy accounting for 35% of the total. It also achieved an impressive energy availability rate of 96.63%. The initiative successfully completed the full innovation chain—from theoretical research and technological breakthroughs to large-scale engineering deployment, demonstrating effective industry–academia–research collaboration. It has played a decisive role in advancing China’s provincial hybrid AC–DC transmission technologies from a follower to a global pacesetter.
