December 26, 2022

Huawei Unveils Top 10 Trends of Smart PV for a Greener Future

SHENZHEN, China, Dec. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Huawei held the Top 10 Trends of Smart PV (photovoltaic) conference, with the theme of ”Accelerating Solar as a Major Energy Source”. At the conference, Chen Guoguang, President of Huawei Smart PV+ESS Business, shared Huawei’s insights on the 10 trends of Smart PV from the perspectives of multi-scenario collaboration, digital transformation, and enhanced safety.

As the proportion of renewable energy keeps increasing, the PV industry acquired a booming growth, yet, the industry still faces many challenges, including how to continue reducing the levelized cost of energy (LCOE), how to improve the O&M efficiency, how to maintain power grid stability as more renewable energy are feeding in, and how to ensure end-to-end system safety.

(PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

“Amid the rapid growth of the PV industry, these challenges also bring opportunities.” said Chen Guoguang. As a forward-looking enterprise, Huawei is keen to sharing our insights and thinking with our partners, as well as organizations and individuals who are interested in green and sustainable development.

Trend 1: PV+ESS Generator

As more renewable energy is feeding into power grids, various complex technical problems arise in terms of system stability, power balance, and power quality.

(PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

Therefore, a new control mode is needed to increase active/reactive power control and response capability, and actively mitigate frequency and voltage fluctuations. With the integration of PV and ESS as well as the Grid Forming technology, we can build ‘Smart PV+ESS Generators’ that use voltage source control instead of current source control, provides strong inertia support, transient voltage stabilization, and fault ride-through capabilities. This will transform PV from grid following to grid forming, helping increase PV feed-in.

A milestone in practice of these technologies was the Red Sea project in Saudi Arabia, which Huawei provided a complete set of solution including smart PV controller, lithium battery energy storage system (BESS) as one of the major partners. This project uses 400 MW PV and 1.3 GWh ESS to support the power grid which replaces traditional diesel generators and provides clean and stable power for 1 million people, building the world’s first city powered by 100% renewable energy.

Trend 2: High Density and Reliability

High power and reliability of equipment in PV plants will be the trend. Take PV inverters as an example, nowadays, the DC voltage of inverters is increased from 1100 V to 1500 V. With the application of new materials such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN), as well as the full integration of digital, power electronics, and thermal management technologies, it is estimated that the power density of inverters will increase by about 50% in the next five years, and the high reliability can be maintained.

The 2.2 GW PV plant in Qinghai, China is 3100 m above sea level and has 9216 Huawei Smart PV Controllers (inverters) running stably in this harsh environment. The total availability hours of Huawei inverters exceed 20 million hours, and the availability reaches 99.999%.

Trend 3: Module-Level Power Electronics (MLPE)

Driven by industry policies and technology advancement, distributed PV has witnessed vigorous development in recent years. We are facing challenges such as how to improve the utilization of rooftop resources, ensure high energy yield, and how to ensure the PV+ESS system safety. Therefore, more refined management is a must.

(PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

In a PV system, module-level power electronics (MLPE) refer to power electronic equipment that can perform refined control on one or more PV modules, including micro inverters, power optimizers, and disconnectors. MLPE brings unique values such as module-level power generation, monitoring, and safe shutdown. As PV systems are becoming safer and more intelligent, the penetration rate of MLPE in the distributed PV market is expected to reach 20% to 30% by 2027.

Trend 4: String Energy Storage

Compared with traditional centralized ESS solutions, the Smart String ESS solution adopts a distributed architecture and modular design. It uses innovative technologies and digital intelligent management to optimize energy at the battery pack level and control energy at the rack level. This results in more discharge energy, optimal investment, simple O&M, as well as safety and reliability throughout the lifecycle of the ESS.

(PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

In 2022, in the 200 MW/200 MWh ESS project in Singapore for the purpose of frequency regulation and spinning reserve, the largest BESS project in Southeast Asia, the Smart String ESS implements refined charge and discharge management to achieve constant power output for a longer time and ensure frequency regulation benefits. In addition, the automatic SOC calibration function at the battery pack level reduces labor costs and greatly improves O&M efficiency.

Trend 5: Cell-Level Refined Management

Similar to PV systems shifting towards MLPE, lithium BESSs are set to develop towards smaller management level. Only refined management at battery cell level can better cope with the efficiency and safety problems. Currently, the traditional battery management system (BMS) can only summarize and analyze limited data, and it is almost impossible to detect faults and generate warnings in the early stage. Therefore, BMS needs to be more sensitive, intelligent, and even predictive. This depends on the collection, computing, and processing of a large amount of data, and AI technologies to find the optimal operating mode and make forecasts.

(PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

Trend 6: PV+ESS+Grid Integration

On the power generation side, we see more and more practices of building clean energy bases of PV+ESS that supply electricity to load centers through UHV power transmission lines. On the power consumption side, virtual power plants (VPPs) become increasingly popular in many countries. VPPs combine massive distributed PV systems, ESSs, and controllable loads, and implement flexible scheduling to power generation units and storage units to achieve peak shaving etc.

Therefore, building a stable energy system that integrates the PV+ESS+Grid to support PV power supply and feed-in to grid will become a key measure to ensure energy security. We can integrate digital, power electronics, and energy storage technologies to achieve multi-energy complementation. Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) can intelligently manage, operate, and trade power of massive distributed PV+ESS systems thru multiple technologies including 5G, AI, and cloud technologies, which will come into practice in more countries.

Trend 7: Upgraded Safety

Safety is the cornerstone of the PV & ESS industry development. This requires us to systematically consider all scenarios and links and fully integrate power electronics, electrochemical, thermal management, and digital technologies to upgrade system safety. In a PV plant, faults caused by the DC side account for more than 70% of all faults. Therefore, the inverter needs to support smart string disconnection and automatic connector detection. In distributed PV scenario, the AFCI (Arc Fault Circuit Breaker) function will become a standard configuration, and the module-level rapid shutdown function will ensure the safety of maintenance personnel and firefighters. In ESS scenario, multiple technologies, such as power electronics, cloud, and AI, need to be used to implement refined management of ESS from battery cells to whole system. The traditional protection mode based on passive response and physical isolation is changed to active automatic protection, implementing multi-dimensional safety design from hardware to software and from structure to algorithm.

(PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

Trend 8: Security and Trustworthiness

In addition to bringing benefits, PV systems also have various risks, including equipment safety and information security. Equipment safety risks mainly refer to the shutdown caused by faults. Information security risks refer to external network attacks. To cope with these challenges and threats, enterprises and organizations need to establish a complete set of “security and trustworthiness” management mechanisms, including the reliability, availability, security, and resilience of systems and devices. We also need to implement protection for personal and environmental safety as well as data privacy.

Trend 9: Digitalization

Conventional PV plants have a large amount of equipment and lack information collection and reporting channels. Most of the equipment cannot ‘communicate’ with each other which is very difficult to implement refined management.

(PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

With the introduction of advanced digital technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, sensing technologies, and big data, PV plants can send and receive information, using “bits” (information flows) to manage “watts” (energy flows). The entire link of generation-transmission-storage-distribution-consumption is visible, manageable, and controllable.

Trend 10: AI Application

As the energy industry moves towards an era of data, how to better collect, utilize, and maximize the value of data has become one of the top concerns of the entire industry.

(PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

AI technologies can be widely applied to renewable energy fields, and play an indispensable role in the entire lifecycle of PV+ESS, including manufacturing, construction, O&M, optimization, and operation. The convergence of AI and technologies such as cloud computing and big data is deepening, and the tool chain focusing on data processing, model training, deployment and operation, and safety monitoring will be enriched. In the renewable energy field, AI, like power electronics and digital technologies, will drive profound industry transformation.

At the end, Chen Guoguang remarked that the converged applications of 5G, cloud, and AI are shaping a world where all things can sense, all things are connected, and all things are intelligent. It is coming faster than we think. Huawei identifies the top 10 trends of the PV industry and describes a green and intelligent world in the near future. We hope that people from all walks of life can join hands to achieve the goals of carbon neutrality and build a greener, better future.

(PRNewsfoto/Huawei)

December 26, 2022

China maximumly reduces COVID-19’s impacts on economic, social development

BEIJING, Dec. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — A report from People’s Daily: As China optimizes its pandemic response measures, regions across the country have resumed work, industrial production and commercial activities.

A tunnel of the Shenyang-Baishan high-speed railway in Baishan city, northeast China’s Jilin province has resumed construction; in the Haikou International Duty Free City in south China’s Hainan province, consumers are lining up in front of cashiers; an enterprise in Changde, central China’s Hunan province recently received a 20-million-yuan ($2.87 million) export order…

In 2020, China became the first major economy to attain positive economic growth; in 2021, the country’s GDP topped 114 trillion yuan, with its two-year average growth standing at 5.1 percent; this year, the Chinese economy withstood pressure and kept consolidating the trend of recovery.

Practices proved that China has explored a path that well coordinates pandemic control and economic and social development. The country has to the maximum extent protected people’s lives and health, and reduced the impacts from COVID-19 on economic and social development to the fullest.

Coping with COVID-19 is a major test of the century, in which the most important thing is to ensure the safety of the people while advancing economy and livelihood. In the recent three years, China has constantly adjusted and optimized its prevention and control measures in accordance with the new features of the variants and the development of the pandemic.

Over the recent three years, China has offered over a trillion yuan in tax relief for individual businesses and seen its annual grain output standing at more than 650 billion kilograms. It has launched a series of signature projects to promote high-quality development and released domestic demand through halving vehicle purchase tax and issuing consumption coupons.

China has coped with difficulties with science-based policies. It front-loaded and strengthened macro policies and accelerated the targeted implementation of micro policies, which boosted the confidence and relieved the burden of market entities. The country’s efforts stabilized the general economic and social development and realized economic recovery.

Now China has come to a new stage of pandemic response and optimized its control measures in accordance with the dynamics of COVID-19. It is earnestly implementing the new control measures, ensuring medical supply and services for the people, focusing on the control work for seniors and people with underlying diseases, ensuring people’s health and preventing patients from developing critical symptoms.

At present, the momentum for China’s rapid economic rebound is being accumulated and released. The Chinese economy enjoys strong resilience, huge potential and strong vitality. The fundamentals sustaining China’s long-term economic growth remain unchanged, and so do the factors supporting the country’s high-quality development.

It is believed that as China further implements its new COVID-19 response measures and the country’s policies to stabilize its economy continue taking effect, China’s economic and social vitality will be released to the maximum extent, contributing to the country’s economic recovery.

December 26, 2022

“It’s My Utmost Wish to see Eritrea get International Recognition for the Elimination of Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission Shortly” Madam Therese U. Poirier

Our guest today is Madam Therese U. Poirier, UNAIDS country representative in Er¬itrea. Madam Poirier has com¬pleted her three-year term and is leaving Eritrea on January 1, 2023. The interview focuses on her professional and personal experiences in Eritrea.

Thank you for being with us. Please introduce yourself to our audience

This is an honor that I don’t take for granted. Thank you very much. My name is Madam Therese Poirier. I am a Rwandese- Canadian and a mother of two. I have over 30 years of progressive leadership experience in interna¬tional development. I started my journey working with grass root community development in my native Rwanda. Later on I moved around many countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America (Canada). Before join¬ing UNAIDS, I was working as a diplomat for the Canadian gov¬ernment working with regional and pan African institution. A decade ago, I moved to UNAIDS and worked as its representative in Mali, Malawi, and now Eritrea.

You have been in Eritrea for three years; how would you de¬scribe your time here?

What to say! What to say about Eritrea! It has been an incred¬ible journey and I am extremely grateful for the opportunity I have had to work in this beauti¬ful country. I have made lifelong connections with the local people and international community that I will always cherish. Here, I have learned so much about this country. Eritrea is making its own progress at its own pace. That is something you need to experi¬ence Eritrea. You need to be here to see how Eritrea is able to be on track to meet many SDGs, espe¬cially the one I am interested in, SDG 3. I have seen tremendous achievement. They don’t make noise but they are scoring tre¬mendous achievement. I am im¬pressed by the level of commit¬ment of the people and the civil society I have been working with. I describe my time here as an in¬valuable learning path and I will really miss this. The exposure al¬lows me to experience firsthand how a country with a vision can perform. And I am very grateful for this experience.

As a UNAIDS representative to Eritrea, what are your obser¬vations and impressions about AIDS in Eritrea?

Thank you for this question be¬cause it is one of the things that I would like to say from the bottom of my heart. I would like to com¬mend Eritrea for the partnership I have with the Ministry of Health (MOH).

They have made outstanding progress, especially in health sec¬tor. If we see the strong leader¬ship skills of all involved in HIV response, it’s really impressive. And somehow, it contributes to making my job easier and fasci¬nating. One of the things I really appreciate is how people work together. You know, the way in the UN, the different sister agen¬cies work with each other and co¬ordinate the response. The same way, the MOH works with other ministries to ensure that the re¬sponse is very focused and well-coordinated. That’s how I have got the opportunity to work with people from the MOH, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Infor¬mation, National Union of Er¬itrean Women, National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students, the National Confederation of Eritrean Workers. All of them are involved and I really appreciate the dedication of the team. That, I believe, is what led to achieving these outstanding results that we are seeing now. Eritrea is on good trend. According to statistics, in 2003, the prevalence [of AIDS] was 4.34; now we are almost at 0.5. This is a huge leap forward. We may not make noise about it but we know it’s a very big achievement. This is because of the multi-sectorial approach; the work of all the people involved is what makes this happen. There are 284 sites dedicated to HIV testing services. And all depart¬ments are working to ensure that everyone can be tested by pro¬viding equal access. People liv¬ing with HIV are involved in the planning and implementation of services and that is commend¬able. That is what the Global Fund appraises Eritrea for. This kind of working together and co¬ordinated response.

Have you travelled out of As¬mara? Are there experiences you would like to share with us?

I wish I could travel more. Un¬fortunately, I arrived during the covid-19 lockdown and couldn’t travel all over the country, but I managed to visit some zones and it was really interesting to see the beauty of the country, the sereni¬ty of the country side. I remember when I was going to Massawa for a site meeting. Passing through the mountains to Massawa, it somehow reminded me of my native Rwanda. I really enjoyed it and I always like to go to the health facilities and get firsthand experience and discuss with com¬munities. One of the things I re¬ally enjoyed, which would be my takeaway, is community mem¬bers working with a health facil¬ity staff to build the waiting room for pregnant women who live in hard-to-reach areas. This meant that pregnant women could come prior to their delivery and have safe delivery under medical su¬pervision.

This is a very good example of what Eritrea can teach others. I enjoy visiting the country side to see the marvelous landscapes and visit HIV testing centers. HIV testing services are incorporated in healthcare facilities, making them easy to access. For exam¬ple, a pregnant woman attend¬ing an antenatal clinic (ANC) has HIV tests conducted at in¬tervals. Currently, I can say 95% of women are attending ANCs, which is very good. Of course, we still have some women who don’t deliver in hospitals. That is something we need to keep work¬ing on to ensure that all pregnant women come to health facilities for delivery and checkups.

If I asked you to paint a verbal picture of Eritrea, what would it look like?

Thank you for this question. Honestly, the country will leave a lasting impact on me. You know there is this saying that the taste of the pudding is in the eating. Should I speak about the warmth of the Eritrean people? Kindness comes naturally to them. Walking around in my neighborhood even in late hours, I feel safe. This is something unique. You cannot do that in some countries. Even in Canada, there are some parts of the country you can’t feel safe to go to. Honestly, during my time in Eritrea, I found the Eritrean people to be very cordial and welcoming. I have made several friends at all levels. In addition to that, I have had some privileges to be invited at local homes for meals and local coffee ceremony! I struggle with the first round of the coffee, i.e. Awel (first), and the second because they are very strong. I really enjoy the ceremo¬ny and the coffee from the third round on. Moreover, the working environment in Eritrea is very friendly and I really appreciate the interaction that I’ve had with people in Eritrea as a whole. I’ve really benefitted from my stay. That is something I would take away with me.

How does it feel to depart Er¬itrea?

As I said earlier, in my career for more than 31 years, I have traveled in various continents. I stayed longer in some countries than others but one of the things I want to say is that it is never easy to prepare for this inevitable day, to say your goodbyes. Last week, I had a workshop with health workers and women living with HIV, preparing this country to eliminate the disease. At the end of the workshop, as we were say¬ing goodbye we were all crying. It was heartbreaking. It is tough to leave this country; I know how much I will miss my Asmarinos. I will keep the friendship I have started here and I will keep it for¬ever.

Any other messages you would like to put across?

My key message would be to my partners; continue to build re¬silient and sustainable system for health and strengthen your pan¬demic preparedness so that Er¬itrea stays healthy. You did well under the threat of Covid-19; you can keep doing well. I would also say keep raising awareness and eliminate shame about HIV be¬cause the stigma may hinder the response.

That’s how the media and oth¬ers could help combat HIV. Con¬tinue the push forward and gain more ground in fighting HIV, maintain the tremendous gain we have made. As I said, HIV/ AIDS prevalence among clients coming to HIV testing services has declined from 4.34 to 0.6 in 2021. So, there is a lot of hope for Eritrea. And my most genu¬ine wish is to see what Eritrea will be in the coming year or two years. It can become the first country in Africa to get the full international recognition of the elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission. Botswana has got the bronze but Eritrea can go straight for the top without hav¬ing to pass levels. It’s my utmost hope that this continues so that in some years I hear that Eritrea is an AIDS-free country.

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea

December 26, 2022

Ethiopia Says Govt Team en Route to Rebel Tigray Region

NAIROBI, KENYA — A high-level Ethiopian team was on its way Monday to the capital of the rebel-held Tigray region for talks on implementing a peace deal to end over two years of conflict.

Addis Ababa and Tigray’s rebel forces have agreed to create a joint monitoring body to ensure the November peace deal to end the brutal war is respected by all sides.

Among the terms of the agreement was a provision to establish a monitoring and compliance mechanism so that both sides could be confident the truce was being honored, and any violations addressed.

Tens of thousands have died in two years of bloodshed in Tigray.

“The delegation is the first of its stature as a high-level federal government body heading to Mekele in two years,” a statement said, adding that it was led by House of Representatives speaker Tagesse Chafo.

The aim is to supervise the application of the peace deal signed on November 2.

The agreement provides for the disarmament of rebel forces, the re-establishment of federal authority in Tigray and the reopening of access to the region.

“This gesture is an attestation to the peace agreement getting on the right track and progressing,” the statement said.

Estimates of casualties vary widely, with the United States saying that as many as half a million people have died, while Borrell says more than 100,000 people may have been killed.

The war began in November 2020 when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray after accusing the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the ruling party in the region, of attacking army bases.

All sides to the conflict have been accused of possible war crimes by U.N. investigators, and the U.S. has warned ethnic cleansing may have occurred in western Tigray.

Aid has started trickling back into Tigray since the peace deal was signed in November, going some way to alleviating dire shortages of food, fuel, cash and medicines.

But the region of six million is still largely without electricity and phone lines, while internet and banking services have only partly been restored.

Pro-government forces — specifically troops from Eritrea to the north, and militias from the Ethiopian region of Amhara — are not mentioned in the peace deal but remain in Tigray and have been accused of abuses.

Source: Voice of America

December 26, 2022

Ethiopia Federal Government Officials in First Post-War Visit to Tigray

NAIROBI — Ethiopian officials have for the first time in nearly two years arrived in Tigray’s capital Mekelle to join in overseeing implementation of a November peace deal.

The speaker of Ethiopia’s parliament Tagesse Chaffo Dullo arrived in Tigray’s capital Mekelle on Monday as leader of the first federal delegation to the region since war broke out in November 2020.

The delegation, which state media says includes members of Ethiopia’s National Dialogue Commission, are in Tigray to work on implementing an African-Union brokered peace deal to end the deadly two-year conflict.

The November deal signed in South Africa saw Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front agree to cease fighting and for foreign fighters to leave, for the TPLF to disarm, and for blocked aid and services to be restored.

The visit will be seen as a sign that the peace deal is holding, despite TPLF allegations and reports of continued killings, looting and rape by Amhara region militias and Eritrean forces.

Eritrea and the regional militias were not party to the peace deal.

Eritrea and Ethiopia have denied Asmara’s involvement in Tigray, though last year Eritrea acknowledged its troops’ presence and said they would be withdrawn.

Mediators from Kenya and the African Union are also expected to visit Mekelle this week after Ethiopia and the TPLF agreed Thursday to a joint monitoring team.

Ethiopia has gradually lifted a blockade on desperately needed food and medical aid to Tigray and restored some telecommunications.

The two-year conflict is estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.

But information is hard to verify in Tigray and Ethiopia has also blocked journalists from entering the region.

Source: Voice of America