To thoroughly implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on the development of artificial intelligence (AI), accelerate the in-depth integration of AI and the energy industry, and support the high-quality development and high-level security of energy, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration have recently issued the Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of “AI + Energy” (hereinafter referred to as the Implementation Opinions). With AI empowering the energy sector as the core path, the Implementation Opinions systematically deploy key initiatives such as expanding application scenarios, improving technological capabilities, and strengthening the innovation system. It also outlines the development goals for the “AI + Energy” integrated innovation system by 2027 and 2030, aiming to accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces and provide strong support for the construction of a new energy system. As a key state-owned energy enterprise related to national energy security and the lifeblood of the national economy, the National Energy Group actively implements the relevant decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, formulates a coordinated “AI +” special action for the power industry, and serves as a crucial pioneer in empowering the power industry with AI and a key organizer of the systematic layout of AI in the power sector.
Strengthening Integrated Innovation to Drive Intelligent Upgrading of the Power Generation Industry
The Implementation Opinions clearly identifies the power generation industry as a key area for AI to empower the energy sector. It systematically plans the paths for in-depth integration of AI with thermal power, hydropower, new energy, and emerging energy formats, promoting the in-depth application of AI technology in the power generation industry.
(1) Adhering to an Application-Oriented Approach and Focusing on the Development of the Power Industry
Guided by practical problems and driven by scenario implementation, the Implementation Opinions outlines targeted measures. For example, “AI + Thermal Power” focuses on the development direction of clean carbon reduction, safety and reliability, efficient regulation, and intelligent operation, with innovations in business scenarios such as fuel management and control, production operation optimization and intelligent control, and full-life-cycle equipment management. “AI + New Energy” addresses issues of output volatility and intermittency by promoting AI applications in areas such as high-precision power forecasting, electricity markets, smart station operation, and new energy planning. In recent years, the National Energy Group has undertaken a number of national-level industry pilot projects. By targeting the actual business pain points of the power industry, it has focused on making breakthroughs in key links such as planning and construction, maintenance and evaluation, safety and environmental protection, energy conservation and consumption reduction, operation management and control, and electricity trading. It has built a batch of high-value scenarios to ensure that technological empowerment and industrial development progress in tandem.
(2) Promoting Industrial Collaboration to Build an Integrated Ecosystem
The Implementation Opinions emphasizes new requirements such as creating an integrated intelligent production model for new energy featuring “weather forecasting + power forecasting + smart trading + intelligent operation and maintenance” and improving the intelligent operation level of integrated source-grid-load-storage systems. Through the in-depth integration of data-driven approaches and intelligent technologies, an integrated “technology-scenario-value” ecosystem is built to drive the energy industry from “single-point intelligence” to “systematic intelligence”. The National Energy Group actively leverages the advantages of its multi-energy layout in the power generation industry, explores new energy service formats, empowers the coordinated dispatching of integrated multi-energy complementary systems (including thermal, hydro, wind, solar, and energy storage), and realizes full-process intelligence in power production, operation, maintenance, and inspection—this intelligent upgrade also penetrates into the core manufacturing link of key power electronic equipment. For instance, in the production of circuit boards for new energy inverters and intelligent generator control modules (core components affecting power conversion efficiency and equipment stability), the Group has adopted AI-enabled Automatic placement machines (APMs). These APMs integrate AI visual recognition (supporting 0.01mm-level component positioning) and real-time process optimization algorithms: they can automatically identify 500+ types of miniature electronic components (such as SMD resistors, power chips, and communication modules) on the circuit board, dynamically adjust pressure (5-50g) and speed based on component material properties analyzed by AI, and reduce defects such as misplacement and cold soldering to less than 0.02%. Moreover, the APMs are connected to the Group’s power equipment digital twin platform, synchronizing real-time data (e.g., component coordinates, process parameters) with the equipment operation database—this not only improves the production efficiency of power electronic equipment by 40% but also provides accurate component position information for subsequent AI-based fault diagnosis of equipment, forming a “manufacturing-operation-maintenance” data closed loop. This comprehensive enhancement boosts system flexibility, security resilience, operational efficiency, and the absorption capacity of clean energy.
Addressing Development Bottlenecks to Resolve In-Depth Challenges in Intelligent Transformation
The Implementation Opinions points out that the energy sector faces challenges such as data silos, fragmented computing power, “black-box” algorithms, and high energy consumption of computing power. It calls for joint efforts from industry entities to advance research on key generic technologies in the energy field, including data, computing power, and algorithms. Standing at the new starting point of the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, the National Energy Group gives full play to the important role of state-owned central enterprises in “scientific and technological innovation, industrial control, and security support”, conducts high-level cutting-edge research, and solidifies the foundation for AI development.
(1) Consolidating the Data Foundation
By deeply integrating power business scenarios, the Group covers the entire data element governance chain of “collection-storage-processing-analysis-application”, and builds an efficient, intelligent, and secure data management system for the full life cycle of power data elements. It breaks down data barriers between business systems such as thermal power, hydropower, and new energy, and establishes a data-driven system featuring “basic support-business operation-innovation empowerment”. This forms a high-quality multi-modal dataset covering the power generation field, providing “fuel” for AI applications. At the same time, it researches technologies such as privacy-preserving computing, dynamic encryption, and trusted data spaces to ensure the full-process security of data and compliance with energy data security supervision requirements.
(2) Strengthening Computing Power Support
Adopting a model that combines leasing and self-construction, the Group builds a multi-heterogeneous intelligent computing center and conducts research on core technologies such as unified scheduling, task orchestration, and computing power pooling to meet the needs of model utilization. Committed to the principle of “power guarantees computing power, computing power empowers power, and integrated development of power and computing”, it plans the coordinated development of power and computing, builds a supercomputing service platform for the coordination of power and distributed unconventional computing power, improves the absorption rate of green power in computing centers, explores the recycling and utilization of waste heat resources in computing centers, further expands new formats for the development of comprehensive power energy services, and promotes high-quality green and low-carbon development.
(3) Enhancing Model Capabilities
Focusing on generic issues in the power industry such as insufficient domain knowledge adaptability and lack of decision reliability verification mechanisms, the Group optimizes model algorithms and applications, increases research on technologies such as multi-agent collaboration, interpretability, and lightweight model inference, and builds a large-model capability matrix covering the entire power generation field. This achieves a leap in full-scenario cognitive decision-making capabilities in the power generation industry and drives the transformation of the industrial chain from experience-driven to data-driven.
Improving System Guarantees to Activate New Momentum for Smart Energy
The Implementation Opinions proposes that in the future, a series of guarantee measures will be implemented to systematically promote the high-quality development of “AI + Energy”, including strengthening organizational implementation, promoting collaborative innovation, enhancing standardization, and carrying out pilot demonstrations. The National Energy Group will actively respond by making coordinated efforts in multiple dimensions such as standard systems, demonstration innovation, and talent development, adhering to innovation leadership, and comprehensively enhancing the core competitiveness of the power industry.
(1) Strengthening the Standard System
Adhering to the principle of “standards leading development”, the Group actively builds a standard system covering data, computing power, models, scenarios, and security in the “AI + Energy” field and encourages participation in the formulation of relevant international standards. It promotes the orderly implementation and verification of standards, builds an AI standard testing platform for the power generation industry to verify data quality, model performance, and scenario application effects, and embeds standards into the entire process of AI projects to ensure the compliance and reliability of applications.
(2) Promoting Demonstration and Innovation
The Group strengthens scientific and technological innovation, focuses on research on core “root technologies” in key fields, increases investment in AI-related scientific and technological layout, and joins hands with advanced enterprises, research institutions, and key laboratories in the industry to establish an AI innovation consortium in the energy field for collaborative research. It actively participates in the construction of an open ecosystem, accelerates the transformation of achievements and industrialization, and organizes pilot demonstrations to formulate new models for power industry operation and organization in directions such as industrial operation platformization, regional production flexibility, and business format diversification.
(3) Accelerating Talent Development
The Group strengthens the introduction of high-level talents in the AI field, explores efficient and flexible talent introduction mechanisms, and improves the talent development ecosystem through industry-academia collaboration. With a people-centered approach and a focus on capability building, it aims to cultivate a high-level scientific and technological talent team of appropriate scale, reasonable structure, and excellent quality, with both profound energy industry knowledge and cutting-edge AI technology capabilities.
In general, the release of the Implementation Opinions is well-timed, pointing out the direction for the innovative development of the “AI + Energy” field. It will surely consolidate industry consensus, promote the in-depth integration of AI and energy technologies as well as industrial innovation, and ensure the stable supply of energy security and green and low-carbon transformation. The National Energy Group will firmly grasp the opportunities brought by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation represented by AI, actively explore large-scale, diversified, and value-oriented models for the application of AI in the energy field, promote the construction of an open, shared, and collaborative smart energy industry ecosystem, and contribute the strength of state-owned enterprises to advancing Chinese modernization.
