Hubei Province has seen solar power surpass hydropower in installed capacity for the first time, marking a major milestone in the province’s energy transition.
Source: Science and Technology Daily
Hubei Province has seen solar power surpass hydropower in installed capacity for the first time, marking a major milestone in the province’s energy transition. As of the end of April, total installed wind and solar capacity reached 50.66 GW—accounting for 39% of Hubei’s total power generation capacity—according to State Grid Hubei Electric Power Co., Ltd. Of that, solar power made up 40.4 GW, overtaking hydropower for the first time in the province’s history.
To better accommodate the rising share of renewables, the utility has rolled out an advanced dispatch system designed to coordinate power generation, grid operations, electricity demand, and storage assets in a more integrated way.
“The system leverages intelligent forecasting to detect potential equipment overloads up to 30 minutes in advance—shifting from reactive dispatching to proactive risk management,” said Yang Gaokui, Director of the Dispatch Center at State Grid Xiangyang. “It helps eliminate curtailment caused by traditional transmission constraints and significantly boosts the share of renewables in the grid.”
The platform is now operating in cities including Xiangyang, Suizhou, and Xiaogan, and manages 378 renewable energy sites in northern Hubei, covering wind, solar, and energy storage facilities connected at 10 kV and above.
Currently, it monitors about 150,000 distributed renewable units ranging from 10 kV to 500 kV in real time. Every 15 minutes, it runs a predictive simulation for the next four hours using big data and grid modeling, helping ensure that more renewable electricity is consumed locally rather than wasted.
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