Is our power grid safe? How important is power system safety?

North Star Power Transmission and Distribution Network News: Qiu Aici: One of the main pioneers in the field of high current pulse particle beam accelerators and high-power pulse technology in China, an expert in high-power pulse technology and high current discharge plasma, has taken the lead in conducting experimental research on fast Z-pinch in China, and has opened up the discipline of pulse power and discharge plasma. Enjoy special government allowances from the State Council.
How do you understand this?
Qiu Aici: First of all, the concept of global energy internet is very innovative. It is a long term to realize, because it involves complex factors such as politics, technology and economy. From the perspective of sustainable human development, it is a very beautiful wish to enable global energy sharing; From a technical perspective, the proposal of the global energy Internet is a great challenge for our grid technology, energy technology, energy storage technology and other aspects. In this context, proposing this concept will have a driving and promoting effect on the development of innovative power grid technology and equipment improvement.
Reporter: In terms of the current energy and grid technology situation in China, what do you think is the key point of building a global energy Internet?
Qiu Aici: Building a global energy Internet is a systematic project, involving many aspects. As far as our country is concerned, the security of the power grid and the entire power system is very important, and our understanding of this aspect is not enough. For example, the seven major features of smart grids proposed by the United States, one of which is the grid's ability to resist attacks, mainly considering how the power system can respond to extreme natural disasters and human attacks. Here, human attacks include terrorist attacks, as well as the impact of strong electromagnetic pulse weapons on the power system. Of course, world peace is a major trend, but the security of the power system should be elevated to the level of national strategy and placed in an important position.
Reporter: What do you think China has done to ensure the safety of the power grid at present?
Qiu Aici: Recently, the School of Electrical Engineering at Xi'an Jiaotong University proposed the concept of elastic power systems. Because attacks against the power grid have strong uncertainty, the probability of such attacks occurring is small, but the scope of their impact may be wide and the consequences can be serious. With the rapid development of ultra-high voltage and smart grids in China, the complexity of power grid architecture and networks has greatly increased, and security defense capabilities will also be increasingly valued. So, I believe that security issues should be taken into account in the construction of smart grids and the national planning of the entire grid. We propose an elastic power system to address the extreme events with low probability and high losses mentioned above, and study how to quickly restore the entire power grid and minimize socio-economic losses in these situations. In fact, we are already researching measures, such as implementing multi energy integration. In the future, it may be a comprehensive energy system with multi energy complementarity, based on electricity, and integrating multiple new energy sources such as wind and light. Multi energy complementarity itself has much better resilience than a single energy source. In addition, the application of new materials such as superconductivity and silicon carbide in the power grid system, especially in some large-scale power electronics applications, is well applied, which is also a form of protection and can improve the system's elasticity; On the other hand, energy interconnection based on smart grid technology also needs to consider user side security issues. The important feature of smart grids is user participation, where supply and demand are interactive. Once there are security issues on the user side, it will also have an impact on the power grid.