Jiangning, Nanjing: Full-Chain Innovation Edge Drives Push to Build World-Class Smart Grid Industry Cluster

Deep News10-15

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On October 15, the 2026 Power Industry Digital-Intelligent Transformation and Smart Grid Industry Ecosystem Release (Nanjing) Conference, hosted by the Science and Technology Center of the China Electricity Council, was held in Jiangning. The conference, themed "Digital-Intelligent Empowerment for the 15th Five-Year Plan, Building a Trillion-Yuan Smart Grid Industry Cluster," released Nanjing's smart grid industry development plan, established a smart grid industry alliance, and promoted deep cooperation among government, enterprises, academia, research institutions, and finance, helping Nanjing build a trillion-yuan smart grid industry cluster. Leaders and experts from national, provincial, and municipal relevant departments and nearly 20 energy and power central state-owned enterprises across the country, along with representatives from upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, universities and research institutes, and service organizations in finance, law, and intellectual property, jointly participated.

Conference site.

Aiming for a Trillion-Yuan Scale, Jiangning—the "Most Electricity-Savvy" District—Takes Center Stage

One of the highlights of the release session was the Municipal Smart Grid Industry Special Task Force releasing the "Nanjing 15th Five-Year Plan Smart Grid Industry Development Plan." The plan clearly aims for the industry scale to exceed 1 trillion yuan by 2030, building a new spatial development pattern of "One Valley, Three Zones, Two Poles," and striving toward the goal of becoming a world-class advanced manufacturing cluster for smart grids. As the core supporting sector of Nanjing's smart grid industry, Jiangning is focusing on building the China (Nanjing) Smart Grid Valley, intensifying innovation and R&D in key areas of new-type power systems such as ultra-high voltage, energy storage, digitalization, dispatch, electricity trading, and energy-saving transformation, and making every effort to build a core zone for smart grid high-end equipment industry and a source of original technology.

Nanjing 15th Five-Year Plan Smart Grid Industry Development Plan.

At the meeting, the CEC Science and Technology Center also released the "China Power Industry Digitalization Annual Development Report (2026)," State Grid Electric Power Research Institute (NARI Group) shared "Understanding and Reflections on New-Type Power Systems and NARI's Practice," and Nanjing Venture Capital Group promoted the Jiangsu Nanjing New-Type Power Industry Special Mother Fund.

NARI Relays Intelligent Electrical Equipment Industrial Park.

Notably, as one of the nation's first carbon peak pilot parks and the country's largest smart grid industry cluster, Jiangning Development Zone released the "National Carbon Peak Pilot Park 'Source-Grid-Load-Storage' Integrated Development Plan." On the power source side, the Mengdian-to-Jiangsu ultra-high voltage project is planned to land in Jiangning, with over 110 photovoltaic grid-connected units and 170 megawatts of installed capacity; on the grid side, the park's smart grid industry scale accounts for nearly 40% of the city's total, with core equipment such as relay protection, dispatch automation, and grid security and stability control leading the world; on the load side, Nanjing's first park-level energy-carbon virtual power plant has been built and selected as a national green and low-carbon advanced technology demonstration project; on the energy storage side, sodium battery, flow battery, and compressed air energy storage projects are being deployed competitively, and two grid-side energy storage stations by GCL and Lin Yang have been completed and put into operation. Looking ahead, Jiangning Development Zone will implement "Four Major Actions," striving to exceed 350 billion yuan in industry scale by 2030 and build a "World Smart Electricity Valley."

Jiangning Development Zone National Carbon Peak Pilot Park "Source-Grid-Load-Storage" Integrated Development Plan.

Deep Cultivation of the Smart Grid Track, Jiangning Forges Hardcore Strength

The choice of Jiangning as the venue for this conference—which gathers industry leaders to explore new industry directions—is not coincidental. It is the result of Jiangning's years of deep cultivation in the smart grid track, accumulating solid full-chain hard strength and delivering impressive results.

When it comes to Jiangning's smart grid, the most striking label is its full industrial chain system. From power generation, transmission, transformation, distribution, and consumption, to dispatch, communications, integrated energy services, and power network security, all nine segments are connected here, with upstream and downstream enterprises supporting each other nearby and collaborating efficiently, forming a complete industrial landscape rarely seen domestically.

Guodian Nanzi.

Innovation is the most vivid underlying color of Jiangning's smart grid. On this fertile industrial soil, a top-tier talent formation represented by 7 academicians including Xue Yusheng, Shen Guorong, and Shu Yinbiao has gathered, providing a powerful intellectual reserve that continuously supplies momentum for technological breakthroughs. In terms of core technologies and industry standards, Jiangning holds considerable say. Grid control systems account for over 60% of the domestic market, and relay protection technology standards account for over 80% nationwide, firmly occupying the industry's technological high ground. "We will fully leverage our technological advantages and rely on Jiangning's rich industrial application scenarios to accelerate the deep integration of scientific research achievements with the smart grid industrial chain, providing original technology and major equipment support for the construction of new-type power systems in Jiangning and Nanjing," said Zhou Xuezhi, Vice President of the CAS Nanjing Institute of Future Energy Systems.

Frontline of scientific research at State Grid Electric Power Research Institute (NARI Group).

In 2025, Jiangning District's smart grid industry scale exceeded 250 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.9%, accounting for half of the city's total. This year's development momentum remains steady. From January to August, the output value of 284 smart grid above-scale enterprises in the district increased by 13.2% year-on-year. The industrial echelon is richly layered with abundant growth vitality: 19 enterprises have output value exceeding 1 billion yuan, 17 enterprises have output value growth exceeding 100%, and a total of 45 enterprises have growth rates exceeding 50%. A vivid situation of leading enterprises setting the pace, backbone enterprises making efforts, and small and medium-sized enterprises growing rapidly has taken shape. Project construction and investment attraction are accelerating simultaneously. From January to August, 15 key industrial projects are under accelerated construction, continuously consolidating the industrial foundation; 32 industrial chain projects have been precisely attracted and settled, with total investment exceeding 5 billion yuan, continuously injecting new momentum into industrial development.

Haige Jialong Electrical System (Nanjing) Co., Ltd.

Currently, Jiangning is centering on the "Four Beams and Eight Pillars" overall work deployment made by the district party congress, anchoring the "Four Zone Positioning," grasping the "Eight Key Handles," deeply carrying out the "Eight Ones" action, focusing on "One Wu" to continuously strengthen advanced manufacturing, concentrating on building one 500-billion-yuan smart grid industry cluster, expanding and strengthening the leading industries of "Three Smart, Three New, Medical Network Unprecedented," and striving to build an industrial strong district with distinctive features of strengthening the chain toward high-end, supplementing the chain toward the frontier, and extending the chain toward new quality.

Galloping in Global Markets, Demonstrating Jiangning's Hardcore Responsibility

High-quality manufacturing "going global" is a new proposition for development. At the meeting, Jiangning District enterprises such as NARI Group, Guodian Nanzi, Jinzhi Technology, and Keyuan Smart, along with the district-located Nanjing Institute of Technology, jointly participated in the establishment of the Nanjing Smart Grid Industry Alliance and released an overseas expansion initiative. The Nanjing Smart Grid Industry Alliance signed an overseas expansion agreement with the Jiangsu (Nanjing) Foreign-Related Legal Service Center, and signed co-construction agreements with relevant university schools including Southeast University School of Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics School of Automation, and Nanjing University of Science and Technology School of Automation. Industry experts and leaders gave keynote speeches. "We will leverage Jiangning's rich innovation resources and talent resources, continue to increase R&D investment and high-end talent recruitment, and help Jiangning's smart grid industry cluster development reach a new level," said Yao Dongfang, Deputy General Manager of Canneng Electric.

Nanjing Smart Grid Industry Alliance established, releasing overseas initiative and signing related agreements.

As the district that "best understands" electricity, Jiangning has developed rapidly in emerging businesses such as grid dispatch, relay protection, offshore wind power, and energy storage, providing overall solutions and technical solutions for multiple industries, with products and services covering all parts of the country and more than 100 countries and regions.

Zhongdian Transformer Co., Ltd. energy storage integrated units loaded and ready for shipment.

At Belo Monte in Brazil, core equipment such as ultra-high voltage direct current transmission control and protection systems and converter valves provided by NARI Group enabled this largest hydropower transmission project in South America to materialize. In the hot on-site conditions and harsh operating environment, high-end power equipment made in Jiangning withstood the test, becoming a calling card for "China's ultra-high voltage" going global. At the doorsteps of residents in western and southern Saudi Arabia, smart electricity meters produced in Jiangning are measuring electricity consumption data; in Barivart village in the remote mountainous area of northern Philippines, NARI Group delivers clean electricity from photovoltaic power stations to village households and schools; in Germany, NARI signed an offshore wind power flexible direct current project, achieving zero breakthrough for China's high-end flexible direct current transmission technology and equipment in European and American power markets.

Researchers from State Grid Electric Power Research Institute (NARI Group) conducting high-current experiments on ultra-high voltage power equipment.

Turning attention domestically. As the country's first "West-to-East Power Transmission" demonstration project, Shanxi Yangcheng Power Plant bears the dual strategic tasks of Shanxi-to-East power transmission and intra-provincial supply guarantee. Based on the overall situation of energy supply guarantee and industrial autonomy, Yangcheng Power Plant, after multiple rounds of research and demonstration, scheme review, and technical discussions, ultimately joined hands with Jiangning enterprise Keyuan Smart to comprehensively advance the DCS domestication upgrade and transformation of the entire plant. After the transformation, the thermal power units were equipped with a "domestic brain"—the independently controllable NT6000 control system developed by Keyuan Smart. The control system that once relied on imports now achieves full Chinese-language visualization of the entire process workflow screens, fault alarms, operation curves, and parameter monitoring, highly adapted to the domestic thermal power operation and maintenance system, greatly reducing the operation and maintenance threshold and learning costs, with the "command center" firmly in its own hands.

Keyuan Smart production frontline.

Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan, Jiangning will seize the major opportunities of the national carbon peak pilot park and new-type power system demonstration zone construction, further leverage the influence of this national industry conference, strengthen the supporting role of smart grids in the "Six Networks," actively promote key project construction, build green electricity corridors, deepen computing-power-electricity coordination, and prospectively布局 new integrated application scenarios such as "computing power + electricity" and "information + electricity." Jiangning will take this as an opportunity to gather national industry resources, cutting-edge technologies, and high-quality projects, linking the industrial chain, innovation chain, capital chain, talent chain, and scenario chain, sprinting toward a world-class smart grid industry cluster that radiates across the province and leads the nation, and striving to write a new chapter in the high-quality development of China's smart grid industry.

Baijia Lake.

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