State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company: Working together for win-win future and bringing new energy vehicles go smoothly

 
Company profile
 
State Grid Shanghai Municipal Electric Power Company (short as State Grid Shanghai Electric) owned by the State Grid Corporation, is the oldest power enterprise in China. Besides responsible for power transmission, distribution, sales and service industries in Shanghai, it also uniformly dispatches power grid in Shanghai, participates in the formulation and implementation of electric power, power grid development planning and rural electrification in Shanghai, and supervises and directs the safe and economical use of electricity in the city. The power grid under the jurisdiction of State Grid Shanghai Electric is located in the southeastern front of the Yangtze River Delta. It borders the Yangtze River in the north and the East China Sea in the east, adjoining Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The power supply business area covers the entire administrative area of Shanghai, with a transmission line of 23,900 kilometers, a maximum power load of 32.682 million kilowatts, and an annual sales of 127.65 billion kilowatt hours.
 
Challenges
 
With the promotion of the concept of environmental protection and preferential subsidy policies issued in succession throughout the country, new energy vehicles are favored by more and more drivers because of their economy and environmental protection. It has also become one of the effective ways to deal with urban road traffic exhaust emissions and reduce haze weather. Shanghai is a pioneer city in the development of electric vehicle market. As of February 2018, the number of new energy vehicles has reached 165,545, ranking first in the country. Compared with the increasing number of electric vehicles in Shanghai, the construction of charging facilities is relatively lagging behind. The shortage of parking lot resources, the scarcity of public charging facilities and the occupancy of charging parking spaces have become the main factors restricting the development of electric vehicles.
 
As a public utility enterprise, State Grid Shanghai Electric is aware of the key role of power supply enterprises in the development of new energy automotive industry. It began to think about the role of its advantages in solving the problem of charging new energy vehicles.
 
Solutions
 
Building industry coalition to promote co-construction and interconnection
 
In order to reduce the waste of social resources caused by repeated construction due to different charging facilities standards, and promote the interconnection between electric vehicles, charging facilities and power grids, State Grid Shanghai Electric took advantage of its own resource integration and industry leadership to combine stakeholders in research, development, production and construction of charging facilities for electric vehicle under the strong support and guidance of the Shanghai Municipal Communications Commission, and established the Shanghai Electric Vehicle Charging Facility Enterprise Coalition in 2016 and serves as the president of the coalition.
 
In 2017, State Grid Shanghai Electric led the coalition members to establish a joint meeting mechanism and established a special working group to refine the technical standards of charging equipment, emphasize the unification of the charging interface and communication protocol, and prepare operating manuals and charging guides for charging owners for different device characteristics, which has effectively standardized the charging facilities construction services and promoted the orderly development of the electric vehicle market. In addition, State Grid Shanghai Electric actively strengthened cooperation with Internet vehicle platforms and public transportation companies to increase the proportion of new energy vehicles in their businesses, and coodinated the construction of dedicated charging facilities to enhance the popularity of new energy vehicles in the market.
 
Innovating in operating mode to achieve win-win cooperation
 
In order to solve the problem of uneven distribution of interests among stakeholders in traditional operation mode and achieve sustainable multi-profitability of joint investment, State Grid Shanghai Electric, based on industry experience and its leading position, innovatively established a cooperative business model between public fast charging stations and parking lot ownership units. First, the service fee sharing method is adopted to cooperate with the ownership unit of parking lot. The parking fee income of the electric vehicle owner in the charging parking space belongs to the parking lot operator. And the charging service fee is shared by the parking lot operator. Second, the power companies lease the site to carry out the construction, operation and maintenance of charging facilities. The charging electricity fee and service fee of the electric vehicle owner are paid to the power company, and the parking fee is paid to the site owner.
 
State Grid Shanghai Electric also implements an operational evaluation system after the revenue agreement, and evaluates the operational effectiveness of charging power and traffic volume, so as to adjust the proportion of place local service fees in the venue and improve the parking capacity utilization and operational transparency. In addition, State Grid Shanghai Electric establishes a multi-party regular communication mechanism to actively invite government departments, upstream and downstream construction enterprises, charging stake operators and other stakeholders to deepen the engagement of operation and maintenance, working together to create a win-win and sustainable development model.
 
Optimizing products and services to meet sustainable needs
 
State Grid Shanghai Electric establishes site selection criteria for public charging facilities from user demand, traffic flow around, available number of cars and construction difficulty. According to the characteristics of the region and the different demands of users, it adopts different construction strategies, and selects sites with a higher overall score to build charging facilities. For the self-use charging facilities in residential areas where users are in urgent need, it lowers the threshold and installs them as appropriate to maximize the multi-charge demand of new energy vehicles.
 
The company continually optimizes the business process, shortens the time for receiving electricity, and accepts the application for the construction of charging piles in new sites based on property and neighborhood committees. After the charging piles are completed, the owners can take turns to charge, which meets the charging demand of the new energy vehicle owners in the community. At the same time, State Grid Shanghai Electric builds a mobile APP interface platform, and develops one-click positioning, intelligent piles finding, one-click payment and customer reviews to ensure that the smooth information channels for charging facilities, providing users with fast and reliable charging service. In addition, State Grid Shanghai Electric is also actively using new energy to provide charging services for electric vehicles. In 2017, the first light storage and charging integrated charging station built by State Grid Shanghai Electric was put into use, using photovoltaic power to store electrical energy and provide clean energy for electric vehicles.
 
Achievement
 
Social benefit
 
Relieving the charging pressure of new energy vehicles
 
The construction of electric vehicle charging network in Shanghai has gradually improved. In 2017, the company built 109 public fast charging stations, 9 bus charging stations, and 1,263 public charging piles, reducing the charging service circle in major urban areas from 5 km to 2 km. The owners satisfaction with the new electric vehicle charging facility rose from the original 72% to 88%. The owners concerns about charging in outside is greatly reduced. In addition, parking lot places and equipment manufacturers have also achieved resource integration, economic benefits and industry competitiveness, promoting the harmonious and stable development of society.
 
Environmental benefit
 
Promoting low carbon and green development
 
Compared with traditional gasoline engine vehicles, the average carbon dioxide emissions of electric vehicles decreased from 147 g/km to 41 g/km. In 2017, the Shanghai area saved 115 million liters of gasoline and reduced CO₂ emissions by 264.5 million kilograms by using new energy charging settings.
 
Economic benefit
 
Achieving new energy market growth
 
From January to October 2017, the cumulative charge of new energy vehicles in Shanghai reached 172 million kwh, an increase of approximately 218% year on year. Besides,140,300 new personal charging piles were added, and the charging business expanded rapidly. State Grid Shanghai Electric's new energy market continued to grow and its comprehensive competitiveness continued to increase. In 2017, State Grid Shanghai Electric won the Towards 2040: Best Practices for Enterprise Innovation and Sustainable Urban Development  the 2017 Sustainable Action Model Award for this work, establishing a responsible brand image of state-owned enterprises.
 
Promoting industry eco-chain collaboration
 
The coalition and the corresponding joint mechanism have become a platform for the exchange, interaction, information dissemination, communication and cooperation of the charging facilities construction and operation industry. Together with the data feedback from the association, it contributed to the launch of the Special Plan for Charging Infrastructure of Shanghai Electric Vehicles, successfully extending the value chain of power supply services, standardizing industry standards and avoiding the disorderly development of the market and the island of charging facilities.
 
Prospect
 
In the future, State Grid Shanghai Electric will continue to pay attention to the feedback and needs of stakeholders, further optimize the location strategy and operation plan, and improve the utilization rate of idle facilities and special facilities. At the same time, it will increase promotion on green travel to help the city's sustainable development.