A China Mobile employee adjusts and tests 5G base station equipment at Tongling Railway Station in East China's Anhui Province on April 27. Photo: cnsphoto

State Grid has completed the largest domestic 5G smart grid project, which could save 20 percent of power consumption per 5G base station through a peak-shaving and valley-filling strategy, and automatically remove faults in distribution lines within milliseconds.

The project has some 30 base stations - built by Qingdao Power Supply Co, China Telecom Qingdao Branch and Huawei Technologies Co - in Qingdao, a coastal city in East China's Shandong Province.

State Grid said the 5G base stations have effectively improved power supply service quality, grid inspection efficiency and the level of joint construction and sharing.

Notably, the 35-kilovolt Gujia Substation at Qingdao's Guzhenkou, the latest 5G peak-shaving and valley-filling base station, was put into operation and has begun to provide a cheap and stable power supply for local 5G equipment, said State Grid.

The power consumption of 5G base stations is higher than that of 4G stations. The company has adopted a peak-shaving and valley-filling strategy, storing power during low-consumption periods and using it to supply 5G base stations during peak hours.

It is estimated that the strategy saves 20 percent of electricity costs of per base station. In other words, one base station can save 13,800 yuan ($1,973) per year in electricity costs. Qingdao's telecommunications operators are expected to build 14,000 5G base stations. 

Two 10-kilovolt power distribution cabinets were put into operation at Guzhenkou. State Grid said the facilities, equipped with 5G distribution lines, can remove faults in distribution lines within milliseconds.

State Grid said users not in the fault area are not impacted, adding that compared with the previous situation where a power fault could affect the entire line, the power supply service level has been greatly improved.

5G can meet large bandwidth, low latency and wide connection requirements in various business scenarios such as video inspection, distribution automation and automatic meter reading, according to State Grid.

The combination of 5G and edge computing, network slicing and other technologies provides services like secure isolation for the power grid, which will become an important driving force in the construction of the energy internet, said State Grid.