(Yicai Global) June 12 -- Smart grids, such as virtual power plants, energy storage devices and other ground-breaking technologies are key to helping Chinese companies reduce their carbon footprint, Yicai Global learned at an ongoing exhibition.

Midea Building Technologies, which is under home appliance giant Midea Group, has launched a virtual power plant, a company insider told Yicai Global at the 2023 International Carbon Neutrality Expo in Technologies, Products and Achievements, which kicked off in Shanghai yesterday and ends on June 14.

Virtual power plants provide market-based peak-load regulation services to factories, shopping malls, and even residential houses by bringing together all kinds of decentralized and adjustable power sources.

And power utility firm Shenergy Group unveiled the world’s first kilometer-scale superconducting cable for mega cities and a thermal power generation project with the world’s largest capacity and lowest energy consumption at the expo, which boasts more than 600 exhibitors.

Firms should focus on the development of new technologies such as energy storage and smart grids during their energy transition, as renewable energies including wind and solar power are volatile and intermittent, said Huang Zhen, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director at the Research Institute of Carbon Neutrality at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Midea Building also has a carbon footprint management platform that can help businesses optimize their greenhouse emission plans, the company insider said.

In addition to coal, nuclear, green hydrogen and solar power, the energy sector needs to develop industry-wide digital technologies and sound standards for low-carbon technologies, said Du Xiangwan, another scholar at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Editor: Kim Taylor