Closing the development gap through grid interconnection
- By Zhai Yongping
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 5, 2016
Zhai Yongping is a senior energy technical advisor with the Asian Development Bank and a visiting researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin University in Beijing. The following is his interview with State Grid magazine concerning the relationship between development and electricity interconnection.
Q: What is the most interesting part of the concept of global energy internet?
A: If well implemented, the concept can realize a global interconnection of grid and promote exchanges and communications between countries and regions.
Like the internet, the global energy internet will not only realize material interconnection, but also deepen exchanges and communications between different economies, cultures and ideas. This will boost mutual trust between the countries and promote stable and peaceful development in a given region.
Take the European Union for example. Some European countries did not trust each other before. But the integration of the European electricity system changed things. The European grid's construction boosts cooperation in clean energy and electricity, and deepens economic cooperation between European countries, which also strengthens the stability of European politics. This is an important benefit of grid interconnection.
Building a global energy internet is also a key project of the ADB. The bank, established in 1966, is committed to boosting economic and social development and regional intergovernmental financial development.
We pay special attention to infrastructure investment and regional cooperation in energy.
Last year, half of ADB's $5 billion was used in Asian grid and electricity internet projects. The bank plans to increase its annual loan to $6 billion by 2020, and half of the fund will be invested in clean energy while the rest will be used in building grid, electricity transmission and distribution projects as well as some other kinds of infrastructures.
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