Partners: China Telecom Jiangsu Branch, China Telecom Nanjing Branch, State Grid Jiangsu, State Grid Nanjing, State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power Research Institute, Huawei, Jiangsu Fang Tian, NARI

Case Overview: This is a pilot project for key national research projects in 2017 and also the first field verification of 5G power slices based on SA standards, real scenarios, real terminals, and real application systems in the world. It is the first to complete millisecond-level field tests of precise load control services.

Case Description:

Smart grids are the basic guarantee of smart energy and the important material basis for promoting economic and social coordination and sustainable development in China. In the last 5 km of the power distribution and consumption section, building a terminal access network to implement communication and control of numerous power terminals is the key to implementing smart grids. 5G network slicing is an ideal choice for enabling smart grid services.

5G network slicing divides 5G networks into logically isolated virtual private networks. Power grid enterprises can flexibly customize specific slices with different network functions and SLA assurance to meet differentiated network requirements of different power grid services. China Telecom, State Grid, and Huawei have jointly initiated the 5G SA-based electric power slicing innovation project, and conducted beneficial exploration in terms of technical feasibility, commercial feasibility, application scenarios, and ecosystem construction.

In September 2017, China Telecom, State Grid, and Huawei jointly launched the 5G electric power slicing foundation future-oriented joint innovation project. This three-party cooperation project is the first practical exploration of 5G slicing in the electric power industry. The three parties will make full use of their advantages in technologies, industries, and markets to carry out joint technology R&D and tests in scenarios such as power distribution automation and power consumption information collection, and promote the maturity of related technologies, standards, and products, verify the application scenarios of cross-industry cooperation in communications and electric power, promote the construction of a win-win industry ecosystem, and generate more new applications and new business models.

In January 2018, China Telecom, State Grid, and Huawei jointly released the industry report 5G Network Slicing Enabling Smart Grid. This report is one of the key outputs of the national major 5G network slicing project. It describes the challenges encountered during the development of smart grids, potential application scenarios of 5G network slicing in smart grids, and solution analysis from the perspective of "5G slicing + smart grid".

In Jun 2018, a solution of 5G Slicing–based Smart Grid Application won a first prize in the "Blooming Cup" 5G Application Collection Competition. This solution was jointly submitted by China Telecom Beijing Research Institute, China Telecom Technology Innovation Center, Huawei, State Grid Jiangsu, State Grid Nanjing, Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute, and Beijing Future Science City Development Group.

In June 2018, China Telecom, Huawei, and State Grid demonstrated the industry's first 5G network slicing-based smart grid service at MWC Shanghai. The demonstration demonstrated the comprehensive improvement of the control efficiency of 5G network slicing on smart power distribution stations from the perspectives of E2E SLA assurance, service isolation, and operation independence.

In Apr 2019, China Telecom Jiangsu, State Grid Nanjing, and Huawei completed the industry's first electricity network slice test under a real power grid environment in Nanjing. This is also the world's first electricity slice to comply with the latest 5G SA specifications released by 3GPP.

The SA electricity slice fully utilizes the millisecond-level latency advantage on 5G networks and SLA assurance of network slicing. It enhances bidirectional communication between power grids and end users, and ensures precise management of small power units on power grid terminals of overloaded power grids. These advantages help minimize the economic and social impact caused by power outages.

Huawei teamed up with China Telecom Nanjing and State Grid Nanjing to use electric terminals for end-to-end field tests on the 5G SA electricity slice. After deploying 5G base stations in the Drum-Tower Square and Lishui District, China Telecom Nanjing performed indoor and outdoor local-end, mid-end, remote-end, and obstacle blocking tests. An approximately 35ms end-to-end latency, which may fluctuate slightly from time to time, was discovered in the processes of power server processing, network instruction transmission, and load control terminal processing. Slice isolation was also fully verified. The slice was proven to meet mission-critical requirements for millisecond-level precise management of load processing units running on telecom networks.

In Jun 2019, China Telecom, State Grid, Huawei, and IHS Markit jointly released the 5G Network Slicing Enabling Smart Grid: Commercial Feasibility Analysis report. This was the industry's first analysis of the commercial feasibility of 5G Network Slicing-empowered smart grid from a quantitative perspective. This release marks a new stage of collaboration between operators and China's electric power industry, specifically in the 5G power slicing field.

In February 2020, this project was successfully included in the GSMA 5G Application Cases powered by 5G SA (the only industrial energy case).

https://www.gsma.com/futurenetworks/resources/powered-by-sa-smart-grid-5g-network-slicing