Power Supply of Venues for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics being Tested

Power supply systems in the venues for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics welcomed their first trial run as the operation testing on the venues got underway between Feb 16 and 26, 2021.

State Grid Corporation of China (State Grid) is responsible for power supply of the venues.

The tracks of the National Alpine Skiing Center have one of the highest degrees of difficulty of the world's ski venues. They are about 10 kilometers long and have a perpendicular distance of more than 900 meters.

Functions including snow-making, lighting and heating systems call for reliable power supply.

Alpine skiing competitions are held in cold and high regions, which means that the power equipment must be scattered in mountainous areas. Such settings make inspection and maintenance difficult, said Jia Mengdan, director of the Winter Olympics power supply department of State Grid's branch in Yanqing district, Beijing.

To guarantee safe, stable and reliable power supply, a professional power supporting group with 13 members was created.

They are responsible for maintenance of the 20 box-type transformers, key parts in transmitting green energy to the competition zones.

Use of green power to support sports venues for the Winter Olympics is a first in history.

Zhangbei County in Zhangjiakou, North China's Hebei Province, is where the green energy is cradled.

Wind and solar power are turned into electricity in the county and then transmitted to Beijing through the Zhangbei Voltage Source Converter based High Voltage Direct Current Transmission (VSC-HVDC) project, the world's first of its kind.

The venues will operate with only green power which will continue to be provided to Beijing after the event, according to Liu Jiyun, a staff member at the Yanqing convertor station of the Zhangbei VSC-HVDC Transmission project.

He and his colleagues are now working on core operation and maintenance technology of the VSC-HVDC system, intending to improve smart inspection capacity of the station to guarantee reliable and continuous power transmission.

At present, all staff members at State Grid responsible for power guarantee service have taken up their positions. They have completed a joint emergency drill on power supply in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which was a collaborative emergency drill with the testing commission and five internal professional drills and four desktop maneuvers.

The company also strengthened the emergency management system which improved its emergency handling ability.

The temporary and permanent power supply equipment of the National Alpine Skiing Center recently went into operation, and the maintenance group has started 24/7 potential risk identification for the No.1 and No. 2 jumping platforms.

So far, construction of six power projects related to the event has been completed as have the reliable power supply systems including the 500kV multiplex channel and the 220kV double-loop power network.

What's more, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics project has promoted development of winter tourism and hotel industries in Yanqing.

State Grid's Yanqing branch has also improved charging network in areas near the competition zones and in urban areas and places along the highway, making green power a main player in both the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and winter tourism.

The professional power supporting group is ready to set out for power device inspection. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

A staff member of State Grid Beijing Electric Power Company maintains a charging pile at the Banquan service area, a traffic hub of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Two staff members of State Grid Jibei Electric Power Company Limited inspect power supply equipment at the National Alpine Skiing Center. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)