On March 4, the first session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, officially opening the “two sessions” in 2023.

During the “two sessions”, Leng Weiqing, member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Secretary of the Party Committee & Chairman of the Board of Directors of Shanghai Electric Group, presented his "Electric Solution”, which focused on modernizing the industrial system and steadfastly following a high-end, green and intelligent development path of the Chinese manufacturing industry. Let's hear the new voice from Shanghai Electric during the “two sessions".

As one of China's national equipment manufacturing enterprises, Shanghai Electric understands that industrial upgrading, low-carbon transformation and intelligent development are important drivers to promote the high-quality development of China's manufacturing industry and the construction of a modern industrial system. In the new development stage, Leng Weiqing believes that the manufacturing industry should unswervingly follow a high-end, green and intelligent development path.

Support High-end Upgrade with Talents and Advanced Technology

Scientific and technological innovation serves as important support for the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. Statistics show that Shanghai Electric has invested over CNY 25 billion in science and technology in the past 5 years. The proportion of annual average scientific research investment in operating income exceeded 4%, and hit a peak of the recent three years in 2022.

Investment in science and technology is bringing innovation results. In recent years, Shanghai Electric has been pursuing both independent and open innovation, with a focus on research and development of a number of “advanced technologies" such as floating offshore wind turbines, advanced nuclear power equipment, new energy storage systems, industrial combustion engines and high-end industrial basic parts. Shanghai Electric has provided more resilient, safer and more reliable energy and industrial solutions for various industries, such as ships, large aircraft and new energy vehicles, significantly guaranteeing the security of industrial chain and supply chain.

"The key to promoting scientific and technological innovation is talents.” Leng Weiqing said, we need to cultivate a talent team at the source, in order to lay a solid foundation for the continuous and sound development of the industry.

She suggested to take the following actions: Firstly, train the "main force" of talents in universities with accurate alignment of key technological needs, integrate innovation factors, optimize discipline settings, to provide more first-class scientific and technological talents; secondly, leading enterprises play the role of the "locomotive", to promote the deep integration of the industrial chain, innovation chain, talent chain and education chain with the needs of enterprises, and to jointly build future technology colleges, modern industry colleges and technology transfer and transformation platforms; thirdly, establish and improve the evaluation and incentive system in line with the characteristics of research talents' positions; fourthly, leverage public opinion and media to tell good stories of outstanding models, and to create a social atmosphere of respect for science, knowledge and talents.

Integrated Innovation with Energy and Industry Synergy to Promote Green Transformation

At present, green and low-carbon transformation is the only way for enterprises to meet the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, and the energy and industry sectors are the "main battlefield" for decarbonization in China. However, due to the lack of overall and systematic planning, transformation initiatives are often “fragmented", restricting deep decarbonization.

In this regard, Leng Weiqing suggested that we should accelerate the establishment of an institutional decarbonization mechanism for energy and industry sectors, break the policy barriers between "energy" at the source end and "industry" at the load end, and form a "decarbonization" synergy.

In recent years, Shanghai Electric has also been exploring the effective mode of energy and industry synergy to reduce carbon. In the field of energy equipment, while continuing to optimize traditional energy equipment and vigorously developing new energy equipment, Shanghai Electric has also built "new advantages" and cultivated "new markets" through the organic combination of the two. For example, through the addition of two 600MW thermal power units in Guangdong Yangxi Power Plant, the frequency regulation capacity of the power plant has been significantly increased while providing a "buffer" for the large-scale grid connection of new energy.

In addition, with the natural advantage of a business chain that spans all aspects of the source-grid-load-storage chain, Shanghai Electric is committed to creating a "three-dimensional" zero carbon industrial park one-stop solution: From green industrial plant design and construction to distributed new energy supply, from green intelligent manufacturing line to industry-driven energy efficiency improvement, from smart building low-carbon operation to rail transit low-carbon mobility, from waste heat utilization to seawater desalination and to “solid-air-water" synergistic management......

Digital Technology Drives Intelligent Development

The manufacturing industry is the foundation of the real economy and an important aspect for the construction of a modern industrial system, and the extensive digitalization will advance the upgrading of the industry. In Leng Weiqing's opinion, in the future, being “digital and intelligent" will become one of the core competencies of enterprises.

At present, Shanghai Electric is carrying out multi-level and multi-scene intelligent manufacturing practice, to create intelligent scenarios such as "digital twin +" "artificial intelligence +” and "big data +”. We are also building smart workshops and factories, and creating smart supply chains featuring interconnected data, credible information interaction, deep production collaboration and flexible resource allocation. Through these initiatives, Shanghai Electric continues to improve its level of intelligent development, and its six manufacturing plants have been included in Shanghai's 100 Smart Factories.

"We need to accelerate the process of 'digital and intelligent' transformation in manufacturing.” Leng Weiqing suggested that the manufacturing industry should increase investment in new infrastructure such as the “integration of information technology and industrialization", deepen the integration of next-generation information technology and manufacturing industry such as artificial intelligence, 5G, industrial Internet, etc., to transform the whole element, the whole process and the whole industry chain of the manufacturing industry, so as to realize the "digital and intelligent' transformation.