The smart energy demonstration project undertaken by Shanghai Electric witnessed the successful off-grid commissioning of China's first 8MW offshore wind turbine at the Shantou Base. The turbine generated its first kilowatt-hour of electricity with "black start" technology at 11:08 on June 8. That marks a milestone for China's offshore wind power development.

The project is Shanghai Electric's first and China's biggest "Energy Internet +" industrial park that integrates wind and solar power generation and storage. Besides the 8MW turbine, the project also features a 4MW offshore wind turbine, 2.42MW rooftop photovoltaics. It also incorporates energy storage, charging pile equipment with a 2MWh capacity, a set of intelligent building environment control system, 5G+ industrial internet of things, microgrid control center and energy management system, among all other elements.

The first 8MW turbine prototype was hoisted early this year. The COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on the transmission, grid connection, and full operation of the pilot project. To accelerate the commissioning and operation of the 8MW machine, the project team has tackled some worldwide difficulties such as multi-voltage-level change-over, grid power flow variations, and reactive voltage control. It pioneered the "black start" technology, in which the wind turbine can start power generation from zero voltage by using the electric power from the solar panels and storage system of the project.