State Grid Corp of China, the world's largest utility company, is strengthening digital empowerment of the power grid in better aiding the country's socioeconomic progress.

In outlining the prioritized 10 aspects of work in 2025 earlier this year, State Grid President Pang Xiaogang called on its power workers nationwide to intensify innovation efforts and cultivate more new quality productive forces for the effort.

Taking investment, construction and operation of power grids as its core business, the State Grid should advance the construction of a new type of power system, he said.

To answer the call, power workers in Yixing under Wuxi in Jiangsu province are taking new measures to aid local public welfare and environmental protection.

As Taihu Lake, one of the five largest freshwater lakes in China, is situated in Wuxi, they are powering the battle against algae to help build an "ecological shield" on the lake's west bank.

On Aug 4, as electrical installations along the Xingang embankment in Yixing passed final inspection, a 10 kilovolt underwater cable began delivering electricity to the No 1 deep-well platform of Taihu Lake.

The development means that all 15 supporting power projects built by State Grid Wuxi for blue-green algae control on the west bank are now fully operational.

Currently, a 2.8 kilometer-long underwater cable now links the shore and the platform, while an additional 8,080 kilovolt amperes of capacity has been injected directly into the front line of algae treatment, erecting a solid "power shield "for the lake's ecological security.

Since early summer, as Taihu Lake entered a critical period for algae prevention and control, the local authorities rolled out a treatment plan prioritizing power supply for eight deep-well algae-control platforms.

To meet the challenge, State Grid Wuxi set up a specialized team of technicians to target key objectives and established clear deadlines, ensuring that each job is finished on time.

It also created an innovative "three-dimensional service" system incorporating high-quality marketing services, live-line grid connections and distribution-network construction.

By opening a "green channel" for algae projects and building a 24-hour emergency response mechanism, the company has safeguarded the algae-control power demand.

"We carried out 14 live-line operations, ensuring 'zero conflict' between algae treatment and residential power supply, while also helping save more than 1.33 million yuan ($185,000) for local enterprises in cost," said Xu Hanshen, head of the marketing department at State Grid Wuxi.

"In total, we have deployed 120 staff members in installing 33 high-voltage switchgear panels, 18 box-type transformers, and over 3,000 meters of high-voltage cable," he added.

Big data from the power grid are also providing strong support for algae prevention and control.

Ni Xiaofeng, from Yixing Public Utilities & Environmental Protection Group, said: "Ninety-eight percent of the 40-kilometer shoreline on Taihu Lake's west bank is now covered by a power-based monitoring network.

"By relying on the Algae Information Management Platform, we can analyze electricity consumption at 35 key coastal sites and 51 algae-harvesting platforms in real time," he said. "This can enable precise supervision and scientific allocation of resources, greatly improving algae-control effectiveness."

State Grid Wuxi said it will continue to fulfill its social responsibilities by advancing power-supply work for five additional deep-well platforms.

The company is exploring a new ecological-protection path that "uses electricity as its eyes and data as its pulse", accurately interpreting electricity-consumption patterns at Taihu Lake's algae-harvesting stations to provide early warnings of algae movements.

Zhang Tiancheng, from State Grid Wuxi, noted that by monitoring the energy-use trajectories at key pollution-control enterprises in the region, they can help create a real "portrait" that safeguards green production.

hanjingyan@chinadaily.com.cn