At present, China's digital economy is in a period of rapid development, which is profoundly changing the process of economic and social development. As a concentrated embodiment of data processing capabilities, computing power has become an important productive force.
Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Data Bureau and other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on the In-depth Implementation of the "Eastern Data and Western Computing" Project and Accelerating the Construction of a National Integrated Computing Network", which mentioned "computing power synergy" for the first time, and proposed that by the end of 2025, a two-way coordination mechanism for computing power and electricity will be initially formed, and the proportion of green electricity in new data centers in national hub nodes will exceed 80%.
This means that computing power and electricity need to form a mutually supportive development trend, which is also an important driving force for the formation of new quality productivity. On the one hand, computing power supports the smooth and efficient operation of the power system. With the rapid development of the digital economy, the operation of the power system is increasingly dependent on computing power. For example, the construction of smart grids requires a large amount of data processing and analysis, which requires strong computing power. The improvement of computing power can speed up the data processing speed of the power system, improve the operation efficiency and stability of the power system, and ensure the reliability of the power system.
On the other hand, electricity supports the continuous and stable development of computing power. Computing facilities need to consume a lot of energy, and stable and efficient electricity** is an important guarantee for the normal operation of computing facilities. Through the construction of smart grids and the development of the energy Internet, the dispatch and optimization of renewable energy can be realized, and the stability and reliability of power can be improved, so as to ensure the energy demand of computing facilities.
As the core productivity in the era of digital economy, computing power is a major consumer of electricity. In the context of the blowout of computing power demand and the "dual carbon" goal, how to further save energy and reduce carbon emissions in data centers carrying the underlying infrastructure functions has become the core issue. So, how to play a good game of chess for the coordinated development of computing power and electricity?
What is certain is that the traditional power supply methods and costs can no longer meet the requirements of green computing power. The large-scale use of green electricity based on new energy sources is the general trend. To ensure green power, the construction of large-scale wind power photovoltaic bases and grid connection need to be accelerated.
As of the end of November 2023, the first batch of China's large-scale wind power photovoltaic bases has been completed and connected to the grid of 45.16 million kilowatts, and the second and third batches have been approved for more than 50 million kilowatts, and construction is under construction one after another. According to the latest statement of the National Energy Administration, in 2024, large-scale wind power and photovoltaic bases will be the first.
The construction of the second and third batches of projects will also be strengthened.
In fact, the construction pattern of "Eastern Data and Western Computing" coincides with most areas of large-scale wind power and photovoltaic bases, which also provides a good industrial foundation for the development of computing power, and the two sides have the conditions for mutual collaboration.
Since the official launch of the "Eastern Data and Western Computing" project in 2022, the data center industry in the western region has developed rapidly, and with the large-scale increase in computing power demand, more data centers will be put into operation in the future. In this context, increasing the utilization rate of green power in data centers is an urgent issue to be solved.
According to data released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, it is expected that by 2025, the proportion of electricity consumption of data centers in the country will increase to 5%, and by 2030, the electricity consumption of data centers in the country will be close to 400 billion kilowatt hours.
The author believes that to play a good game of chess with the coordinated development of computing power and electricity, we must vigorously develop computing power based on green electricity, which is an inevitable trend to accelerate the construction of computing infrastructure.