>
News Center
>
News
Liu Dong: China will become the rule-maker of global smart energy

In December 2013, the IEEE 1888.3 Standard (Ubiquitous Green Community Control Network: Security), which was approved by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE-SA) and mainly made by Beijing Internet Institute (BII), was officially issued, which marked the enrichment and improvement of the IEEE 1888 standard system. 

 

As the founder of IEEE 1888, the Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of Smart Energy Industry Innovation Strategy Union, and the CEO of BII, Liu Dong expressed his greater ambition in the interview. According to him, the achievements was merely a small step forward in the process of promoting Chinese smart energy, and there was still enormous space of improvement for IEEE 1888 in the future. 

 

The only IEEE standard dominated by Chinese enterprises in the past five years

“It is safe to say that the strong promotion of Chinese enterprises and the great approval and support from the IEEE, Europe, America and Japan were the two opportunities for the establishment of the IEEE 1888 standard, which made it the only IEEE national standard dominated by Chinese enterprises in the past five years.”

 

 

Question: Why did you make such a standard?

Many countries and regions across the world have been aware of the importance of ICT energy conservation and have applied and deployed it on a large scale for long, and this is an inevitable development trend in the future. As an ICT power in the world, China did not pay attention to the field until several years ago. But with the development in recent years, we have become increasingly eager for the ICT energy conservation technologies. 

 

BII has a large group of industrial users, so how to take advantage of internet technologies to conserve energy and how to save energy and reduce emission and develop the industry through informatization and thus transform energy into the convergent points of internet information are the questions BII have always thought about.  

 

Technologies are developing with each passing day and internationally famous companies have their own technological camps; therefore, setting standards before developing technologies is the most urgent task we need to finish at the current stage. Of course, our intention alone is not enough, so the support for the IEEE has become another essential opportunity for the establishment of green ICT standard. 

 

Back then, all countries and regions enthusiastically promoted their green energy solutions to address their energy problems. Moreover, various organizations were founded among countries, regions and companies, which greatly facilitated the trans-regional and global popularization of the green energy solutions. 

 

The IEEE is one of the most influential international standardization organizations in the field of global electronic information. Coincidentally, IEEE, which has always focused on technical standards, hoped to make some strategic changes and some green energy standards that were integrated with industries at that time; hence, such domestic units as BII, China Telecom, Tsinghua University and Beijing Urban Engineering Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd. seized the opportunity and proposed the Ubiquitous Green Community Network Standard, which was accepted by the IEEE and named as the IEEE 1888 Standard. BII has served as the Chairman of the IEEE 1888 Work Group since then. 

 

The IEEE 1888 Standard adopts the train of thought of the Internet, supports the IPv6 protocols, creates fully open green ICT industrial chains and is compatible with the existing industrial control-bus technologies; therefore, it has received great support from the governments and enterprises of such countries as America and Japan. In the process of standardization, relevant enterprises also actively joined the IEEE 1888 Standard Work Group. 

It is safe to say that the strong promotion of Chinese enterprises and the great approval and support from the IEEE, Europe, America and Japan were the two opportunities for the establishment of the IEEE 1888 standard, which made it the only IEEE national standard dominated by Chinese enterprises in the past five years. As the founder of the IEEE 1888 Standard, Chinese enterprises will become a model and play a leading role in the smart energy industry and set the rules for the game. And those who are in the industry must follow the standard. It is predictable that Chinese enterprises will make the game rules for the global smart energy field and lead the development of global industries in the future. 

 

 

Question: Were there any difficulties in the process of making the standard?

 

In the voting mechanism for the establishment of an IEEE standard, there is an important requirement – meeting two 75%s. First, 75% of those who are interested in the IEEE 1888 Standard and are a member of the standard group must vote in the voting pool; second, among these members who vote, 75% of them must vote for the IEEE 1888 Standard. Only in this way can the IEEE 1888 Standard truly become an IEEE standard.  

 

“The greatest difficulty is international coordination!” Of the IEEE members, all those who are interested in the IEEE 1888 Standard joined the standard group, and many of them are large enterprises from Europe, America and Japan. To ensure that the final result meets the requirement, we needed to use several languages for the communication and, more importantly, to find out key figures and persuade them to give an affirmative vote. This was a very difficult task. Moreover, there were too many uncertainties in the voting because of the large number of enterprises involved in it. In the process of communication and coordination, the strength of BII alone was not enough, for which we had to seek some help.  

 

As the first green ICT standard initiated by China and accepted by the international community, the IEEE 1888 Standard not only follows the trend of technological development but also meets the operators’ need for development and is consistent with Chinese development strategies. Therefore, BII received assistance from its business management unit – Zhongguancun Administrative Committee. Meanwhile, China Telecom, one of the initiators, also contributed a lot to the international communication and coordination and attracted the attention of the National Development & Reform Commission. With its platform, Zhongguancun Administrative Committee communicated with many large enterprises in America and Europe and thus provided enormous support. The National Development & Reform Commission attaches great importance to the standards of energy conservation technologies in macroscopic management; hence, it played the role of a bridge in the coordination. 

 

 

Question: What did you do to persuade the members of the standard group?

 

The compatibility of the IEEE 1888 Standard is the foundation for the success of the persuasion!

Energy conservation and emission reduction have long been practiced in such countries as Europe, America and Japan and other regions. Generally, the traditional energy conservation and emission reduction field is based upon the industrial bus system, and the industrial control system is non-IP, closed and vertical. Schneider Electric SA used to control energy devices with the industrial method, but the weakness of the method is that it cannot achieve the interconnection and mutual communication among the devices and is poor in expansibility. The IEEE 1888 Standard, however, incorporates ICT and Internet concepts into the field of energy conservation and emission reduction. To solve the problem, the IEEE 1888 Standard coordinated with the manufacturers of traditional industrial control to inform them of the fact that the open architecture of the IEEE 1888 Standard was compatible with the original vertical system and could attract more users and coordination and thus protect the original investment. 

 

The compatibility of the IEEE 1888 Standard was later fully demonstrated in practice. In March 2011, the IEEE 1888 Standard Work Group undertook a large-scale intercommunity test with BACnet, the largest building automation organization in the world. The result showed that the IEEE 1888 Standard was compatible with the BACnet system. 

 

Before the final voting, the IEEE 1888 Standard Work Group had altogether 12 meetings, and all the members who participated in the voting reached an agreement. On 28 February 2011, the IEEE 1888 Standard was officially passed and was later issued on March 1. 

 

 Change the Internet of Things: the IEEE 1888 Standard has become the most symbolic standard for global green energy conservation

 

“The IEEE 1888 Series Standard has thoroughly changed the closed technical and standard systems of the traditional industrial control field bus and was praised by the IEEE as ‘an important achievement of Chinese innovation and international cooperation as well as a symbolic global standard of the IEEE in green energy conservation and in the Internet of Things’.”

 

 

Question: What is the role of the IEEE 1888 Standard in the development of Chinese Internet of Things industry?

Exactly speaking, the IEEE 1888 Standard has a significant influence on China and the entire Internet of Things industry. 

Nowadays, the global economy is at the stage of rapid development, which has brought various industries great opportunities as well as huge challenges. Of these challenges, the increasing energy consumption is the biggest one. The Internet of Things is an emerging field with considerable potential for future development, and the making of its standards has always been a critical problem in the industry. Established on their independent protocols, standards and platforms, the existing systems have become technologically closed “separate islands” of information and data and thus are incompatible with each other. 

 

With focus on breaking the closed systems based on the private protocols of the manufacturers in the industry, the IEEE 1888 Series Standard defines a smart management and control platform which is built on the IP open system and supports trans-regional expansion. It provides the solutions about long-distance control and coordination management for operators, community administrators, public service suppliers, governmental departments and individual users. Through standardization, it combines advantageous products, alleviates energy crises and achieves energy conservation and environmental protection. 

 

Moreover, the IEEE 1888 Series Standard has thoroughly changed the closed technical and standard systems of the traditional industrial control field bus and innovatively established the standardized and open technical system and systematic architecture which have been deeply combined with such advanced technologies as IPv6, the Internet of Things and cloud computing. Additionally, it has formed a large and complete industrial chain which covers various fields and has sensors, controllers, gateways, storage and application platforms, and terminal devices throughout its downstream, midstream and upstream. Furthermore, the standard was highly praised by the IEEE as “an important achievement of Chinese innovation and international cooperation as well as a symbolic global standard of the IEEE in green energy conservation and in the Internet of Things”

 

Question: Has the IEEE 1888 Standard been applied in China to date? What influence does it have in energy conservation?

Of course. In comparison with international competitive technologies, the IEEE 1888 Standard, as a standard independently innovated by China, has taken the lead in achieving international standardization and attained a leading role in industrialization. 

 

At present, a complete IEEE 1888 Standard-based green energy conservation solution has been formed, which includes terminal devices, convergent devices, multi-protocol gateway devices, databases, smart energy conservation analysis and processing platforms, and visualized interfaces. By far, the products of over 20 units in China and abroad has begun to support the IEEE 1888 Standard, such as China Telecom, Tsinghua, Lenovo, Digital China, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Datang Telecom Technology & Industry Group, Potevio, Intel, Cisco, Toshiba Corporation, NEC, the University of Tokyo, Qingdao Gaoxiao Information Industry Co., Ltd., GCI Science & Technology Co., Ltd. and BII. Breakthrough has been made in the commercialization and the pilot application of the IEEE 1888 Standard. 

 

By May 2012, a complete IEEE 1888-based solution with China Telecom as the core had been formed, which included terminal devices, multi-protocol gateway devices, databases, smart energy conservation analysis and processing platforms, and visualized interfaces. Over 40 units in China and abroad participated in the making of the IEEE 1888 Standard and the product development.

 

By far, the IEEE 1888 Standard has been deployed for application demonstration in smart construction, smart oilfield and smart agriculture.

In the field of smart construction, China Telecom and BII have deployed the IEEE 1888 application demonstration in Tsinghua University and Zhongguancun Software Park. Methods like smart control, data collection and statistical measurement have been adopted to achieve long-distance monitoring and management on such facilities as air conditioners, lighting and data centers, and the comprehensive energy consumption of the buildings has declined by 20%.

 

 In the field of “Smart Oilfield”, China Telecom, BII and PetroChina Huabei Oilfield Company have collaborated to use the IEEE 1888 Standard to build “smart oilfields” and have undertaken demonstration deployment in the Huabei Oilfield Exploration Area (Hebei Province, Inner Mongolia and Shanxi Province), with focus on the smart management and control as well as the energy conservation of oilfields, gas fields, coalbed methane fields, and petroleum and gas pipelines. The IEEE 1888 “Smart Oilfield” products and solutions were exhibited in the Special Pavilion of the National Development & Reform Commission at the 13th High-Tech Fair held in November 2011 and won high praise from the leaders in charge from the Commission.

 

 In the field of smart agriculture, China Telecom and BII have deployed the IEEE 1888 Standard-based smart agricultural application demonstration in the General Bureau of Land Reclamation of Heilongjiang Province, Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing strawberry parks and flower bases, and Hainan certified seed cultivation bases. Through the IEEE 1888 Standard, they have achieved long-distance control over water curtains, wind turbines, sunshade meshes and spraying facilities and have thus saved water and electricity, maintained production and increased income.

 

With the support of the government, a large scale deployment of smart energy is to come

 

“The Chinese government has incorporated the energy conservation and environmental protection industry as well as the new-generation information technology industry into the strategic emerging industry development plan, which means that the IEEE 1888 Standard, which has well combined new-generation information technologies and the ones of energy conservation and emission reduction, will have greater space for development and a long way to go in the future.”

 

 

 Question: How to promote the application of the IEEE 1888 Standard in China and abroad?

As an application standard which has combined new-generation information technologies and the traditional ones of energy conservation and emission reduction, the IEEE 1888 Standard has its own advantages in the monitoring and control of energy. Nevertheless, few leading enterprises have been founded by far in the field of smart energy. Meanwhile, many manufacturers provide vertical and closed solutions of smart energy which are based upon their private standards. As a consequence, interconnection and mutual communication cannot be achieved among the different solutions, which make it impossible to form an industrial chain or a large industrial scale.

 

The Union received tremendous support from relevant governmental departments and enterprises like China Telecom, Intel, Haier and Gree. Based on the IEEE 1888 Standard, BII is developing an open platform, which will support the IEEE 1888 Standard from the field device side, the gateway side, the storage side and application side. By far, the development of a multi-language platform SDK and the protocol stack. The open platform will be offered to the members of the Union in the form of a free open source so as to promote the industrialization of the IEEE 1888 Standard with the extensive support of the clients in the Union.

 

On the other hand, BII will initiate the demonstration application project of the IEEE 1888 Standard with its partners. At the current phase, we will start with three major fields – construction, industry and industrial park and actively explore the field of energy conservation. Moreover, we will popularize the IEEE 1888 Standard-based energy management informatization platform and the refined energy-using system on a large scale in public institutions, achieve the IEEE 1888 Standard-based energy conservation reform in the office building of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, finish the IEEE 1888 Standard construction in the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone, and expand the demonstration in such industries as steel and petroleum. Through smart control, data collection, statistical measurement, long-distance operation and visualized operating interface, we will further highlight the effect of the IEEE 1888 Standard in energy management and energy conservation, enhance its influence and gradually implement the internationally advanced standards.

 

Question: What’s your outlook on the application of the standard?

Centering around the IEEE 1888 Standard, we will form an industrial chain which includes terminal products, convergent products, multi-protocol gateway products, storage systems, smart analysis platforms, visualized interfaces, certification and security systems, network management and charging systems, system integration, certification and testing, and contract energy management services. Building green cities according to the IEEE 1888 Standard can achieve the interconnection and mutual communication and the coordinate control and unify the informatization rules among different energy-using devices and management platforms in cities. Through the IPv6/IPv4 network, we will manage various energy-using devices of the households, factories, buildings, databases in cities, support the introduction of new energies like wind energy and solar energy and buttress the long-distance management over large-capacity energy-storing devices like flow cells. Furthermore, we will establish regional energy management systems and green city energy conservation and informatization operation platforms in urban areas and accomplish the smart integral management which combines “creating energy”, “storing energy” and “conserving energy”.

Of course, all these are merely ideal plans at the current stage, for the IEEE 1888 Standard has not been deployed in China on a scale as large as some other countries. Nonetheless, the Chinese government has incorporated the energy conservation and environmental protection industry as well as the new-generation information technology industry into the strategic emerging industry development plan, which means that the IEEE 1888 Standard, which has well combined new-generation information technologies and the ones of energy conservation and emission reduction, will have greater space for development and a long way to go in the future. This is, however, an essential technical standard that bears a close relationship to the future of China, so we need to quicken our pace to put the plans into practice.