On August 11 at 1:47 PM, Guangdong Power Grid set a new record for electricity load for the fourth time this year, surpassing 175 million kilowatts. This peak exceeded the combined maximum of two major EU economies, Germany and France, and was equivalent to 3.7 times the peak of the United Kingdom. As China's largest electricity-consuming province, how does Guangdong maintain a stable and orderly power supply? Let's take a look at the dispatch hall of the China Southern Power Grid in Guangzhou.

In the dispatch hall, staff constantly monitor the load curves on the screen. Red represents real-time electricity usage, while green represents the forecast. If the two curves deviate significantly, adjustments must be made immediately. When we reconstructed the electricity usage curve for Guangdong's most recent record-breaking day, three distinct peaks emerged. At 8 AM, the load began to rise rapidly, with the first peak occurring at 11:35 AM. During this process, daily life and production shifted from "standby" to "operation," with industrial production accounting for 60% of the electricity usage. While consumption ramped up, solar photovoltaic generation was not yet fully operational. Dan Zhengbo, a dispatcher at the China Southern Power Control Center, and his colleagues had already made forward-looking judgments on the load trend and supply situation for the morning peak, flexibly allocating available generation resources to ensure sufficient and stable power supply. The first answer we saw was to plan for the morning peak power usage a day in advance and reserve generation resources.

The second peak appeared at 1:40 PM, marking the day's highest electricity usage. Air conditioning demand surged, but it faced a different challenge: solar power is a major generation source in Guangdong, and strong sunlight leads to a rapid increase in photovoltaic output. At this point, the concern was not about a shortage of electricity but about an excess. Du Xu, an operations planning manager at the China Southern Power Control Center, explained that solar power arrives quickly, generates a lot, and is highly volatile. Without timely regulation, it could severely impact the stability of the entire grid. The core task during the midday period became using as much renewable energy as possible while ensuring safety. This effort relies on a sophisticated computational system. Peng Chaoyi, an automation expert developing the grid's precision calculation system at the China Southern Power Control Center, noted that among over 3 million rules governing grid security, there are billions of possible generator output combinations, and they must find the single optimal solution. The answer to the midday "test" was "calculation": based on real-time solar output, they determine which generators to shut down or start up.

Based on past experience, the day's peak demand test would be over at this point. However, we found that the load curve continued to climb after nightfall, with a third peak occurring at 7:35 PM, and high levels persisting until 9:55 PM. Xie Yigong, deputy general manager of the China Southern Power Control Center, addressed the reporter's question: "Electricity consumption from new technologies and equipment manufacturing is growing rapidly. Internet data services and charging and swapping services have both seen growth rates exceeding 30%. Residential air conditioning usage has also increased significantly, accounting for 38% of the peak load." As dusk fell, solar generation gradually declined. How would Guangdong Power Grid respond to this new peak? Qiao Songrun, a shift supervisor at the Huiyang Pumped Storage Project of CSG Energy Storage Operation Company, explained that a pumped storage power station can be viewed as a large-scale power bank. When the grid needs electricity, the power bank discharges; when the grid doesn't need much electricity, the excess power is used to pump water to an upper reservoir for later use. The solution to the new evening peak was "storage": saving excess electricity from low-demand periods for use during peak demand. The reporter learned that a thermal power unit takes at least an hour to start and synchronize to the grid. Pumped storage stations respond more than 20 times faster. On average, over 30 such pumped storage stations generate 43 million kilowatt-hours daily, equivalent to the electricity consumption of 7 million households for a day.

Morning peak, midday peak, evening peak—each major test presents different challenges, yet each yields a distinct solution. This resilience is built on a robust power infrastructure and a diverse energy mix: water, thermal, wind, solar, and nuclear power each play their role during optimal periods. It is this foundation and flexibility that allow Guangdong to ensure everyone can use electricity as needed, every enterprise can operate safely, and even hot days can be kept cool.