In the context of the continuous deepening of energy cooperation along the the Belt and Road, China's digital intelligence energy technology has added a new benchmark overseas. On December 16, 2025, Southern Power Grid Energy Storage announced that its independently developed pumped storage artificial intelligence data analysis core technology solution had successfully won the bid for the construction of big data analysis systems for two hydropower stations in Cambodia, Dadai and Shangadai. This marks the large-scale application of China's "artificial intelligence+energy storage" technology overseas and will inject Chinese wisdom into the stable supply of green electricity in the local area.

As the landmark energy project of the "the Belt and Road" jointly built by China and Cambodia, the Daday and Shangdaday hydropower stations carry the important mission of power supply upgrading in Cambodia. Among them, the installed capacity of the Dadai Hydropower Station is 246000 kilowatts, with an annual power generation of 858 million kilowatt hours, which can meet nearly half of the electricity demand in the capital Phnom Penh and nearly one sixth of the country's electricity demand. Since its commissioning in 2015, it has become the core pillar of Cambodia's power system; The total installed capacity of Shangdadai Hydropower Station reaches 1000 megawatts, and it is planned to further strengthen the regional power supply guarantee capability after being put into operation in 2026. The big data analysis system provided by Southern Power Grid Energy Storage will be customized and adapted to meet the equipment management needs of two power stations, achieving a leapfrog upgrade from traditional offline manual management to online intelligent management.

The core technology of the big data analysis system output this time comes from the Southern Power Grid Energy Storage "Storage 1000D" platform, which has passed the "International Leading" level technical appraisal of the China Society of Hydroelectric Power Engineering. It has been successfully applied in more than 70 systems of 7 pumped storage power stations and 2 conventional hydropower plants in China, and has connected more than 350000 measurement point data, accumulating mature practical experience. The system empowers the operation and maintenance of hydropower stations in Cambodia with three core advantages: firstly, building a unified integration system for multi-source data, compatible with various industry system data, supporting large-scale concurrent transmission and storage, and achieving real-time aggregation of equipment lifecycle data; Secondly, equipped with over a thousand device status evaluation algorithms and machine vision recognition models, it can provide millisecond level warnings for hidden dangers such as abnormal bearing temperature and oil and water leakage, greatly improving the flexibility and sensitivity of traditional warning systems; Thirdly, the innovative integrated data drilling function supports hierarchical analysis from "power station unit component algorithm", combined with automatically generated equipment status reports, providing accurate support for operation and maintenance decisions.

After the project is implemented, it will bring significant technological upgrades and efficiency improvements. By deploying this system, the replacement rate of professional data inspection, equipment status analysis and other work machines in the two hydropower stations will reach over 90%. This will not only reduce the quota of new power plant professional and technical personnel from 12 to 9, but also accurately detect equipment defects and hidden dangers in advance, reduce unnecessary shutdowns and maintenance investment, and is expected to create considerable economic benefits every year. According to the plan, the big data analysis system will be officially put into operation in mid-2027, which will achieve "remote real-time physical examination" of the equipment of two power plant units, promoting the dual improvement of operation and maintenance efficiency and equipment reliability.

From a strategic perspective, this cooperation is a deep integration of "hard connectivity" and "soft connectivity" in the energy sector between China and Cambodia. Southern Grid Energy Storage not only helps Cambodia break through the bottleneck of hydropower operation and maintenance efficiency by exporting digital technology with independent intellectual property rights, but also promotes the transformation of the local energy industry towards green, low-carbon, intelligent and efficient, echoing Cambodia's development needs to enhance its independent power supply capacity and improve people's livelihoods. As the "name card" of China's pumped storage digital and intelligent technology, the implementation of this project will provide a replicable Chinese scheme for the upgrading of energy infrastructure in countries along the "the Belt and Road", and further deepen China Cambodia energy cooperation and people to people connections.

In the future, Southern Power Grid Energy Storage will continue to promote technological iteration and scenario expansion. Based on adapting to the operational needs of Cambodia's hydropower stations, it will explore the widespread application of digital technology in the field of new energy overseas, and contribute more Chinese strength to global energy transformation and sustainable development.Editor/Bian Wenjun