2017-03-27

On the afternoon of March 27^th, 2017, Chairman ZHANG Yi headed the delegation to visit North China Electric Power University (NCEPU) and met with Mr. WU Zhigong, Secretary of the NCEPU Committee of CPC, Mr. WANG Zenping, Vice President of NCEPU. Both parties exchanged to the full their views concerning the issue of establishing Sino-German Joint Research Center in the State of Saxony, and reached the consensus. ECMDC and NCEPU charted out the timeline and road map for the follow-up. The delegation of ECMDC was consisted of Deputy Secretary General HU Zhenming, Mr. Shiloh Miller, Member of the Council of ECMDC and General Secretary of Israel Belgium Chamber of Commerce and Mr. Henrich Guntermann, Member of the Council of ECMDC and CEO of European Consortium of Technology Transfer (ECTT). Ms. DONG Jun, Professor of NCEPU and Ms. ZHANG Qi, Associate Professor of NCEPU attended the meeting as well.

Mr. ZHANG Yi and Mr. WU Zhigong (Middle), Mr. WANG Zenping (Left Four), Mr. Shiloh Miller (Right Three), Mr. Henrich Guntermann (Right Two)

As one of the “Project 211” universities, North China Electric Power University (NCEPU) is a national key university under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education (MOE). The main campus is located in Beijing, and it has a sub-campus in Baoding. There are about 3,000 faculty and staff, 20,000 full-time undergraduates, and 7,000 postgraduates. NCEPU has 10 schools, including Electrical and Electronic Engineering School, Energy Power and Mechanical Engineering School, Control and Computer Engineering School, Economics and Management School, Environmental Science and Engineering School, Renewable Energy School, Nuclear Science and Engineering School, Mathematics and Physics School, Humanities and Social Sciences School, and Foreign Language School, totally 58 undergraduate majors. NCEPU has the council consisting of State Grid Corporation of China, China Southern Power Grid, China Huaneng Corporation, China Datang Corporation, China Guodian Corporation, China Huadian Corporation, China Power Investment Corporation and China Electricity Council. NCEPU is the important talent training base for China’s electric power construction; the excellent graduate students have become the senior engineers and senior managers with the coverage of the whole industrial chain of China’s electric power. NCEPU has the reputation as the backbone of electric power industry in China.

The Official Meeting

Mr. WU Zhiqong extended the warm welcome to the ECMDC Delegation headed by Mr. ZHANG Yi. He introduced that as the important university dedicated to the development of high-quality talents for national energy and power industry in China, NCEPU adheres to the principle of “Implementing the Reform with Strong Determination, and Consistently Broadening the Open-up ” in order to bring the new dynamics to the development of NCEPU. NCEPU is actively engaged in the efforts of integrating academic studies and industrial R & D into one entity, and applying the latest technologies to the actual usage with a view to promoting the progress of China’s electric power industry. NECPU is seeking the close partnership and creative cooperation with European top technology universities, research institutions, industrial associations and enterprises in order to broaden the vision of its future development. Against this background, NCEPU has tabled the proposal to ECMDC as for the cooperation with mutual benefits, which has received the positive feedback from ECMDC. Now, the visiting of ECMDC Delegation with European partners as members will surely usher in more high-quality resources as for the international cooperation with NCEPU, and establish more cooperation platforms.   

Mr. ZHANG Yi reciprocated Mr. WU’s words with his gratitude. He made the introduction of Mr. Shiloh Miller and Mr. Henrich Guntermann. He remarked, Mr. Miller and Mr. Guntermann are the experts in the related fields and the friendly partners who are zealously promoting Sino-European sci-tech innovation cooperation. They are the core members of European team of ECMDC.  ECMDC has briefed the initial negation with NCEPU to Mr. Miller and Mr. Guntermann. After the evaluation, ECMDC has gone through the list of European resources that will be favorable for NCEPU’s academic development, research and innovation. The visiting of the Delegation aims to chart out the road map for the cooperation between ECMDC and NCEPU, which will begin with the concrete projects and actualize the steady progress from one point to the whole picture. ECMDC and NCEPU will make the joint efforts of exploring the new model for Sino-European sci-tech cooperation and “the Belt and Road” energy cooperation.   

Mr. WU Zhigong appreciated the highly efficient and down-to-earth working style of ECMDC. He made the further introduction that NCEPU and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps have jointly established Xinjiang Bing-Dian Energy Research Institute Co., Ltd, which aims to make full use of the remarkable research capacities of NCEPU to provide the solution plan for Xinjiang electric power construction in line with the geographical characteristics of Xinjiang. Considering the fact that Xinjiang is a vast region, NCEPU intends to approach the cooperation from the construction of micro grid after scientific evaluation and field investigation. NCEPU expects to make the breakthrough of the technological bottleneck such as the energy storage, and find the ideal solution to guarantee the steady supply of multiple renewable energy sources. In collaboration with Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, NCEPU aims to present an exemplary industrial zone of Xinjiang to the world. Since Germany takes the lead in world as for the construction and research of micro grid, NCEPU looks forward to exploring the cooperation with German and other European counterparts.

Mr. WANG Zenping is the Vice President of NCEPU, who is responsible for the affairs of academic research and international cooperation. He elaborated on the current situation of Xinjiang project and its appeal for the cooperation. He said, Xinjiang project has received the support from the central government and Xinjiang local government. The project is in the systematically steady progress. Xinjiang project covers the area of 33 hectares with 0.48 billion RMB as the amount of total investment. The central government has invested 50 million RMB in this project. There are two layers of the appeal for the cooperation. One is concerned with academic research, namely how to solve the energy storage problem, this worldwide challenge and other technological problems in the field of new energy through the collaboration with European engineers and scientists. The other is concerned with the financing and commercialization. Xinjiang project will become the exemplary new energy industrial zone in China and even in the world, it is highly expected that the international electric power partners participate in the construction through the forms of investment and cooperation.

Mr. Henrich Guntermann remarked, as CEO of European Consortium of Technology Transfer (ECTT), he stands ready to establish the close partnership with NCEPU. Since he himself is a German, he is quite familiar with the investment of the German government with the purpose of promoting the application of the renewable energy and the implementation of technological R & D. The German government encourages residents to use the renewable energy, and promotes the application of the new energy through the selling of renewable energy facilities with the deducted price, the special loans and the allowance for German residents to sell their own renewable energy on the market. All of these investments and efforts pay off. In the meanwhile, German engineers are consistently dedicated to the R & D of creative technology such as micro grid, and do have their own research competitiveness. Mr. Guntermann believed that it will be of great significance to promote Sino-German energy cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. Henceforth, he had discussed this issue with the concerned department of the State of Saxony. Saxony is the important research and technology base in the fields of renewable energy and energy storage etc. in Germany, which will be the ideal cooperation base for NCEPU. Since NCEPU has indicated its willingness of establishing Sino-German energy cooperation R & D center in the State of Saxony along with ECMDC and German partners, ECTT will assist the future R & D center in handling with the related business.

Mr. Shiloh Miller said, the preliminary work of any international cooperation shall start with the full exchange of views among the concerned parties in order to define their own strengths and incompetence. The scientific evaluation at the initial stage can guarantee the steady progress at the future stage. Henceforth, he tabled his proposal from the perspective of the experienced lawyer and the professional who has assisted many Israel sci-tech companies in settling down in Europe and expanding their business. He said, NCEPU shall present the list of technological cooperation projects concerning micro gird and prioritize those listed items. In accordance with this list, ECMDC will hold the special meeting and evaluate the list along with European team in order to check the feasibility of the listed items and locate the best European partners. Then, ECMDC will pass on the related information to NCEPU. ECMDC and NCEPU shall define their roles in the cooperation with the clear picture of the responsibilities, rights and interests for each party. With the clear objective and the exact definition of the roles of the concerned parties, the future cooperation will surely usher in the win-win.

Mr. WU Zhigong and Mr. WANG Zenping seconded the proposal of Mr. Shiloh Miller and remarked that NCEPU will present this list as soon as possible and discuss the best cooperation model with ECMDC.

On the basis of the full exchange of views, ECMDC and NCEPU reached the consensus, which is to make the further elaboration of the cooperation and jointly find the best approach for Sino-European technological R & D cooperation. Both parties are determined to create a new model for the Belt and Road energy cooperation.