With advantages in power and telecommunications, Huawei is penetrating the energy system with its full-stack technologies, becoming a provider of underlying technologies.

August 20, Huawei Headquarters in Shenzhen.

Wen Shugang, Chairman of China Huaneng Group, and Zhong Guodong, General Manager, sat across from Ren Zhengfei. The simultaneous presence of the top two leaders of this power generation central enterprise indicated a high-profile meeting. Ren Zhengfei made a statement: China has two fundamental advantages in developing AI—electricity and telecommunications networks.

Coming from the founder of Huawei, these words carried significant weight. As the world's largest telecommunications equipment provider, Huawei's technologies are now embedding into the nerve endings and central systems of China's power grid. A private enterprise is simultaneously holding the two cards mentioned by Ren Zhengfei.

Over the past year, nearly all well-known central energy enterprises—from State Grid to China Southern Power Grid, from State Power Investment Corporation to China Energy Engineering Group, from PetroChina to China National Nuclear Corporation—have signed agreements with Huawei. The scope of cooperation ranges from communication equipment to AI computing power, from cloud platforms to ERP systems, and from intelligent inspections to power grid dispatching.

This is no ordinary commercial cooperation. Huawei is becoming the 'second brain' of China's energy system—the first layer being the machines in dispatch centers, and the second layer being the entire technical architecture supporting their operation.

One District, One Terminal: Huawei Rewriting the Rules

What keeps the power system running? Communications.

Dispatch orders need to be transmitted, and equipment status needs to be received—all relying on a communication network. The communication technology that previously carried core power business was called SDH, with standards dominated by foreign entities. In June 2026, State Grid Liaoning Electric Power, in collaboration with Huawei, announced the official unveiling of the world's first end-to-end optical communication network demonstration site for the power sector. Huawei's deployed fgOTN represents the next-generation evolution of SDH, with State Grid Liaoning becoming the world's first provincial power grid enterprise to maturely commercialize fgOTN and deeply participate in international standard formulation.

This is not just about purchasing equipment; it's about setting standards.

On the distribution network side, distribution automation and video surveillance previously required separate networks, leading to high investment and management difficulties. Huawei's high-isolation PON technology, through chip-level resource isolation, enables a single network to carry both types of services, supporting wide temperature ranges from -40°C to 70°C, 6000-volt lightning protection, and 50-millisecond dual-link switching.

At substations, the all-optical intelligent substation solution achieves 'four nots'—no manual monitoring, no manual inspections, no manual meter reading, and no manual analysis. Inspection task configuration efficiency is improved by 75%.

In August 2026, at EPICT 2026, Huawei released the Xinghe AI Power Network, covering four major scenarios: substation networks, IPv6+ power data networks, power SPN transmission networks, and intelligent computing wide-area networks. The solution, based on 800GE ultra-broadband and network slicing deterministic bearing capacity, drives the evolution of power communication networks from 'business pathways' to 'intelligent connectivity.'

Foreseen Energy learned that Zhou Jianjun, Huawei's Vice President and President of the Global Marketing and Service System for Digital Energy, and Li Jiguang, General Manager of Huawei's China Government and Enterprise Power Business Department, were present at the August 20 Huaneng talks. The importance of the energy business within Huawei is evident from the attendance list.

One Ascend Chip: From UHV to Converter Stations

Communications are just the first step; the penetration at the computing power level is even deeper.

The Lingshao UHV DC transmission project, spanning 1720 kilometers from Ningxia to Zhejiang, is the most powerful power transmission line among Zhejiang's three West-to-East power transmission channels. As of June 2026, it has transmitted over 435.7 billion kWh of electricity, with new energy accounting for 27%.

By the end of 2025, State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power and Huawei established a joint innovation laboratory, deploying Huawei's Ascend inference servers at the Shaoxing converter station, the receiving end of the Lingshao project. The Ascend platform uniformly schedules and integrates the dispersed computing power of the original 20 systems, supporting 'air-space-ground' integrated intelligent inspections. An AI inspection team composed of drones, wheeled inspection vehicles, and quadruped robot dogs covers over 95% of the station's inspection points. Inspections are compressed from two hours to 30 minutes, with efficiency nearly quadrupled and fault defect identification accuracy stabilized at 98%.

Huawei's chips are taking over the brains of China's core UHV transmission hubs.

China Southern Power Grid is also participating. Guangzhou Power Supply's Metering Automation System 3.0, based on Huawei CloudStack, achieves full-link 1-minute collection of metering data for tens of millions of users, with a maximum warehousing (warehousing) performance of 4.57 million entries per second, 15 times faster than the industry average.

China Southern Power Grid and the Ascend team created the power industry's first autonomously innovative large model. In July 2026, China Southern Power Grid User Ecosystem Operation Company and Huawei jointly released the white paper for the 'Dawatt · Zhiyin' AI Capability Platform. The platform serves over 270 million users, handles 100,000 daily service requests, and achieves 89% intelligent service coverage in key scenarios.

The 'Yudian' intelligent simulation large model, assisted by Huawei, is directly deployed on the front lines of power grid dispatching.

The Ascend CANN open-source community welcomed its first power industry Special Interest Group, jointly initiated by Huawei, China Southern Power Grid, and South China University of Technology. Autonomously innovative AI basic software is transitioning from general-purpose computing power to vertical industry depth.

From communications to chips, from cloud platforms to large models, Huawei's technologies are comprehensively embedding into the nerve endings and central systems of China's power grid.

A Long List of Joint Laboratories: The Partner's Name is Huawei

Deeper changes are occurring in the cooperation model.

Previously, it was about purchasing equipment and undertaking projects. Now, it's about joint innovation laboratories, joint research and development institutions, and joint innovation centers.

State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power and Huawei established a joint innovation laboratory. Yalong River Hydropower Development Company and Huawei set up a joint innovation center. Eastern Geophysical Exploration and Huawei signed a joint innovation consortium agreement. State Power Investment Corporation's agreement directly included the construction of a 'joint research and development institution.'

This is no longer a client-supplier relationship; it's about binding research and development teams together. Power grids open up their business scenarios, while Huawei injects its technical capabilities. This deep integration leaves no room for turning back.

The penetration of 'Power HarmonyOS' is another hidden thread. The agreement between Guizhou Power Grid and Huawei explicitly includes 'Power HarmonyOS innovative applications.' China Southern Power Grid's 'Nanwang Dianhong' IoT operating system, based on open-source HarmonyOS, has commissioned its first zero-carbon intelligent distribution station in Guangxi.

And the operating system has become the gateway to Huawei's power ecosystem. When all terminal devices across the power system run on HarmonyOS, Huawei's position becomes self-evident.

In November 2025, Huawei, in collaboration with China Huadian Corporation, State Power Investment Corporation, and seven other enterprises, launched the 'Computing-Electricity Collaboration and Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Initiative' in Heilongjiang. Computing power requires electricity, and electricity needs computing power for consumption and optimization.

Hou Jinlong, Huawei's Director and President of Digital Energy, said at the 2026 Global AIDC Industry Forum: 'The end of computing power is electricity; energy is the foundation for the long-term development of artificial intelligence.' Huawei subsequently released its Source-Grid-Load-Storage AIDC Strategy, focusing on '3+1' reconstruction to create a Source-Grid-Load-Storage AIDC solution.

From power generation and transmission to consumption, from communications and computing power to operating systems, Huawei is constructing a technology closed loop covering the entire energy chain.

A Race with No Competitors

Returning to Ren Zhengfei's statement: China has two advantages in developing AI—electricity and telecommunications networks.

Huawei holds both cards simultaneously. It is China's largest supplier of telecommunications network equipment and is comprehensively infiltrating China's largest power system.

In 2025, Huawei's Digital Energy business achieved sales revenue of 77.312 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%. Huawei's power modules ranked first in the Chinese power module market for another year, with a market share several percentage points ahead of the second-place competitor. In 2025, the Chinese power module market size was 2.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.8%. Huawei's overall UPS market share ranked first for seven consecutive years, and its modular UPS market share ranked first for twelve consecutive years.

The Chinese smart grid market size is expected to exceed 800 billion yuan in 2025. Huawei's share and position within this market are growing at a pace exceeding most expectations.

Central energy enterprises have scenarios, data, and electricity. Huawei has chips, clouds, and AI platforms. This is a mutually beneficial collaboration, with each side getting what it needs. However, the depth of cooperation is changing—from equipment procurement to joint research and development, from project cooperation to strategic binding, from supplier to 'partner.'

In May 2026, the National Energy Administration, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Data Bureau, issued the 'Action Plan for Promoting Mutual Empowerment Between Artificial Intelligence and Energy,' deploying 29 key tasks. The goal is to achieve significant results in mutual empowerment between AI and energy by 2030. In the same month, the National Energy Administration released 51 high-value 'AI+' energy scenarios, and 25 energy enterprises signed an open scenarios initiative.

Policies are pushing, enterprises are moving forward, and technologies are being deployed. Energy AI is transitioning from conceptual verification to large-scale implementation.

Huawei faces almost no competitors in this track (track). Internet companies lack hardware, communications, and deep accumulation in the power industry. Traditional IT vendors lack AI, chips, and complete cloud platform capabilities. Huawei, on the other hand—communications, chips, cloud, AI, and power electronics—all self-developed and controllable.

A private enterprise is becoming the provider of the most fundamental technologies for China's energy system. This is not a story; it's a fact unfolding before our eyes.