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Text | Xue Xiaowan

Editor | Su Jianxun

36Carbon has learned that Shanghai Bolin Intelligent Electric Technology Co., Ltd., a provider of power AI products, has completed an angel round of financing of tens of millions of yuan. This round of financing was led by Frees Capital and followed by industrial resources. Gewu Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. The funds will be mainly used for the research and development of emerging power AI products and market expansion. It is reported that the company's Pre-A round of financing will be launched simultaneously in the near future.

Bolin Intelligent Electric was established in 2022.By integrating power, industrial control, and AI technologies, we innovatively define a series of power distribution AI products, such as smart electrical cabinets, smart circuit breakers, energy controllers, power AI software platforms, etc., achieving millisecond-level holographic perception and control.Using power AI products as a carrier, the company is committed to transforming each traditional distribution unit of the distribution network into an AI neuron of the power grid, thereby achieving low-cost construction of a real-time synchronized, stably controlled, and flexible distribution system, and promoting the high-quality development of the distribution network.

36Carbon learned that the core team of Bolin Intelligent Electric graduated from the electrical engineering major of well-known universities such as Shanghai Jiaotong University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and North China Electric Power University. They have worked in well-known companies in the industry such as Huawei 2012 Laboratory, GE, and Chinese Academy of Sciences. They have knowledge backgrounds and resumes in cross-fields such as power technology, industrial control, data intelligence, and FPGA. They have decades of deep accumulation in the fields of power systems, microgrids, energy storage systems, and industrial control, and have many invention patents. The team has participated in and led multiple microgrid projects in the power field, power electronics algorithms and large-scale new energy grid connection, GE's future smart grid and smart meter design, and research on the stability mechanism of multi-DC-fed AC/DC hybrid power systems.

In recent years, as the proportion of clean energy and distributed energy generation continues to increase, building a new power system has become a topic of great concern and heated discussion. In the entire power system, the distribution network at the end of the chain is experiencing major challenges - the traditional power network that simply receives and distributes electricity to users can no longer adapt to the intermittent and random characteristics of new energy generation, and the high proportion of distributed energy access has also caused an impact on the distribution network -As the overall environment faced by the power system becomes more complex and the grid structure is reshaped, the distribution grid urgently needs to transform from the traditional model to the integrated interaction of source, grid, load and storage, and improve real-time perception and monitoring capabilities.

"It's like a traffic system." Zhang Hairui, CEO of BoLian Intelligent Electric, gave 36 Carbon an analogy. "In the past, there were only a few simple one-way highways, and the management and dispatching difficulty was relatively small. Now the traffic route trends and vehicle conditions are more complicated, and accordingly, a smarter road management system and more powerful vehicle dispatching and command capabilities are needed."

Image provided by the company

According to reports,Bolin Intelligent Power's power AI products have acquisition, communication, distributed computing and real-time processing capabilities.It can greatly improve the digital capabilities and intelligent management and control level of operators, and can be widely used in scenarios and fields such as smart cities, smart districts, smart buildings, virtual power plants, etc. At the same time, the company can also provide real-time power monitoring response, with real-time control capabilities at the grid level, and support synchronous high-speed acquisition and dispatch control. From chip to overall design, development and intelligent optimization of power system control, Bolin Intelligent Power has formed a system-level real-time high-precision cross-domain data acquisition synchronization, closed-loop control solutions and standardized products.

For example, the company uses distribution units (circuit breakers, electrical cabinets, etc.) that are widely used in the downstream of the power distribution system, have standardized products, and are highly accepted by customers as carriers.Without changing the product form and installation method, technologies and functions such as isochronous real-time sampling and control technology, fault analysis, prediction and scheduling in the field of industrial control and AI can be integrated into it.

In this way, every traditional miniature circuit breaker and electrical cabinet that originally only played the role of circuit load protection and power distribution can be transformed into an AI neuron node of the distribution network. After massive deployment, it can achieve millisecond-level holographic perception and control of the microsystem, enabling the low-cost construction of a real-time synchronized, stable-controlled, flexible and mutually-assisted power distribution system.

"Although we delivered products in the form of traditional circuit breakers in the early stage, the starting point, connotation and technical characteristics of the products are completely different from those of traditional distribution units." Zhang Hairui told 36Carbon that the reason why the company chose to start with circuit breakers was thatThis is because this core component can cover most terminal application scenarios.The interior of electrical cabinets in different user scenarios varies greatly, but the circuit breaker is the greatest common denominator. Bolin Intelligent Electric has completely upgraded circuit breakers and electrical cabinets by integrating power, industrial control, and AI technologies.

The advantage of this is thatTraditional power distribution units can be reused, thereby reducing the difficulty of installation and operation and maintenance, saving training costs, and increasing user acceptance.36Carbon learned that Bolin Intelligent Electric's smart circuit breakers, energy controllers and power AI algorithm software related products have been recognized by leading customers in multiple scenarios.

In the field of intelligent power distribution, the company's products have been applied to multiple projects of State Power Investment Corporation, which can not only realize equipment networking, information synchronization, data aggregation and real-time energy information acquisition, but also directly control or remotely control the on and off of circuits, supporting strategies such as energy metering, load balancing and coordinated control. In the field of digital power consumption, the company's products have been deployed and applied on a large scale in Shanghai Electric, and will be promoted in large-scale cooperation in the future.

Investor’s view:

Liu Pengqi, Executive Director of Frees Capital: Energy digitization, zero carbonization, and intelligence are inevitable trends in the development of the power industry. The Bolin Intelligent Power team has rich industry experience and interdisciplinary background. Relying on its innovative capabilities in electrical, sensing, communication, algorithms, and system architecture, Bolin Intelligent Power is expected to quickly open up a new landscape for the implementation of AI in power application scenarios.

Industry resources: China is gradually shifting from reliance on fossil energy to more use of renewable energy. As large electricity users, data centers and computing facilities will shift their energy consumption patterns to green electricity. Polycent's digital power solution is an effective way to support the construction of a modern energy system by connecting various green power energy facilities and relying on big data and artificial intelligence to connect the energy and information flows between the physical world and the digital world. We hope to further strengthen cooperation through this investment and promote the construction of the power AI ecosystem and the development of green computing power.

Di Haiming, Partner of Gewu Capital: Electric power and energy have always been the key areas of Gewu's attention and services. We are honored to assist Bolin in completing this round of financing. Faced with the new power system structure with intermittent distributed energy, complex energy supply, and discrete load, how to do a good job in local consumption, load fitting, and energy mutual assistance has always been the core problem that the distribution and use power grid needs to solve. Bolin innovatively uses traditional distribution equipment as a carrier and creates a new species of power terminals through advanced digital technology. It not only solves the problem of real-time synchronization and control of distribution and use power grid data, but also does not increase customer education and installation costs. We look forward to Bolin playing a greater role in the distribution and use power system.