Just over a year after a near total blackout exposed weaknesses in its national power grid, China has built the most powerful smart DC transformer ever deployed, aiming to prevent future system wide failures as renewable energy use accelerates, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
The record setting transformer was developed by Changzhou Xidian Transformer and has a capacity of 750 million volt amperes. According to Chinese media, it now holds the world record for the highest capacity single converter transformer used in flexible direct current transmission systems.
The project was driven by an August 2024 incident in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where poorly balanced wind power caused low frequency oscillations that nearly cascaded into a nationwide blackout. Engineers identified the need for hardware that could actively stabilise grids with a high share of renewables.
The new smart transformer is designed to absorb and smooth out fluctuations from wind and solar generation, improving grid stability, safety, and operational flexibility. It plays a central role in China’s first ultra high voltage flexible DC transmission project.
The system will transmit electricity over a 2,370 kilometre corridor from resource rich Gansu to the industrial and population centres of Zhejiang. Once fully commissioned, it is expected to deliver more than 36 billion kilowatt hours of clean electricity annually.
The project reflects China’s broader west to east power strategy, which channels renewable energy from sparsely populated regions to power hungry coastal provinces. It also signals a shift toward smarter grid infrastructure as renewable penetration rises.
For grid engineers, the message is clear. As clean energy scales up, stability no longer depends only on generation capacity, but on intelligent transmission systems capable of reacting in real time to shocks.