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(8 July 2026) The results of the 7th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Energy Smart Communities Initiative (ESCI) Best Practices Awards were recently announced. Spearheaded by The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (Towngas) and its subsidiary, Towngas Energy, a case study titled “Shenzhen Urban-Style Smart Grid Innovation: Energy as a Service & Virtual Power Plant Practice” stood out among 74 submissions from 16 APEC economies to claim the silver award in the Smart Grid category. The project was jointly developed and implemented with the Shenzhen Power Supply Bureau of China Southern Power Grid and Tsinghua University, and was nominated for the award by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department of Hong Kong, 

The award-winning project centres on  Towngas’s smart microgrid and virtual power plants (VPPs) in Shenzhen. Deployed across government buildings and large manufacturing facilities, the smart grid integrates distributed photovoltaic (PV) systems with battery energy storage systems (BESS). Through smart aggregation and dispatch, flexible power resources on the user side are consolidated to form a “virtual power plant”. This setup not only supplies electricity to customers but also provides ancillary services to the wider power grid. By combining PV-BESS microgrids with VPPs, this integrated solution alleviates challenges such as power supply and demand imbalances in major cities, land scarcity and difficulties in connecting renewable energy to the grid. Crucially, it achieves this while maintaining power security and supporting carbon reduction targets. This mature operational model has been rolled out across multiple cities on the Chinese mainland.

The successful implementation of this award-winning smart grid project relied on the pooling of resources from industry, government and academia, demonstrating the deep integration and close collaboration between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong in energy innovation. Each partner played a distinct role: Shenzhen leveraged its strengths in grid dispatch and grid-side platform development; Hong Kong-based Towngas spearheaded green finance innovation and strategic support for renewable energy; Towngas Energy contributed its operational expertise in distributed PV, BESS, smart microgrids, and end-user operations; and Tsinghua University focused on the core technologies for VPPs in zero-carbon smart industrial parks, providing theoretical backing and algorithm development.

The ESCI Best Practices Awards are the sole official project awards under the APEC Energy Working Group. Launched in 2013, the awards are held biennially and cover five major categories, including smart transport, smart buildings and smart grids. Only one gold and one silver award are presented in each category.

With 2026 marking the APEC “China Year”, Towngas and Towngas Energy will continue to leverage their synergistic strengths in energy, technology and finance to actively participate in international energy cooperation. Moving forward, they will promote innovative practices such as zero-carbon smart industrial parks, VPPs and smart microgrids, sharing “Towngas Solutions” and “Chinese wisdom” in energy transition with the rest of the world.

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Press photos:

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Towngas’s “Shenzhen Urban-Scale Smart Grid Innovation” project wins the silver award in the Smart Grids category at the 7th APEC ESCI Best Practice Awards.

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