Inner Mongolia understands the 'computing and electricity synergy'

Original title: "This large northern province has figured out "computing and computer collaboration""

In recent years, driven by cloud computing, AI and digital transformation, the demand for data center construction has increased dramatically. All over the country, data centers are being actively built to reserve computing power resources.

In order to prevent disorderly construction, the country has proposed the strategy of “numbering in the east and counting in the west”, delineating 8 core hubs and making a macro layout.

To put it simply, if you want to build a new large or medium-sized data center, you must try to build it in 8 core hubs. In other places, construction is generally not allowed.

"Calculate in the east and calculate in the west", in essence, is to pursue the lowest cost computing power. Utilize the abundant energy resources in the western region to support the computing power needs of the eastern region.

So, why do provinces and localities actively strive to become core hubs? Data centers do not significantly boost local employment (unlike manufacturing factories). Is it just to sell electricity? Selling land?

█ Inner Mongolia, fully embracing the data center

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is one of the 8 core hubs of "Eastern Data and Western Counting". They gave their own answers to the questions just now.

As a large border province in northern China, Inner Mongolia gives people the impression that it has a large area, many grasslands, and many deserts.

It is about 2,400 kilometers long from east to west, with a maximum span of more than 1,700 kilometers from north to south, with a total area of 1.183 million square kilometers, accounting for 12.3% of the country’s total area.

In the past, Inner Mongolia was a typical economically backward area, dominated by animal husbandry and with difficult living conditions. It was the main destination for educated youths to go to the mountains and countryside for support and exercise.

Later, because of the rich mineral resources, the mining industry rose rapidly, driving some industrial and economic growth.

In the past ten years or so, after the concept of data center has emerged, Inner Mongolia has keenly discovered the industrial opportunities, realized its own advantages in this industry, and invested heavily in it.

Perhaps the most familiar place for the data center industry in Inner Mongolia isUlanqab.

Ulanqab means red mountain pass in Mongolian. It is located at the intersection of the Yinshan Mountains and the Yanshan Mountains, 140 kilometers away from Zhangjiakou and only 300 kilometers away from Beijing. It is an important transportation artery connecting the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region with the western and northern regions.

As a mountain pass, its advantages are strong winds and low temperatures (the average temperature throughout the year is only 4.3℃). Therefore, it is particularly suitable for building data centers and can achieve full air-cooling and heat dissipation.

Since 2013, Ulanqab has launched more than 30 data center projects such as Huawei, Alibaba, Apple, Kuaishou, and Ucart. The total investment has exceeded 100 billion yuan, and the number of contracted racks exceeds 1 million. .

100 kilometers west of Ulanqab isHohhot.

To the north of Hohhot is the endless Yinshan Mountains. Therefore, we can only develop towards the south. 20 kilometers to the south is the Horinger New District, known as China's Cloud Valley.

Compared with Ulanqab, the scale of Horinger’s data center cluster is not inferior in any way. The difference between the two places is that Ulanqab has more data centers for Internet companies, while Helinger mainly has data centers for state-owned enterprises, financial companies, and operators.

Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, China Construction Bank, and Bank of Communications have all established large data centers here, forming a cluster of data centers in the financial industry.

Companies such as China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, Huawei, Alibaba, Orient Guosen, as well as relevant national departments such as the China Meteorological Administration also have their presence here.

Up to now, the installed capacity of servers in Horinger New District has exceeded 1.5 million units, and the total computing power has reached 24,000 P, of which the intelligent computing power is 21,800 P, accounting for 91%.

As mentioned earlier, data centers are not like factories and can directly create employment. Moreover, what it outputs is virtual computing power, not goods, and it is difficult to bring direct returns in terms of taxation. So, what is the significance of the local efforts to build data center clusters? Is it just to serve the overall situation of national computing power?

Of course not.

Although data centers cannot drive direct employment and tax revenue, they can indirectly drive it.

While building data center clusters, the local area also focuses on building the ict industry chain.

In the upstream of the industry, they strive to develop integrated circuits and electronic information-related manufacturing industries, and have successively introduced CNNC Tongfang servers, super fusion servers, Lexun servers, Sannuo ZTE servers, and Guodian Nanzi High and Low Voltage Distribution Electric cabinets, cloud storage new energy equipment, Tianhai Fluid intelligent energy-saving pump valves, Xianhong SMT patch production, Xi'an Jiaotong University "grating" R&D and production, Huaqin Online and other projects.

The computing power equipment required by the data center is directly manufactured locally. Data center design and construction companies are also available locally.

In the downstream of the industry, they An operation base, data processing and transaction base, AI training and reasoning base, and Xinchuang adaptation base have been built to develop and derive more service industries.

These industrial chains surrounding data centers can completely drive local employment and tax payments, and are also conducive to the transformation of traditional industries into high-end manufacturing.

█The "Chosen Place" of the data center

The story does not end here.

As mentioned earlier, the core of the data center lies in the price of electricity. To put it bluntly, when building data centers across the country (and even around the world), in addition to considering the ambient temperature, they are also competing for electricity prices.

And the electricity price in Inner Mongolia is really cheap!

Our residential electricity bill is about 0.56-0.62 yuan/kWh, and commercial electricity is about 0.5-1.25 yuan/kWh. For a long time, electricity charges for investment in data centers in Northeast China, Guizhou and other regions have been around 0.4 yuan/kWh. If the subsidy is more severe, it may be able to be reduced to less than 0.4 yuan.

However, on August 1, 2024, the "Fair Competition Review Regulations" were officially implemented. The "Regulations" clearly stipulate that without the basis of laws and administrative regulations or without the approval of the State Council, no tax preferences shall be granted to specific operators, and no selective or differentiated financial rewards or subsidies shall be given to specific operators.

This means that electricity bills will be settled according to a unified standard. The electricity cost advantage in these areas is suddenly gone.

But, the electricity bill in Inner Mongolia is still more than 0.3 yuan/kWh.

Why? Because Inner Mongolia's power grid is independently operated by the local government.

Everyone knows that there are State Grid and China Southern Power Grid in China. In fact, we have a total of 3 grid companies. The third company is Inner Mongolia Electric Power (Group) Co., Ltd., which is directly affiliated with the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. With this electricity bill standard, there is a lot of room for flexibility.

The reason why a large number of data centers are built in Inner Mongolia is because Inner Mongolia occupies almost all the data centers required Innate conditions.

First, the average temperature is low. For most of the year, natural air cooling can solve the heat dissipation problem, lower the PUE value, and reduce energy consumption.

Second, the electricity price is cheap, this is the most important. (More details later.)

Third, the land is vast and sparsely populated, the land resources are abundant, and the land price is cheap.

Fourth, it is very close to economically developed areas and can meet the data transmission delay requirements. The main supply direction of computing power in Inner Mongolia is the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

Combining many advantages, Inner Mongolia is definitely the "natural place" for data centers.

█In Inner Mongolia, why are electricity bills so cheap?

The electricity price in Inner Mongolia is cheap for several reasons.

First of all, they have a lot of coal mines.

Take Ordos as an example. This city is a typical resource-based city, and its main resource types can be summarized in four words - "sheep, coal, earth, and gas" (a homophonic pronunciation for "arrogant", referring to cashmere, coal mines, rare earths, and natural gas respectively).

Their coal resources are very rich and have been used to generate electricity. The reason why Inner Mongolia Electric Power is unique is also related to the rich local coal resources.

Secondly, their green electricity development speed is very rapid.

Inner Mongolia has many desert areas (desert, Gobi, desert). In these areas, it is necessary to prevent and control desertification, but cannot generate value. Now, local governments have built a large number of photovoltaic projects, wind power projects and solar thermal projects in these areas, making full use of land and light resources.

The "Great Photovoltaic Wall" located in the Kubuqi Desert is a typical example.

This "Photovoltaic Great Wall" is an area composed of multiple photovoltaic projects such as the Kubuqi Southern Base Project, the Central and Northern Base Project, and the Dalat Photovoltaic Base Project, with an installed capacity of more than 100 million kilowatts. The green electricity output here can reach Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta directly.

Regarding photovoltaic projects, they also adopt the industrial chain idea. In Baotou and other places, we have invested in and built a trillion-level crystalline silicon photovoltaic industry cluster with the world's largest industrial scale, the most complete industrial chain, and the highest supporting rate. It not only meets local photovoltaic procurement needs, but also exports to the world.

The local photovoltaic panels in Inner Mongolia can not only generate electricity, but also protect the environment.

Under the photovoltaic panels, you can raise sheep and chickens and develop animal husbandry. You can plant high-quality pasture or commercial crops such as Tribulus terrestris, licorice, and potatoes to develop modern agriculture. These practices have helped achieve desertification prevention and control and ecological restoration.

According to local saying, through the construction of photovoltaics, "light advances and sand retreats".

The vigorous development of green power is consistent with the country’s strategic goals.

On July 23, 2024, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Energy Administration, and the National Data Administration jointly issued the "Special Action Plan for Green and Low-Carbon Development of Data Centers".

The plan requires guiding the coordinated layout of new data centers and renewable energy power generation. Encourage data centers to improve the utilization rate of renewable energy by participating in green power and green certificate transactions. Relevant regions are encouraged to explore the direct supply of green power to data centers.

The proportion of green electricity in the local data center cluster in Inner Mongolia is already at the forefront of the country. In the Helinger New District mentioned earlier, the proportion of green electricity used in the data centers currently in operation has exceeded 80%.

█Computing and electricity synergy has broad prospects

Speaking of which, we have to go back to the title of the article - Computing and electricity synergy.

Calculation and electricity synergy, to put it bluntly, means “calculation optimizes electricity and electricity supports calculation”.

Computing optimized electricity refers to the digital and intelligent development of electricity empowered by computing power. Through computing power, the dispatching efficiency of the power network can be improved. Xiao Zaojun’s previous articles talked about smart electricity and introduced a lot.

Power-supported computing is easier to understand. It refers to building a computing network based on the layout of the power network, and building computing infrastructure such as data centers in places with abundant electricity (green power) resources.

The core idea of local government to develop the economy is to "leverage strengths and avoid weaknesses", make full use of local advantages, and develop high value-added industries.

If Inner Mongolia only relies on “raising sheep” and “selling coal”, it will be difficult to achieve long-term sustainable development. The emergence of the data center industry is an important industry transformation opportunity before them.

Selling coal directly will not only pollute the environment, but the price of coal will also fluctuate with the market, good and bad.

Build a thermal power station, burn coal, and turn coal into electricity. Transportation costs are saved, resources are turned into energy, and energy is traded to obtain returns.

Go one step further and directly build "large power users" locally,change "watts" into "bits", and achieve another upgrade. It generates greater value and greater returns. Around the data center, upstream and downstream supporting industry chains can also be developed, which is equivalent to the introduction of high-end manufacturing, which can drive employment and tax revenue.

On the basis of coal power, vigorously developing photovoltaic and wind power projects and increasing the proportion of green power are "treating both the symptoms and the root cause". Moreover, it can also achieve desertification prevention and control, ecological restoration, and create "lucid waters and green mountains."

No matter how you calculate it, for Inner Mongolia, it is a sure profit. This is the right direction of development and will definitely bring huge returns on investment to the local area.

█Final words

In the past year, Xiao Zaojun visited many provinces and cities across the country and witnessed the efforts and results of various regions based on their own advantages to explore industrial upgrading and transformation. Every province, every prefecture and city is actively looking for new economic growth points, and is also working hard to make its industries more high-end and more sustainable.

시간이 지나면서 이 모든 노력이 점차 성과로 변하면 지역 경제를 새로운 차원으로 끌어올릴 뿐만 아니라 국가 전체의 경제 변혁이라는 전략적 목표를 크게 촉진할 것이라고 믿습니다.

자원 배당과 인구 배당은 재생 불가능합니다. 기술 배당과 산업 배당은 우리가 미래 국제 경쟁에 참여할 수 있는 가장 강력한 무기입니다.

이 기사의 출처는 WeChat 공개 계정: WeChat 공개 계정(ID: null), 작성자: Xiao Zaojun

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