“四網四流”融合技術將引領電氣化交通新時代

陳清泉

(中國工程院院士，英國皇家工程院院士，香港大學榮譽教授)

In September, 2020, President Xi announced China′s carbon peak and carbon neutralization goal withincreased INDCs(Intended Nationally Determined Contributions) and more constructive measuresduring the 75th General Assembly of United Nations. Fossil energy consumption has dominated the transportation sector in China since beginning, which not only results in huge carbon emission, but also hampers the upgradation of energy structure in our country. President Xi′s propositioninitiates the long march towards the new era of electrified transportation. It is predicted that the electric vehicles will overtake the traditional fossil oil vehicles to dominate land transportation tool by the year of 2035. The electrified rail transit technologies, such as high-speed rail, electrical multiple units and maglev transportwill be further popularized. The electric ships, all-electric airplanes and more-electric airplanes are also showing great momentum of vigorous development.As is indicated, electrification unveils a new world for transport industry.

We are now facing abundant historical opportunities, such as the evolution from the fourth to the fifth industrial revolution and the advantages of the artificial intelligence (AI). While in practice, we experienced thatAI technology alone is still not sufficient to solve the challenging complex issues. Thus, the fifth industrial revolution will focus on the fusion of human, AI and environment. In accordance, European Union put forward Industry 5.0, an update from German Industry 4.0. It is to establish sustainable people-oriented European industry. Integration Theory and Practice of 4 Networks, energy network, information network, transportation network and humanity network, and 4 Flows, energy flow, information flow, material flow and value flow,map out the technical route for the fourth industrial revolution to evolve into the fifth one. Digital productivity is the most recognizable feature that distinguishes the fourth one from the previous ones, which will forcefully advance state strategy of ‘New Infrastructure Construction’, promoting the mergence among infrastructures of information, energy and transport. From the perspective of objective law of human society development, digital productivity will inevitably demand mutual support from economic base and superstructure. In this context, the White Paper on Industry Development Guided by 4-Networks 4-Flows Integrationis edited leading by author and has been published in December 2020 by joint effort of China Institute of Communications, Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., State Power Investment Co., Ltd.. From the 4-Networks, energy network, information network and transportation network are the three pillars of the economic foundation, while the humanity network is the key component of the society′s superstructure. Developing of the 4-Networks4-Flows Integration is good for inspiring people′s subjective activity to integratethe energy revolution, information revolution and transportation revolution, building the unique relationship of production based on human-cyber-physical system, as well as digging the digital bonus started from the fourth industrial revolution for the coming exponential increase in productivity.

‘4-Networks 4-Flows’ Integration Technology represents the fundamental change and influence on people′s way of thinking brought by the fourth industrial revolution on the level of philosophy, science, and engineering, fully reflecting the industrial strategic necessity of merging philosophical thinking, scientific theory and engineering practice. To philosophy of a holistic thinking-Whole is greater than the sum of each individual; Economic foundation interacts with superstructure. To science theory-It explored the fundamental relationship among energy, information and human behavior, making use of waste energy and promoting carbon neutralization. To engineering-It combined the energy technology and information technology through a smart energy operating system, applying cloud technology, edge computation, artificial intelligence, big data technology, to achieve value-added results.

For transport industry, stepping into the coming new era of electrified transportation requires making full use of the digital productivity, advancing the electrified transportation to a smart, low-carbon and sustainable way. This means that we should not just pay attention to the road side or transportation side, but devote to solve the multidimensional collaborative issue about human, transportation, infrastructure, andenvironment, hence to promote coordinated development of human and natural life community, which in turn will eventually advancean overallsustainable development of economy and society in our country. The new concept of 4-Networks 4-Flows Integration is presenting a solution for the mentioned problems.

2020年9月，國家主席習近平總書記在第七十五屆聯合國大會上提出：中國將提高國家自主貢獻力度，采取更加有力的政策和措施，二氧化碳排放力爭于2030年前達到峰值，努力爭取2060年前實現碳中和。一直以來，我國交通運輸領域的化石能源消費占比居高不下，不但產生了巨量的碳排放，而且妨礙了能源結構的優化升級。總書記的講話無疑為我國全面進軍電氣化交通新時代吹響了號角。據預測，到2035年，我國電動汽車占比將超過燃油汽車，成為主流的陸上交通工具；以高鐵、動車、磁浮交通為代表的電氣化軌道交通技術也將得到進一步深化普及；而電動船舶、全電飛機、多電飛機等海空交通工具正展現出蓬勃發展的良好勢頭。可見，電氣化將為交通領域展現一個新時代。

當前，我們正處在第四次工業革命的歷史機遇期，以及從第四次工業革命到第五次工業革命的演化期。第四次工業革命的特征之一是人工智能技術，但在實踐中我們發現只是人工智能技術不夠，因此第五次工業革命提出了“人-人工智能-環境”的融合。與此相應，歐盟提出歐盟工業5.0， 是在德國工業4.0的發展。歐盟工業5.0的特征是建立可持續的以人為本的歐洲工業。能源網、信息網、交通網、人文網四網與能源流、信息流、物質流、價值流四流的融合理論和實踐正是從第四次工業革命演化到第五次工業革命的技術路徑。數字生產力是第四次工業革命區別于前三次工業革命的最顯著特征，并將有力地推動國家新基建戰略，促進信息基礎設施、能源基礎設施和交通基礎設施的相互融合。從人類社會發展客觀規律看，數字生產力必然需要得到經濟基礎與上層建筑的共同支撐。為此，筆者牽頭編著了《四網四流融合產業發展白皮書》，并于2020年12月由中國通信學會、中國電機工程學會、華為技術有限公司、國家電力投資集團四家單位聯合發布。“四網”中，能源網、信息網、交通網是經濟基礎的三個支柱，而人文網是上層建筑的重要組成部分。發展“四網四流”融合技術，可以將人的主觀能動性和能源革命、信息革命、交通(出行)革命聯動起來，建立人-信息--物理系統形成的新的生產關系，發掘第四次工業革命的數據紅利所能帶來的巨大生產力，并在前三次工業革命生產力總和的基礎上爆發出指數級的增長。

“四網四流”融合技術在哲學層面、科學層面與工程層面代表了第四次工業革命對人類思維方式帶來了根本性改變與影響，充分反映了將哲學思想、科學理論與工程實踐進行融會貫通的產業戰略需求。從哲學思想上，需要建立全局思維，基于經濟基礎與上層建筑之間的互動，形成整體大于個體總和的優勢。從科學理論上，需要探索出能源、信息和人的行為的互動規律，將廢棄的能源變成有用的能源并促進碳中和。從工程實踐上，需要將能源技術和信息技術結合，開發智慧能源操作系統，采用端邊云的結構，將能源體系和人工智能/大數據體系結合，實現增值效益。

交通領域要邁向電氣化交通新時代，就要充分發揮數字生產力的顛覆性優勢，將電氣化交通一步到位建設成智慧交通、低碳交通和可持續交通。這意味著，我們不能只著眼于解決道路側或交通工具側的問題，而是要立足長遠，綜合解決人、交通工具、交通基礎設施以及人居環境的多維協同融合問題，最終推動我國經濟社會整體的可持續發展與人和自然的協調發展。“四網四流”融合的新理念，正為上述問題提供了解決之道。