HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 28, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit was held in New York on Sept. 22-23, local time. At a session themed "Collective Action and Systems Change," a sustainable development project team from State Grid Corporation of China joined teams from Britain, Ghana, Nigeria and other countries to showcase their innovative solutions. As China's sole representative and one of the five global finalists, the State Grid team presented its solution, "AI for good: Chasing the light, seeking the carbon," winning strong recognition from judges and participants.
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The SDG Innovation Accelerator for Young Professionals is a global innovation program developed by the United Nations Global Compact to empower young professionals at participating companies. In 2026, 49 companies took part in the program in China. After winning first place in the China round, the innovation team from State Grid Hangzhou Power Supply Company advanced to the global online showcase, where it competed alongside winning teams from 22 countries and regions. The team ultimately reached the global top five, earning the opportunity to present its solution at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit.
David Steingard, head of Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) at the UN Global Compact, said the project concept was outstanding and had the potential to be scaled up. He noted that both reliable, continuous power supply and energy-saving and carbon-reduction capabilities are urgently needed by power grid companies around the world.
Based in Hangzhou, a city known for its vibrant innovation ecosystem, the team behind " AI for good: Chasing the light, seeking the carbon " focused on two major challenges facing more than 13,000 technology and innovation companies in the city: reliable, uninterrupted power for manufacturers using high-precision equipment, and cleaner, lower-carbon electricity to help companies expand into overseas markets.
"Nearly 80 percent of the economic value generated by each kilowatt-hour of electricity in Hangzhou comes from clusters of 'new quality productive forces,' including artificial intelligence and visual intelligence companies. Most of these are small and medium-sized businesses in the start-up stage, so we decided to use AI to make the power supply system smarter," said team member Fang Xiang.
The innovation team uses "Guangqing," an AI super-agent for the power grid, to analyze the complex power grid of a megacity in real time. Based on the technology, it has developed an AI service package tailored to technology companies, offering two services free of charge: Powertrace, which traces electricity supply paths, and Carbonseek, which tracks carbon emissions throughout the process. Together, they function like two "eyes" - one watching electricity and the other tracking carbon.
Powertrace focuses on identifying problems across the power grid. It conducts real-time assessments of 9,517 transmission and distribution lines and 503 substations across Hangzhou, enabling risks such as grid abnormalities, voltage disturbances and equipment overload affecting individual businesses to be identified within seconds. It can generate precise dispatch strategies within one minute, addressing potential problems before they develop into failures.
The system helps provide businesses with power supply reliability of more than 99.999 percent, while the average annual outage duration per customer has fallen to 3.15 minutes, reaching a globally advanced level.
"Our other AI 'eye' focuses on tracing where a company's carbon emissions come from, where energy is consumed and how emissions can be reduced," said another team member, Wang Yi. Carbonseek can calculate a start-up's carbon emissions by hour and location based on its electricity consumption, develop targeted emissions-reduction plans, and help manufacturers schedule production during periods when electricity is cleanest and has the lowest carbon intensity.
To date, the project has served 56 technology start-ups in Hangzhou and helped some smart manufacturing companies reduce their product carbon footprints by 6.6 percent. By the end of this year, the team plans to cover at least 10 percent of Hangzhou's technology start-ups. Within one year, it aims to extend the service to 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs ) across China. In the longer term, the team hopes to develop an open-source toolkit to share the solution with SMEs worldwide.
Bruna Elias, senior manager of the SDG Innovation Accelerator at the UN Global Compact, said the solution had potential beyond China and could be scaled globally. She expressed hope that the team could find more partners and stakeholders around the world to advance the initiative.
"Many parts of Africa face challenges in securing a stable supply of green electricity. Your project offers a practical solution for climate action. We share a common vision of building a greener future and look forward to exploring cooperation to bring this technology to Africa and other regions," said Juliet Makafui Gbate of the Ghanaian team, who presented alongside the State Grid team.
Contact person: Ms. Li, Tel: 86-10-63074558