At the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, China Southern Power Grid presented a suite of innovations aimed at enhancing energy cooperation between China and ASEAN. The technologies, including the DaWatt Lao Language Large Language Model (LLM) for the Energy and Power Sector V2.0 and the Flexible Grayscale Intelligent Monitoring & Analysis Platform for power system cybersecurity, underscore the growing role of digitalization and intelligent systems in cross-border energy projects.
The Lao-language LLM, now deployed at Electricité du Laos Transmission Company Limited (EDL-T), represents a significant leap in operational efficiency. According to the press release, the model can automatically analyze thousands of inspection images rapidly, having already processed 26,000 drone inspection images and identified over 3,600 equipment defects across four transmission lines. This capability is particularly crucial in Laos' challenging mountainous and rainforest terrain, where manual inspections are difficult and time-consuming. By optimizing algorithms for local conditions, the system ensures more reliable power supply and reduces maintenance costs.
Liu Ying, general manager of the Digitalization Department at Guangxi Power Grid Co., Ltd., noted that the company is building multilingual professional corpora for the power sector, covering ASEAN countries such as Laos, Vietnam, and Malaysia. This effort is part of a broader strategy to develop energy and power models tailored to ASEAN languages and real-world applications, leveraging the DaWatt foundation model.
Talent development is another cornerstone of this cooperation. The China-ASEAN Institute of Energy, jointly established by Guangxi Power Grid Co., Ltd. and Guangxi University, has enrolled two cohorts totaling 53 students from ASEAN countries. The institute emphasizes practical experience, reflecting a shift from one-way training to joint innovation. For instance, Guangxi Power Grid Co., Ltd. and the Royal Academy of Cambodia have set up a laboratory for artificial intelligence and safety equipment, while peer-to-peer exchanges with Electricité du Laos focus on improving power supply reliability.
To overcome language barriers in technical exchanges, Guangxi Power Grid Co., Ltd. has developed an AI-powered translation platform with a specialized database of terminology for over 1,800 types of power equipment. The platform supports accurate translation between Chinese and English, Chinese and Lao, and Chinese and Vietnamese. At a recent training program, it enabled one-click generation of bilingual course materials and real-time speech translation, facilitating communication among engineers.
Furthermore, Guangxi Power Grid Co., Ltd. has established an international talent pool covering management, technical, and skilled personnel, along with 24 hours of courses on international affairs and 20 short-form video courses. Sun Xiaohua, deputy director of the Human Resources Department, mentioned plans to explore joint postgraduate programs with ASEAN universities this year.
Looking ahead, the company aims to advance a development model featuring "R&D in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, integration in Guangxi, and application in ASEAN." It will expand multilingual power-sector corpora and explore a "Token Goes Global" model for power-sector AI, with computing resources and models based in Guangxi while knowledge services are delivered overseas. This initiative is expected to create new forms of China-ASEAN energy cooperation and support the green development of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0.
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