“四网四流”融合技术将引领电气化交通新时代

陈清泉

(中国工程院院士，英国皇家工程院院士，香港大学荣誉教授)

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，国家主席习近平总书记在第七十五届联合国大会上提出：中国将提高国家自主贡献力度，采取更加有力的政策和措施，二氧化碳排放力争于2030年前达到峰值，努力争取2060年前实现碳中和。一直以来，我国交通运输领域的化石能源消费占比居高不下，不但产生了巨量的碳排放，而且妨碍了能源结构的优化升级。总书记的讲话无疑为我国全面进军电气化交通新时代吹响了号角。据预测，到2035年，我国电动汽车占比将超过燃油汽车，成为主流的陆上交通工具；以高铁、动车、磁浮交通为代表的电气化轨道交通技术也将得到进一步深化普及；而电动船舶、全电飞机、多电飞机等海空交通工具正展现出蓬勃发展的良好势头。可见，电气化将为交通领域展现一个新时代。

当前，我们正处在第四次工业革命的历史机遇期，以及从第四次工业革命到第五次工业革命的演化期。第四次工业革命的特征之一是人工智能技术，但在实践中我们发现只是人工智能技术不够，因此第五次工业革命提出了“人-人工智能-环境”的融合。与此相应，欧盟提出欧盟工业5.0， 是在德国工业4.0的发展。欧盟工业5.0的特征是建立可持续的以人为本的欧洲工业。能源网、信息网、交通网、人文网四网与能源流、信息流、物质流、价值流四流的融合理论和实践正是从第四次工业革命演化到第五次工业革命的技术路径。数字生产力是第四次工业革命区别于前三次工业革命的最显著特征，并将有力地推动国家新基建战略，促进信息基础设施、能源基础设施和交通基础设施的相互融合。从人类社会发展客观规律看，数字生产力必然需要得到经济基础与上层建筑的共同支撑。为此，笔者牵头编著了《四网四流融合产业发展白皮书》，并于2020年12月由中国通信学会、中国电机工程学会、华为技术有限公司、国家电力投资集团四家单位联合发布。“四网”中，能源网、信息网、交通网是经济基础的三个支柱，而人文网是上层建筑的重要组成部分。发展“四网四流”融合技术，可以将人的主观能动性和能源革命、信息革命、交通(出行)革命联动起来，建立人-信息--物理系统形成的新的生产关系，发掘第四次工业革命的数据红利所能带来的巨大生产力，并在前三次工业革命生产力总和的基础上爆发出指数级的增长。

“四网四流”融合技术在哲学层面、科学层面与工程层面代表了第四次工业革命对人类思维方式带来了根本性改变与影响，充分反映了将哲学思想、科学理论与工程实践进行融会贯通的产业战略需求。从哲学思想上，需要建立全局思维，基于经济基础与上层建筑之间的互动，形成整体大于个体总和的优势。从科学理论上，需要探索出能源、信息和人的行为的互动规律，将废弃的能源变成有用的能源并促进碳中和。从工程实践上，需要将能源技术和信息技术结合，开发智慧能源操作系统，采用端边云的结构，将能源体系和人工智能/大数据体系结合，实现增值效益。

交通领域要迈向电气化交通新时代，就要充分发挥数字生产力的颠覆性优势，将电气化交通一步到位建设成智慧交通、低碳交通和可持续交通。这意味着，我们不能只着眼于解决道路侧或交通工具侧的问题，而是要立足长远，综合解决人、交通工具、交通基础设施以及人居环境的多维协同融合问题，最终推动我国经济社会整体的可持续发展与人和自然的协调发展。“四网四流”融合的新理念，正为上述问题提供了解决之道。