New quality productive forces drive industry upgrade

China is seeing new quality productive forces fuel the transformation of traditional industries as digital and intelligent technologies move deeper into practical production scenarios and become increasingly integrated across production processes, experts said.

State Grid Corp of China, the world's largest power utility, is among companies promoting the practical application of new technologies across a range of complex scenarios to advance its digital and intelligent transformation efforts.

In the forested Daxinganling region of Inner Mongolia autonomous region, where rugged terrain has long complicated routine line inspections, the State Grid Oronqen Autonomous Banner Electric Power Co upgraded power line inspections with an integrated mix of drones, intelligent monitoring and infrared temperature measurement.

Technical specialists refined drone route-planning algorithms and fitted the aircraft with high-definition cameras and AI-based recognition modules, enabling the automatic detection and classification of hazards.

Moreover, the company built a digital monitoring platform that integrates data on icing and weather conditions and uses intelligent models to anticipate potential risks. Together with ground-based infrared tools, the system has formed an air-to-ground inspection network covering key 10-kilovolt lines across the forested region.

As a result, inspection time per line was reduced by 65 percent, while hazard-identification accuracy rose to 98 percent, significantly strengthening the reliability of the forest-area power grid.

These advances are not confined to forested line inspections, with intertidal submarine cable maintenance in China likewise moving toward full-scenario intelligent management.

State Grid Zhoushan Power Supply Co recently conducted its first integrated air-surface-underwater inspection of intertidal submarine cables in Zhejiang province, a mission that deployed a self-developed twin-hulled unmanned vessel, an aeromagnetic drone and an underwater patrol robot.

Stretching more than 1,000 kilometers, Zhoushan's submarine cables include extensive intertidal sections that have long posed challenges for conventional maintenance, a gap the twin-hulled unmanned vessel was designed to fill.

The operation unfolded as a coordinated air-surface-underwater inspection. A drone equipped with a high-precision magnetometer mapped the seabed using an acoustic-optical-magnetic fusion algorithm, transmitting real-time data on cable depth and location. On the surface, the unmanned vessel worked in coordination with the mothership to document cable conditions, while underwater a patrol robot examined the cables for sheath wear, displacement and other potential issues, accurately identifying risk areas.

"The system used 5G and satellite links for data transmission, lifting inspection efficiency by over 80 percent, cutting operating costs by 60 percent, and virtually eliminating safety risks for on-site personnel," said a subsea cable maintenance technician at State Grid Zhoushan Power Supply Co.

Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said that such smart power operation and maintenance practices illustrate the role of new quality productive forces in accelerating the transformation of the power sector. Rather than a mere overlay of technologies, this shift reshapes the allocation of production factors through deep technological integration.

"New quality productive forces are driven by the deep integration of technology, data and real-world applications. What matters most for transforming traditional industries is not breakthroughs in individual technologies, but how different technologies are combined to reshape production," he said.

Drone-based logistics in the low-altitude economy, together with smart terminal applications in the debut economy, are reshaping traditional industries through the same logic, Zhu added.

Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development have called for accelerating the practical application of major scientific and technological advances and developing application scenarios over the next five years.

"Unlocking the value of new technologies for traditional industries hinges on adaptation, open application scenarios and ecosystem building, all of which are central to application of technological advances and the cultivation of new quality productive forces," Zhu said.