On July 23^rd, the construction of Changzhou Keneng Electrical Smart Grid Research Institute was commenced in Changzhou West Taihu Lake Science and Technology Industrial Zone (WEZ). The total investment of the project is 200 million yuan, covering an area of 42 mu (about 2.8 hectares), with a gross floor area of 35,000 square meters.

The project is expected to be completed next year, which will be equipped with 1,000 sets of smart monitoring systems for distribution network and the capacity of manufacturing ancillary equipment. By then, the institute is expected to have an annual output value of 250 million yuan and to create more than 100 jobs.

The investor, Changzhou Keneng Electrical Co., Ltd., has been focusing on the development of a smart system for electricity safety testing and monitoring over the past 20 years. It has successively cooperated with some famous universities like Tsinghua University, Southeast University, the Institute of Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc. It has also undertaken a number of key research programs at provincial or ministerial level.