Addressing the critical national demand for low-carbon transformation in the power sector, the project team uncovered and leveraged the coupling mechanism between power carbon emissions and the physical operational laws of power grids to facilitate clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient coordinated interaction among generation, grid, load, and storage. Since 2009, the team has pioneered theoretical research in low-carbon power technologies, and over a span of 16 years, they successfully tackled three major challenges: making carbon flow distribution analyzable, enabling optimization of low-carbon dispatch, and achieving synergy in power-carbon planning. They founded the Theory of Power System Carbon Emission Flow, revealing the spatiotemporal coupling laws between grid power flow and carbon emissions. Furthermore, they proposed innovative methods for low-carbon optimal dispatch that clarify the carbon reduction mechanisms in source-grid-load-storage coordination, and introduced methodologies for low-carbon optimal planning that uncover the interactive influences between carbon trajectories and the evolutionary paths of power system configurations.

The project’s achievements have had a profound impact on both academia and industry. The team published China’s first monograph on low-carbon power systems, and their contributions were recognized globally with the IEEE PES Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award. Additionally, they led the compilation and release of the CIGRE C1.39 Technical Brochure on Power System Planning, setting international guidelines. These methodologies have been widely applied in power carbon monitoring and emission reduction optimization in regions such as Beijing, Guangdong, and Qinghai, providing crucial support for formulating carbon peaking and carbon neutrality pathways for the nation and various local governments. This prestigious award underscores Tsinghua University’s leading role in driving the theoretical and practical advancements necessary for the global energy transition.