[Shenergy]Shenergy Group’s 2025 Shanghai Craftsmen and Shanghai Model Worker Craftsman Innovation Studio Style: Make the Ordinary the Ultimate and Create the Extraordinary with Ingenuity

Recently, the list of “Shanghai Craftsmen” in 2025 was announced. Two employees of Shenergy Group's companies, Chen Gang and Yao Liang, were on the list and won the Bronze Craftsman Medal. At the same time, the Chen Bin Power Plant Intelligent Carbon Reduction Craftsman Innovation Studio of Shenergy Waisan Power Plant was named the 2025 Shanghai Model Worker Craftsman Innovation Studio. Ordinary positions are fertile ground for craftsmen to work hard, shining with their extraordinary “craftsmanship”. They devote this “craftsmanship” to the ultimate pursuit of “precision”, the unrepentant persistence of “persistence”, and the unremitting pursuit of “innovation”. They actively devote themselves to the inheritance of skills and promote the development of skills, building a solid “skills base” for the group's high-quality development.

　　shanghai craftsman

　　Yao Liang

A subsidiary of Shenergy Group Shanghai Gas

Shanghai Gas Shibei Sales Co., Ltd.

　　Tighten the gas “safety valve” to protect the city's “pyrotechnics”

With more than 20 years of grass-roots service, Yao Liang started out as an ordinary maintenance worker, overcoming difficulties in troubleshooting and maintenance of underground gas pipelines, and gradually grew into the chief technician, technical channel expert and employee innovation studio leader of Shibei Company. This “post-80s” party member has been deeply engaged in above-ground gas pipeline maintenance and technological innovation, and has honed his skills in practice. He has won many honors such as the National Technical Expert in the Housing and Urban-Rural Construction Industry, the First Prize in the Shanghai Gas Industry Vocational Skills Competition, and the Shenergy Craftsman. He has created extraordinary achievements in ordinary positions.

　　Responsibility lies on shoulders

　　Improving urban safety and resilience through hard work

In 2016, faced with the increasingly prominent problem of aging and corrosion of gas pipelines in the above-ground aged gas pipe renovation project, Yao Liang went abroad to conduct research on the application of new pipe materials, and took the lead in introducing coated pipe technology into the Shanghai gas system. Combining Shanghai's climate environment and the characteristics of the existing pipeline network, he focused on system optimization around coating material selection, thickness design and interface technology, and formulated key technical indicators suitable for Shanghai's gas system. This technology has been promoted and applied in Shibei Company’s entire old pipe renovation project, and will be officially included in the Shanghai Gas Technical Standard System in 2025. The application of coated pipes has increased the design service life of above-ground gas pipelines from 30 years to 50 years, saving the cost of rebuilding above-ground gas pipelines once during the life cycle of the building.

Yao Liang continues to accumulate experience and promote innovation through the process of solving practical problems. In 2024, when the “risk of leakage at the wall interface” caused Shanghai's first high-rise building elderly pipe renovation project to reach a deadlock, he went to the site to listen to the demands of community residents' representatives, joined forces with multiple parties to jointly tackle the problem, and developed a three-level collaborative wall pipe combination protection system. While resolving public concerns, it also effectively extended the service life of the pipeline system, becoming a model of the efficient combination of “people's livelihood projects” and “technical attack”.

　　See the truth in every detail

　　Protect gas maintenance safety with innovation

“Come from practice, go to practice.” Yao Liang has worked in many positions such as maintenance, business, and security inspection. The accumulation of in-depth front-line experience has allowed him to develop excellent skills in gas maintenance safety. When replacing the traditional gas ball valve, there is a safety risk of operating with gas for a short period of time. To this end, Yao Liang set out to improve and design a new blocking tool. This tool breaks through the traditional operating limitations and can complete the replacement of the ball valve while the gas is being supplied continuously, thereby reducing the risk of gas leakage during the disassembly process from the source, which not only ensures construction safety, but also avoids the impact of gas outage on other users. Relevant inventions won first prizes for utility models, design patents, and the “Five Small” Innovation Awards for Job Safety in the National Gas Industry.

The soap leakage detection method that has been used for decades has the technical shortcomings of “poor bubble stability and insufficient foam volume”. The location of tiny leaks depends entirely on the work experience of the maintenance personnel. Yao Liang made up his mind to find a “new standard” for the “old method”. After repeated trials and front-line trials, he innovatively developed a gas pipeline micro-leak bubble locating agent, allowing front-line personnel to find leaks more quickly and accurately.

　　Keep the original intention on the road of inheritance

　　Build a bridge for talent growth with responsibility

“To become an excellent worker, you must also drive more people to become talented people with their skills.” This is Yao Liang's original intention and pursuit of the gas business. Now he is an “old master” who has brought out many outstanding apprentices. Over the years, he has taken the inheritance of skills as his own responsibility, worked hard to cultivate young backbones, compiled a number of corporate operating procedures such as the “Repair Repair Operation Procedures for Resident Customers”, and strived to form a standardized and standardized operating process.

As a teacher of the Municipal Gas Association and an internal trainer of the enterprise, Yao Liang combined his own senior experience and practical experience in the industry to continuously improve teaching methods and update teaching methods. He systematically summarized the “four-dimensional working method” of “on-site teaching + online courses + practical drills + case exchanges”, and has taught more than 100 students in total. The trainees have achieved great results in labor and skills competitions at all levels, and have won 3 national awards, 2 Yangtze River Delta regional awards, and 2 municipal awards. One of them was awarded the title of “Hongkou Craftsman”. Yao Liang's struggle is a vivid portrayal of integrating personal growth into the overall situation of enterprise development and people's city construction. His struggle has driven and inspired more gas people to build dreams with ingenuity and empower with innovation, making new and greater contributions to Shanghai Gas's acceleration in building a “five first-class” smart gas service provider.

　　shanghai craftsman

　　Chen Gang

A subsidiary of Shanghai Cable & Cable Institute of Shenergy Group

Shanghai National Cable Testing Co., Ltd.

　　The “Guardian” of the healthy operation of cable detection equipment

With more than 30 years of experience in power equipment maintenance, Chen Gang is a front-line maintenance worker in the equipment department of Shanghai National Cable Inspection Co., Ltd. Focusing on the fields related to electrical, mechanical, instrumentation and other equipment, he worked hard to delve into and accumulate experience. While ensuring the normal operation of the equipment, he conducted in-depth research and continued to innovate and improve the testing equipment, innovate and invent, and continuously improve the accuracy and automation of the testing equipment. Over the years, he has gradually grown from a front-line worker to a craftsman-type talent, obtained 3 national patents, and has been awarded the honorary titles of Shanghai Technical Expert and National Senior Skilled Expert in the Metallurgical Construction Industry.

　　The path to advanced craftsmanship

　　Transformation from technical school student to senior technician

“Concentrate on hard work and keep learning.” Chen Gang always adheres to this belief and devotes himself to work, using the spirit of craftsmanship to solve various problems in cable testing equipment. After graduating from technical school in 1993, he worked in electrical, mechanical, instrument and other equipment maintenance-related fields. From 1995 to 1998, he was drafted into the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. After retirement, he returned to his original unit and continued to engage in equipment maintenance. In 2017, Chen Gang joined Shanghai National Cable Testing Co., Ltd.

A qualified technician must not only practice hard skills, but also improve theoretical knowledge. Chen Gang is diligent and studious. After being admitted to the Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation Major (undergraduate) of Tongji University to continue his studies, he has never stopped improving himself. Along the way, he has obtained intermediate maintenance electrician, senior engineer, technician, and senior technician certificates, as well as intermediate skill levels for CNC machine tool installation and adjustment workers, and vocational skills training teacher qualification certificates, assessor certificates and other certificates, laying a solid foundation for future skills development.

　　Cultivate the heart of a craftsman

　　The leap from “passive maintenance” to “active innovation”

Chen Gang initially served as an equipment repairman and was fully responsible for the operation and maintenance of the company's more than 3,000 cable testing equipment. After working for a long time, he found that he could not just repeat the “fire-fighting” work mode, fixing whatever was broken and struggling to cope. Therefore, he took the lead in regularly carrying out “equipment health diagnosis” and “potential failure analysis” activities, proactively nipping problems in the bud, and ensuring the efficient operation of various testing equipment in the long term with his superb skills and professionalism.

Faced with the lack of new testing equipment in the localization research of high-end special cables, Chen Gang took the initiative to innovate and developed a number of key devices such as high-voltage temperature and current recorders, heating cable leakage detectors, and high-temperature aviation line scratch-resistant equipment, which supported the testing needs in new product research and engineering applications. When participating in the company's LOCA nuclear power plant instrumentation and control equipment one-stop test verification platform project, he was responsible for the tank temperature control design and the improvement of the chemical medium spray system. From research and development to manufacturing and debugging, he worked tirelessly and kept improving. He not only completed the task well but also obtained two patents in one fell swoop. In the end, the project achieved “independent verification” of nuclear power and won the second prize of the China Machinery Industry Science and Technology Award.

　　Sharpening the Artisan's Blade

　　Confidence from international dependence to domestic substitution

The aviation electrical field at home and abroad has long used the European and American standard 115V400Hz aviation power supply. Faced with the urgent background of adapting to the testing requirements of special aviation electrical products, the original aviation power supply is no longer suitable for use. When developing a domestic aviation cable dry and wet arc resistance test device, Chen Gang found that if the power supply of this equipment directly used an aviation generator according to the test standards, the cost would be extremely high. To this end, he innovatively proposed a solution for an AC synchronous motor to drive a generator. Not only is the sine wave waveform smooth and perfect, but various parameters such as voltage and frequency also fully meet the testing requirements for special aviation electrical products. Its manufacturing cost is only about 2% of that of an aviation generator. Chen Gang has created millions of yuan in testing performance for the company by successfully improving the aviation line's special product testing power supply system.

Chen Gang not only always pays attention to technological research and improvement, but also focuses on technological inheritance. In recent years, with the support of Shenergy Group and the Cable and Cable Institute, he took the lead in establishing the Chen Gang Technician Innovation Studio. Chen Gang took his apprentices to technical positions, explaining the principles of equipment and conducting technical training without reservation. He also served as the leader of the model worker technical service team. Under his guidance, the three apprentices grew into the backbone of the company and played an important role, ensuring the stable operation of the company's equipment and creating vitality for the company's development. Nowadays, as the company's business scale continues to expand and faced with challenges such as the large number and variety of cable testing equipment, Chen Gang is devoting himself to the construction of a big data integrated monitoring and management platform for testing equipment.

　　Shanghai Model Worker Craftsman Innovation Studio

　　Chen Bin Model Worker and Craftsman Innovation Studio

A subsidiary of Shenergy Group Shenergy Co., Ltd.

Shanghai Waigaoqiao Third Power Generation Co., Ltd.

　　Ingenuity drives innovation to build a solid energy security barrier

The Chen Bin Power Plant Intelligent Carbon Reduction Craftsman Innovation Studio, led by Shanghai craftsman Chen Bin, has always adhered to the two main lines of “safety + carbon reduction” since its establishment. It focuses on production technology bottlenecks and industry common problems such as structural optimization of power equipment, in-depth transformation of thermal systems, and comprehensive utilization of carbon emissions. It deeply explores the cutting-edge applications of intelligent maintenance and provides strong support for the company's high-quality development and low-carbon transformation.

　　Attack difficulties with wisdom

　　Protect the source of city power

How to maintain the long-term smooth operation of thermal power units without a decrease in efficiency is a common problem faced by power generation companies around the world. The studio takes it as its mission to solve this pain point and concentrates its efforts on overcoming ten major problems such as “optimizing the sealing compensation structure of the low-pressure cylinder end shaft seal of the steam turbine”. Among them, the concept of self-compensation for cylinder thermal deformation was pioneered and put into practice. It uses micron-level adaptive adjustment to block steam leakage channels, saving about 500,000 yuan in related costs every year. It has been promoted in many power plants of the Shenergy system. In order to solve the problem of the escape of the pad strip at the bottom of the rotor slot of the 1000MW generator set, the original “reset operation method” is used to replace the traditional return to the factory for repair with in-situ reset, saving external repair costs. Both achievements were awarded the Shanghai Employee Advanced Operation Method Innovation Award and have become a benchmark for equipment optimization in the industry.

In order to improve the accurate inspection rate of key parts of the unit, the studio explores water-cooled wall thickness measurement robots and unmanned aerial vehicle furnace flight inspection technology, and takes the lead in introducing ultra-high-pressure water jet intelligent cleaning and inspection equipment and robot inspection equipment. It relies on artificial intelligence algorithm platforms to train intelligent recognition models for automatic cleaning and online inspection of boiler water-cooled wall tubes. It is expected to promote the intelligent and unmanned transformation of maintenance processes. In the next three years, the studio will focus on “steam turbine diagnosis intelligence”, strive to build a big data diagnosis platform, further build a closed-loop mechanism of “equipment early warning-quick response-accurate disposal”, and install “smart safety valves” for the safe and stable operation of the unit.

　　Breaking the game with carbon

　　Exploring new paths for transformation and development

In order to comply with the current trend of flexibility and intelligence in thermal power enterprises, the studio undertook the Municipal Development and Reform Commission's peak regulation transformation demonstration project, carried out the world's first 20% dry state deep regulation technology research, and successfully completed the core project of “A9 steam source transformation” to achieve rapid and undisturbed switching of steam sources during deep regulation. This technology not only greatly expands the deep adjustment range, but also allows the unit to maintain the boiler in a fully dry state under low load conditions of 200,000 kilowatts, without the need for oiling to stabilize combustion and meet emission standards. More importantly, the coal consumption of power supply under this working condition is at least 20 g/kWh lower than that of conventional deep-regulation technology, reaching the internationally leading level and providing core technical support for the smooth transition of coal-fired power from “main power supply” to “regulated power supply”.

In line with the “dual carbon” strategic goal, the studio also actively explores new paths for comprehensive utilization of carbon emissions, and participated in and led the implementation of the “Wai No. 3 Power Plant Flue Gas Carbon Dioxide Capture to Methanol Pilot Project.” Faced with cross-domain technical problems in chemical equipment and systems, studio members took the initiative to learn across disciplines and transformed from “electricity people” into “chemical workers”. They successfully built a 10,000-ton verification platform to achieve efficient conversion of carbon dioxide in direct exhaust flue gas into green methanol. The conversion rate is greater than 99%, and the methanol selectivity is as high as 99%, far exceeding the industry average. Currently, the project has applied for 4 patents.

　　Educate people through craftsmanship

　　Foster fertile ground for innovation among employees

The studio has always regarded the construction of talent echelon as the key to sustainable development, and has now developed into a collaborative sharing platform that brings together 8 professional directions and 13 core backbones. The studio is led by Shanghai craftsman Chen Bin, and the team already has 1 Shanghai quality craftsman, 2 Shenergy craftsmen, and 2 Shanghai power industry craftsmen.

Relying on project research, topic seminars, skills competitions and other carriers, we continue to deepen the talent incubation mechanism of “mentors and apprentices, old and new”, and organize nearly 20 various skills improvement activities every year, forming a virtuous cycle of “educating people while solving problems, and educating people while solving problems”. In recent years, three people have improved their skill levels. In the past two years, the team has obtained a total of 1 utility model patent, and 2 international invention patents have entered the substantive examination stage; 6 innovative achievements have won national, provincial and ministerial awards, and 3 academic papers have been published.

A technical team integrating equipment diagnosis and innovative research is continuing to grow and expand. The studio team has also established an “artisan technical service team” to provide technological innovation support, impart management innovation experience, and provide on-site guidance to enterprises within the system, giving full play to the role of benchmarking and radiating leadership.