OREANDA-NEWS. April 03, 2013. The Shareholders Agreement signing ceremony for the R&D center co-invested by SGCC and REN was held in Lisbon, Portugal. SGCC Chief Accountant Li Ruge attended the ceremony and delivered a speech.

The moment was also witnessed by Minister of Economy, Labor, Transport, Public Works and Communications of Portugal, Mr. Alvaro Santos Pereira, Chinese Ambassador to Portugual Mr. Huang Songpu, Energy Secretary of the Ministry of Economy, Arthur Trindade, and REN CEO Rui Cartaxo.

The R&D Center was co-founded By REN and China Electric Power Research Institute. Each has a 50% share. It’s an important part of the strategic partnership with REN. The center will have four focuses: simulation of energy systems; management of integration of renewable energy sources into the grid; smart grid technologies; and economy and energy markets. Once it’s built, it will give full play to SGCC’s technological advantages in UHV and smart grid, and provide REN with technical and R&D support while working together with high-end tech talents in Europe. At the same time, SGCC can carry out technical research on key areas of grids and strengthen its technical communication and cooperation with Europe.

As Portugal's only national energy transmission company (including electricity and natural gas transmission business), REN owns a 50-year operation license for the national electricity transmission network, and a 40-year operation license for high-pressure natural gas transmission network. SGCC signed the Umbrella Agreement with REN to purchase REN’s 25% stake on February 22, 2012, becoming its biggest shareholder and strategic investor.

It’s SGCC’s first overseas R&D center and also an important milestone in the internationalization development. The cooperation with REN can be complimentary to each other and further enhance SGCC’s influence on the international arena.