What impact can a small huyou have on an entire industry? Through platform promotion, shared cooperation, and intelligent empowerment, State Grid Changshan goes all out to accelerate the integrated development of modern agriculture, photovoltaic energy, and rural complex. By supplying reliable power, the company continues to energize every economic sector within Changshan County, transforming the local huyou from a nobody in the fruit group into a valuable asset that generates wealth. This action not only illuminates the path toward industrial upgrading but also fosters rural vitalization in Changshan County.

In Changshan County, Zhejiang Province, there grows a unique fruit tree known as “huyou” (Citrus changshanensis), a unique citrus species. At first glance, the huyou tree may resemble a citron tree, but it is anything but. Its fruit combines the sweetness and sourness of orange. Beyond its taste, huyou also offers a variety of medicinal properties, as locals proudly remark, “Eat a basket of huyou, and you’ll save half on your medicine”.

The history of the huyou dates back over 600 years, as documented in the History of Quzhou Prefecture from Kangxi Emperor’s reign in the Qing Dynasty where it was described as a unique and cherished citrus species indigenous to Changshan. With its dual value as both food and medicine, huyou became widely cultivated throughout the county. Particularly during the 1980s and 1990s when a kilogram of rice cost just RMB 0.4, the fruit was a veritable goldmine, fetching up to two RMB per kilogram. This potential for wealth encouraged villagers to plant huyou trees on every available hillside, transforming the oncebarren mountains of Changshan into lush and vibrant huyou orchards. Before long, huyou became a celebrated specialty of this mountainous area of Changshan.

However, like many agricultural products from mountainous regions, huyou faced several development challenges, including limited variety, low market prices, and its distance from key markets, especially, a distinctive sour and slightly bitter taste due to the region’s ironrich red soil. To reach the desired sweetness, huyou needs an 80-day maturation period after harvest. By 2000, the market was ffooded with newer citrus species like navel oranges, ugli fruit, and orah mandarins. This increased competition drove huyou’s price down to just RMB 0.6 per kilogram, turning the once sought-after money trees into a source of anxiety for local farmers.

After experiencing setbacks, the locals of Changshan decisively set out on a journey to revitalize their huyou market. In 2021, Changshan launched a city brand, “ALL FOR U” (with “U” symbolizing both “you” in English and the “you” in Chinese pinyin for “huyou” ), aiming to transform its unique agricultural offerings, such as huyou, sweet pomelo (xiangyou), and tea seed oil (chayou), while also boosting the local tourism sector. A robust rural power supply system plays a crucial role in fostering such integrated development of agriculture, manufacturing, and services. Recognizing this, State Grid Changshan County Electric Power Supply Branch ( “State Grid Changshan” for short), as a key pillar for the local economy and community development, goes into action. Through platform promotion, shared cooperation, and intelligent innovation, State Grid Changshan, together with local government, citrus processing companies, citrus growers, and homestay owners, has accelerated the project integrating the development of modern agriculture, photovoltaic energy, and rural complex. This concerted effort marks the beginning of a transformative journey to vitalize the huyou market by enhancing rural power supply.

Supplying Safe Electricity to Help Fruit Farmers Thrive

As the autumn breeze sweeps through Changshan, the fragrant scent of huyou fills the air. In any huyou orchard, a breathtaking scene unfolds—trees heavily laden with golden huyou fruits glisten under the sunlight, framed by lush green leaves that create a stunning backdrop. Upon closer look, you’ll notice farmers move nimbly among the trees, their baskets brimming with freshly harvested fruit. The fruits are then carefully loaded onto rail cars, gliding down the mountainside to a central warehouse. Here, they are meticulously cleaned, disinfected, and sorted thanks to a high-speech, precise, stable, and intelligent sorting system.

This seamless harvesting process is a shining example of digital agriculture in Changshan. In today’s intelligent era, electricity has evolved beyond simply providing light; it has become the lifeblood of modern agriculture-related technology from smart irrigation systems and cold chain storage to e-commerce logistics. To support the digital transformation of agriculture in Changshan, State Grid Changshan is dedicated to upgrading the local power supply system for the cultivation of both huyou and sweet pomelo.

The first step in cultivation is seedling. Modern seedling technology is the key to improving the quality and efficiency of agriculture. Covering 160 mu (11 hectares), the Changshan Huyou Intelligent Seedling Center provides around 100,000 free saplings to local growers every year. To ensure optimal growth conditions, the staff monitors and adjusts the greenhouse environment based on huyou’s production cycles. Utilizing hundreds of sensors, they regulate factors like light, nutrients, temperature, and humidity. However, managing such a large center with numerous pieces of equipment posed significant challenges, including thin power lines, big line loss, and high consumption rates. In response, State Grid Changshan conducted a detailed survey of the center’s power needs, carefully assessing the load and mapping the layout of each piece of equipment. Thanks to their line renovation efforts in recent years, great progress has been made in reducing line loss and controlling costs at the Changshan Huyou Intelligent Seedling Center.

The second step is planting. The industry standardization of planting forms the backbone of modern agricultural development. Changshan has already established 100 standardized huyou bases, each spanning 100 mu (7 hectares), a larger standardized base covering 1,000 mu (67 hectares), a medicinal herb garden utilizing unripe huyou fruits over 1,000 mu (67 hectares), and a sweet pomelo processing base spanning 10,000 mu (667 hectares). Dedicated to providing electricity wherever fruits are cultivated, State Grid Changshan has promoted the standardized construction of rural power grids. The company has installed 200kVA transformers in hundreds of standardized bases, which are equipped with advanced agricultural technologies like integrated water and fertilizer systems, automatic monitoring, machine picking, mechanical rail transportation, and cold storage. Besides, the company implemented a comprehensive insulation upgrade, raising the terminal voltage eligibility rate from 81% to 100%. In collaboration with local planning authorities, State Grid Changshan has constructed the distribution network ahead of time and designed the layout of power grids to avoid interference with fruit trees and guarantee a reliable flow of electricity. Anticipating increased power demands during peak harvest seasons, the company also provides voluntary inspections of fruit-picking machines and other equipment to prevent breakdowns due to extended inactivity, thus ensuring a stable power supply for the initial processing of huyou.

With the support of a reliable power supply, the local government has transformed numerous small and scattered orchards into standardized and high-quality huyou orchards. These orchards are now the testing grounds for innovative technologies focused on enhancing sweetness, reducing sourness, and increasing overall quality and yield. For instance, just a 2-3 degree increase in the sweetness of huyou can lead to a nearly 40% rise in both sales and prices. This reliable power supply not only addresses the issue of insufficient production of high-quality huyou in Changshan but also enables farmers to enjoy greater yields and increased profits.

The final step in the huyou cultivation process is storage, a crucial phase that requires specific environmental conditions to maintain the fruit’s quality. To ensure broader market access, huyou must be properly stored. State Grid Changshan has taken significant steps to enhance power reliability. For larger cold storage facilities, the company has established new public distribution points and implemented preferential electricity pricing for eligible agricultural enterprises, saving approximately RMB 7 million annually in electricity costs. Changshan’s cold chain storage infrastructure now boasts a capacity of 180,000 cubic meters, equipped with various supporting facilities. State Grid Changshan has actively engaged in door-to-door outreach to assist agricultural cold chain storage enterprises eligible for agricultural production electricity pricing. By helping them gather the necessary certification materials and guiding them through the application process, it has significantly reduced the operational costs. Thanks to a reliable power supply, huyou has not only maintained its high quality and steady production but has also expanded its market far beyond Changshan. The fruit now graces tables at prestigious events like the Asian Games and is exported to regions as distant as Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States. Ultimately, the price of huyou has soared from RMB 10 per bag to RMB 10 per huyou.

Powering Stable Electricity to Transform Huyou Fruit into a Flourishing Business

In the past, low fruit prices significantly affected fruit farmers’ livelihoods, driving the people of Changshan to recognize the vital role of the processing industry. Deep processing of huyou can create value that exceeds 30 times the initial market price. By establishing processing enterprises to purchase the unsold huyou, the interests of huyou farmers can be fundamentally safeguarded. Therefore, Changshan has developed a processing industrial park for huyou. By attracting and nurturing various deep-processing cooperative enterprises focused on pomelo and sweet pomelo, the county has created a diverse range of premium products, including Changshan Huyou Cream, NFC Huyou Juice, Double Pomelo Juice, pomelo salt soda, and huyou essential oil mask. As a result, the consumption of fresh huyou has surged over 55%.
However, this shift from the traditional primary industry of selling fresh huyou and sweet pomelo fruit to the secondary industry of deep processing has brought about new challenges. As a historically agricultural area, Changshan faces new demands in terms of power supply to support the development of these industrial clusters.

We must not allow our development to be hindered by a lack of power. Therefore, to support the large-scale development of deep processing industry of huyou and sweet pomelo with more stable power supply, State Grid Changshan has built the Electric Power Happiness Index Platform for Rural Vitalization and a multi-stakeholder cooperation platform. By analyzing the electricity needs of various enterprises in the industry, the company has introduced initiatives such as dual-circuit power supply and enhanced power grid capacities tailored to the specific requirements of enterprises. Furthermore, State Grid Changshan has supported the local government in incorporating electricity cost support measures into Changshan’s policy framework to ease the financial burdens faced by local enterprises when facing capital turnover challenges.

Known locally as “Yuzu Valley”, Zhejiang Changshan Hengshoutang Pomelo Co., Ltd. is a prime example of local processing enterprises supported by State Grid Changshan. The pomelo processing company boasts a state-of-the-art juice production line with an annual output capacity of 200,000 tons, mainly producing its flagship product, “Double Pomelo Juice”. With its sweet and sour flavors, this refreshing beverage has quickly gained popularity in the food and beverage markets of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, achieving remarkable revenues of RMB 4 billion within just one year. However, as the company sought to expand production further, an unexpected challenge emerged. At that time, the Yuzu Valley Production Base was operating with a 400kVA transformer, which could only support an annual power consumption of 80 MWh. With a surge in orders and the need to establish additional production lines, the limited power supply became a bottleneck, turning what could have been a major growth opportunity into a source of frustration and uncertainty for the company.

Recognizing the urgency of the situation, State Grid Changshan quickly mobilized a team to optimize the power infrastructure at the production base. The team developed a scientific power supply plan, including restructuring loads, cutting lines, and upgrading branch circuits, to ensure timely completion before the new production lines underwent testing. In the following two years, State Grid Changshan successfully installed over 10 kilometers of new power lines and 12 kilometers of overhead lines and constructed the 110kV substation in Qiuchuan, Changshan, making significant strides in enhancing the electrical facilities at the production base. As a result, the power supply capacity increased nearly ten times. By 2024, the Yuzu Valley Production Base achieved an output of 120,000 cartons of huyou per day thanks to the installation of advanced fresh fruit processing and automated beverage filling production lines. This growth culminated in an annual power consumption reaching approximately 2,400 MWh, a 25-fold increase.

A significant rise in power consumption leads to higher power investment costs. In response, State Grid Changshan introduced a cost-sharing mechanism for power access projects. This mechanism enables both the company and the government to share the financial burden of power investments beyond the property line. As a result, the production base has saved nearly RMB 280,000 in power costs. On a broader scale, this cost-sharing mechanism has cumulatively reduced power costs by RMB 66.9 million for companies across Changshan.

By employing a dual approach that combines infrastructure improvements with enterprisefriendly policies, Changshan is steadily building a huyou and sweet pomelo industry chain with a total output value of RMB 10 billion and nearly 100,000 related jobs. With the support from various stakeholders, and after over a decade of improvement efforts, Changshan’s huyou industry has overcome its previous challenges, revitalizing itself as a pillar industry in the region. Today, it stands as a driving force for improving local incomes and advancing rural vitalization.

Fueling Common Prosperity to Drive Rural Tourism by Integrating the Huyou Industry

Changshan, blessed with its stunning natural landscapes, not only nurtures huyou but also boasts a unique rural scenery. In recent years, Changshan has integrated its huyou industry with rural agricultural tourism, building quality huyou bases that provides quality visitor experiences. By combining key elements such as the development of tourism routes, major huyou production sites, and “International Chilling City”, Changshan has created a 15.3-km huyou landscape avenue. This scenic route offers visitors a variety of activities, including leisure sightseeing, homestays, rafting, and fruit-picking tours. Each year, during the fragrant bloom of April, nearly 500,000 tourists from neighboring cities flock to Changshan to enjoy the stunning huyou blossoms.

To further promote the tertiary industry, especially tourism, power remains a key driver of local development. With the growing popularity of regional culture and tourism, State Grid Changshan has kept pace with the evolving needs of rural complexes. In response to the demands of rural tourism, the company is committed to establishing fully electrified scenic spots, homestays, and kitchens. This initiative is lighting up small mountain villages and empowering more residents to create tourism-based businesses from their homes.

In Fangcun Town, Changshan, the local government is dedicated to creating a future rural demonstration zone with distinctive mountainous features. Leveraging this opportunity, State Grid Changshan has collaborated with local officials to integrate power supply facilities into the town’s community planning to combine power infrastructure with the natural environment. By utilizing intelligent inspection technologies, such as infrared sensors, drones, and mobile terminals, the company has normalized the intelligent inspection of distribution lines in Fangcun, significantly enhancing the operational efficiency and maintenance of the power systems.

In Xinchang Township, Changshan, State Grid Changshan has taken the lead in developing the local photovoltaic power generation project to address economic challenges. The company formed a team to manage and implement the project, from R&D to design, construction, operation, and grid connection. The company successfully installed photovoltaic power systems for 85 households in Guotang Village, Xinchang, achieving a total installed capacity of 1.028 MW. The project generates over RMB 500,000 of annual income for the village, significantly enhancing the collective economy of Xinchang and paving the way for common prosperity within the community.

The Changshan UU Music Festival has been successfully held for three consecutive years in Jinchuan Street, Xucun village, Changshan, attracting over 54,000 tourists annually and contributing to a steady rise in local power consumption. To ensure the power supply of the festival, State Grid Changshan developed a specialized power supply plan and deployed a team to conduct infrared temperature monitoring and thorough inspections of power lines and customer’s power facilities prior to the festival. These efforts ensured an uninterrupted power supply, amplifying the lively festival atmosphere and challenging traditional perceptions of rural life.

Currently, the huyou planting area in Changshan spans over 100,000 mu (6667 hectares), yielding a total output of 140,000 tons, with more than 40% allocated for deep processing. The small huyou fruit, recognized as a national geographical indication of agricultural product, has a brand value of RMB 10.397 billion. Moreover, Changshan has been honored as an excellent performer for two consecutive years in implementing the rural vitalization strategy at the provincial level and was designated as a pilot county for Zhejiang’s “Ten Million Project” in 2023.

These achievements are a testament to the dedication of the people of Changshan, the commitment of various government bodies, and the continuous innovation of local enterprises, all working together toward a shared future for all (All for U). Looking ahead, State Grid Changshan remains dedicated to powering every aspect of Changshan’s economy with electricity, bringing light to countless households and driving industrial upgrades and rural vitalization throughout the region.