The journey to rebuild an "Industrial Deyang" begins with the second entrepreneurial wave of its "blue whales" and leading enterprises. On the morning of March 25, Zhang Yue, Deputy Director of the R&D Center at Dongfang Electric Machinery, entered his office and, as usual, first opened the product design drawings on his computer. Among these designs, alongside the massive hydropower equipment of the past, there is now a smaller addition—the high-voltage phase shifter.
For over a decade, Zhang Yue's daily focus was on tackling insulation challenges in giant hydropower equipment. Starting last year, his research direction shifted—from hydropower to high-voltage phase shifters. The first domestically produced 20 Mvar hidden-pole distributed phase shifter. Photo provided by Dongfang Electric Machinery.
The transformation path of Dongfang Electric Machinery is clearly visible from Zhang Yue's workstation. "To rebuild an 'Industrial Deyang,' we must first rebuild Dongfang Electric Machinery," stated Pan Xiaojie, Head of the Strategic Investment Department at Dongfang Electric Machinery, with candor. Data supports this confidence: During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the company's key operational metrics consistently maintained double-digit growth, with revenue doubling compared to the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan." Looking ahead to the "15th Five-Year Plan," Dongfang Electric Machinery aims to establish dual leadership in both traditional and strategic emerging industries, targeting revenue of 20 billion yuan by the end of the period.
Where will this growth come from? The solution lies in adjusting the industrial layout. In recent years, Dongfang Electric Machinery has constructed a "2+8+N" industrial matrix. This comprises two traditional pillars: high-end hydropower and high-end thermal power; eight strategic emerging sectors: electric motors, canned motors, air-cooled motors, wind power motors, high-end large pumps, smart power plants, power station services, and energy-saving environmental protection; and N frontier future industries, such as electric aircraft propulsion systems.
"Beyond hydropower, we are continuously expanding our presence in 'short, flat, quick' fields like water pumps, canned pumps, and electric motors," Pan Xiaojie added. The phase shifter, a core device for dynamic reactive power compensation often called the "grid stabilizer," has become one breakthrough. Zhang Yue explained that the accumulated expertise in air-cooled high-voltage insulation technology from high-altitude hydropower units can be directly applied to high-voltage phase shifters, particularly key technologies like air-cooled corona prevention, which have a natural foundation for migration.
Transformation is never a smooth sail. "At that time, we faced a choice: to transform or not?" recalled Liu Lingjun, Director of the Science and Technology Innovation Planning Office at Dongfang Electric Machinery. For a company renowned for producing large components, transformation meant breaking convention—using processes designed for large items to meet the tight deadlines of smaller products. Liu Lingjun used an analogy: large components are "visible mountains," technically challenging but with clear goals and concentrated resources; small products are an "unseen ocean," where technical barriers might be lower, but market competition is fierce, demanding excellence in cost, delivery, and service.
This inherent conflict represents the growing pains necessary for a "mother factory" to incubate new ventures. The key to solving this lies in institutional innovation. Dongfang Electric Machinery established "special zones" for emerging industries—these units operate with independent accounting and assessment, enjoying greater autonomy in procurement, production, and sales, while also being required to leverage the core technological resources of the "mother factory." New businesses must both break free from the constraints of the parent and effectively absorb its nourishment. "We are not starting from scratch; we are taking the most core 'root technologies' to nurture new businesses," Liu Lingjun stated.
Since 2026, Dongfang Electric Machinery has successively developed new businesses like low-frequency transmission systems and high-voltage phase shifter equipment. New ventures are sprouting from the soil of the mother factory—high-end large pumps have overcome numerous technical challenges in variable-speed pump operation, and in the niche segment of distributed high-voltage phase shifters, Dongfang Electric Machinery has achieved the industry's most comprehensive product range and highest development level.
From an individual's career shift to an entire enterprise's transformation, such stories continue to unfold in Deyang.