China grid wears powerful ‘diamond ring’ to prevent blackouts

China’s power grid now wields a futuristic safeguard against catastrophic collapses – a quantum-powered, all-seeing “diamond ring” capable of detecting grid instability in real time with unprecedented precision.

This breakthrough, inspired by the quantum properties of diamond sensors, arrives as nations worldwide grapple with blackouts triggered by renewable energy volatility and ageing infrastructure.

The urgency was underscored in April, when sweeping outages paralysed Spain, Portugal and France after grid oscillations severed Spain from Europe’s interconnected network.

Similar chaos also struck China’s Xinjiang region last year, when solar and wind fluctuations destabilised local grids.

Such incidents highlight a critical challenge – as renewables dominate energy transitions, their weather-dependent unpredictability strains traditional monitoring systems.

Designed by a team from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in collaboration with the State Grid Corporation, China’s “diamond ring” – a toroidal or ring-shaped device embedding nitrogen-vacancy quantum sensors – acts as a high-precision sentinel for power lines.