Electric vehicles park at a charging station in Xiamen, Fujian province. [Photo/xmnn.com]

Xiamen in East China's Fujian province has launched a government supervision platform for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, the first of its kind in the province. 

Green transportation is now being strongly encouraged in order to protect the environment, and EVs have been improving rapidly in terms of both costs and functionality, which has led to the need for a system to manage related infrastructure. 

Data show that electric cars in Xiamen used a total of 160 million kWh in 2018. As of June this year, the total number of new energy vehicles in the city exceeded 40,000. The city has completed the construction of more than 6,000 charging posts and plans to build another 4,400. 

Liu Wenliang, chief engineer of the State Grid Xiamen branch, said that the platform has been connected to 5,104 charging posts, accounting for 85 percent of the city's total. In the future, all charging facilities will be connected to the supervision system.

The platform is able to monitor in real time the charging facilities in Xiamen, and can provide reference for the deployment of additional new energy vehicles. The platform will also share data with the grid so that it can help with peak-shift of power demand and regional balance of electricity consumption.