In late autumn, the Tremella (white fungus) growing base in Huimin County of Binzhou City, East China's Shandong Province, is hustling and bustling. Snow-white Tremella fruiting bodies, resembling clusters of clouds, bloom on tiered cultivation racks while workers busily pick and sort them. In the intelligent mushroom houses, temperature-control and humidification equipment operates smoothly, and an ample and stable power supply has helped this southern delicacy take root in the north. Today, Huimin County has become an important Tremella production base in northern China, with the entire industry chain boosting the incomes of more than 60,000 local people. This tiny fungus, empowered by electricity, has grown into a major industry driving rural revitalization.

Tremella is often described as an "affordable bird's nest," yet traditional cultivation depends heavily on the warm, humid climate of southern China. In the past, low temperatures, dry air and sharp day-night temperature differences in the north stood in the way of the industry. Shi Lin, head of the Huimin County Yinfeng Edible Fungus Planting Cooperative, recalls that cultivation used to depend entirely on the weather, yielding only two harvests a year with low output and uneven quality. Breaking through that bottleneck and adopting smart cultivation required a stable and reliable power supply.

To overcome the difficulties posed by the region's climate, State Grid Binzhou Power Supply Company of Shandong proactively responded to the development needs of the local edible fungus industry and upgraded and renovated the local power grid. Today, the air-conditioning and temperature-control systems and high-pressure micro-mist spraying equipment in all 54 of the cooperative's standardized mushroom-growing facilities are driven entirely by electricity, precisely regulating temperature and humidity. Annual harvests have risen from two to six, production capacity has tripled, and annual output value can reach 4 million yuan ($595,600). The favorable growing environment produces Tremella with thick, plump fruiting bodies in northern China; every 100 grams of the product contains 25.81 grams of Tremella polysaccharides, a higher concentration than that found in ordinary products on the market, and the products are sold as far as Fujian and Jiangsu.

As the industry continues to expand, deep processing and e-commerce sales have emerged as new areas of growth, and enterprises' demand for a reliable power supply has risen accordingly. State Grid Binzhou Power Supply Company has implemented a "one enterprise, one policy" service model, opening a green channel for the edible fungus bases and processing enterprises, carrying out regular equipment inspections and providing guidance on electrical safety, so as to ensure stable and reliable power for the entire production process, including washing, drying and packaging. Shi Lin says the cooperative plans to build a Tremella deep-processing line, develop new products such as Tremella noodles and ready-to-serve canned soup, and expand its e-commerce sales channels; reliable electricity gives him the confidence to extend the industry chain and unlock its full value.

Supported by electricity, the edible fungus industry has bid farewell to "depending on the weather for a living" and moved from fragmented, small-scale cultivation to integrated development across the entire value chain, achieving a leap forward. Huimin County now cultivates Tremella, shiitake mushrooms, morel and other edible fungus varieties with an annual output of 160,000 tonnes, creating an industry characterized by large-scale, standardized production and branded operations. The edible fungus industry has become a flagship sector that boosts local people's incomes and drives rural revitalization.