With the accelerated pace of energy transition in China, the energy storage industry has entered a golden age of rapid development, with 2023 even being considered the inaugural year for industrial and commercial energy storage in China. However, beneath the bustling energy storage landscape, a severe challenge may lurk for both new and established players. The favorable market conditions have generated a strong demand for higher-performance products and solutions. The increasingly diverse application scenarios for industrial and commercial energy storage, coupled with the corresponding growing and complex needs, represent an industry environment that even established players must confront. Increasing investment in product technology and cultivating innovation capabilities seem to have become an essential step in exploring the growth path of the energy storage industry.
At the recent "Carbon Neutral Energy Academician Summit Forum and the 3rd China International New Energy Storage Technology and Engineering Application Conference," Li Zheng, an expert in industrial and commercial energy storage solutions from Daqin Digital Energy, discussed the background, current application status, and future technological development directions of industrial and commercial energy storage in my country with participating experts, scholars, and practitioners, based on Daqin Digital Energy's product matrix and market cases for the domestic market.
With diverse demands emerging, commercial and industrial energy storage urgently needs innovation and evolution.
Since the "dual carbon" target was proposed, various provinces and cities in my country have successively released relevant energy storage development policies, and enterprises across the country are constantly exploring and implementing sustainable development needs, ushering in a booming development opportunity for commercial and industrial energy storage applications. Currently, my country's commercial and industrial energy storage is mainly used in industrial and commercial parks, integrated photovoltaic and energy storage systems, and transformer substations. Along with development trends, different application scenarios have also generated diverse functional requirements, such as peak shaving and valley filling, capacity reduction and demand reduction, improved grid integration, and dynamic capacity expansion. In the current context of rapid industry development, Li Zheng believes that all parties in the industry still need to continuously develop technological innovation to adapt to more regional and scenario functionalities, in order to better cope with changes in market demand. At the same time, more market-oriented subsidy policies may further incentivize relevant parties to promote energy storage applications.
Based on long-term insights into the diverse needs of the market, Daqin Digital Energy has proactively deployed innovative technology research and development, creating a diverse and intelligent solution. Li Zheng mentioned that Daqin Digital Energy's two newly launched commercial and industrial energy storage products, the PowerStone single-battery system and the DH200F outdoor photovoltaic-energy storage integrated unit, both adopt a modular design, supporting multi-unit parallel operation and offering high flexibility to meet most common commercial and industrial application scenarios. For example, in commercial and industrial park scenarios, the DH200F perfectly adapts to scenarios with multi-point distributed grid connection, flexible deployment, and diverse strategies, and also supports the integration of small-capacity photovoltaic systems. In transformer substation energy storage scenarios, the DH200F, with its rich scenario modes and communication interfaces, is highly compatible with the existing monitoring systems in the substations, enabling seamless data and strategy communication and achieving efficient integration of substations and energy storage.
Furthermore, with the widespread adoption of new energy vehicles, the number of charging piles in various regions has surged. Photovoltaics, energy storage, and charging piles can complement each other to form a microgrid, making integrated and efficient operation in this scenario particularly crucial. Daqin Digital Energy's DH200F utilizes photovoltaic-energy storage-charging DC coupling technology, which effectively reduces AC-DC conversion losses, enabling integrated and efficient operation in this scenario.
Industry Transformation Drives Digital Upgrades in Commercial and Industrial Energy Storage
Battery Cells – Intelligent Algorithms Are Imperative
Commercial and industrial scenarios place higher demands on the safety and efficiency of product solutions. Prevention is key in battery cell protection. In the future, leveraging comprehensive and fundamental data acquisition, and utilizing big data algorithms combined with material degradation characteristics to predict potential anomalies and perform early screening, may become a crucial aspect of battery cell technology development. Li Zheng also offered suggestions on the development of battery cell consistency, stating that manufacturers can begin control from the production source. For the unavoidable consistency issues during later operation, active balancing technology will become the development trend of Battery Management Systems (BMS).
BMS – Cloud-Edge Collaboration May Become a Trend
The core functions of a Battery Management System (BMS) are sensing, management, and protection. In addition to active balancing technology, big data and artificial intelligence technologies will gradually be applied to battery state algorithms, thereby achieving functions such as full lifecycle management and cloud-edge collaboration. The so-called cloud-edge collaboration enables data processing to be performed locally and in the cloud, respectively, allowing edge computing and cloud computing power to interact and form a four-layer architecture of "cloud-pipe-edge-device" collaborative management, thereby further improving management efficiency.
EMS – Fully Embracing Diverse Intelligence
The Energy Management System (EMS) is the management brain of an energy storage system solution. High-performance energy storage products place even higher demands on this brain. The characteristics of current commercial and industrial EMS systems on the market can be summarized as: full access, cloud-edge integration, flexible expansion, and strategic intelligence. These characteristics correspond to diverse market demands. Currently, energy storage needs to interact strategically with user loads, rooftop photovoltaics, charging piles, etc., and adjust in real time according to the operating characteristics of different time periods. To address these demands, Li Zheng also stated that the future market will place greater emphasis on the big data processing and AI algorithm capabilities of EMS systems.
Daqin Digital Energy, as a leading global energy storage technology company, also has a clear product and technology development layout in the aforementioned core modules of energy storage. By collaborating with renowned manufacturers and adhering to independent development of core components, Daqin Digital Energy ensures the performance and safety of its battery cell modules from the very beginning. Simultaneously, Daqin Digital Energy actively promotes the independent research and development of its Battery Management System (BMS) and Energy Management System (EMS), leveraging big data and intelligent algorithms to enhance the safety and strategic intelligence of related energy storage systems.
With a Leading Global Footprint, Daqin Digital Energy Contributes to Global Energy Transition
Founded in 2017, Daqin Digital Energy has always focused on the research and development and production of industrial, commercial, and residential energy storage globally. It has three production bases in Suzhou and Taizhou, with an annual production capacity of 3GWh. Currently, Daqin Digital Energy has launched a series of products covering the entire product lifecycle, reaching over 100 countries and regions worldwide, providing product services to over 300,000 households globally. In terms of product safety and certification, Daqin Digital Energy consistently leads the international community, actively promoting the certification and safety standards of its corresponding product series in specific markets. Currently, Daqin Digital Energy has passed product certifications including the most stringent German TÜV, such as UL, CE, JET, and CEC.
Faced with the booming commercial and industrial energy storage market, Daqin Digital Energy has maintained a calm and thoughtful approach. From its inception, Daqin Digital Energy has been committed to product development in the domestic commercial and industrial energy storage sector, achieving positive results. Facing the promising outlook for the Chinese commercial and industrial energy storage market in 2023, Daqin Digital Energy, with its leading technological R&D capabilities and targeted product solutions, is poised to capitalize on this market trend, upholding its commitment to customer success and driving industry growth.
As my country vigorously promotes the development of energy storage, all industry partners should work together to create a new landscape of innovation. Li Zheng also stated in his speech that both technological development and market application require collaboration from everyone in the industry to provide greater support for energy transition and sustainable development. In the future, Daqin Digital Energy will proactively leverage its value, collaborate with industry partners to promote value sharing, actively advance my country's energy transition, and lead the global cause of sustainable development.
