Source of this article: Times Finance Author: Wei Yalin
Energy storage is one of the hottest concepts in the A-share market in 2021.
Compared with new energy sectors such as lithium batteries, the energy storage concept has really become popular this year.
On October 15 this year, Shanghai Stock Exchange cooperated with China Securities Index Co., Ltd. to launch the CSI Energy Storage Theme Index, taking 30 securities of listed companies in related industries in the energy storage field as samples.
Previously, Wind launched the energy storage index on December 22, 2020. As of December 30 this year, the index has risen by 71.67%.
What exactly is the “energy storage” that capital is so hyped about?
In fact, energy storage is not a new thing. Since humans began to use energy, they have been looking for ways to store energy for subsequent use.
What we call energy storage today mainly refers to electrical energy storage. There are currently two major technical paths for mainstream electrical energy storage: mechanical energy storage and electrochemical energy storage. The former includes pumped water storage, compressed air energy storage , flywheel energy storage , etc.; the latter can be divided into lithium-ion battery , lead-acid battery , sodium-sulfur battery , etc. according to different battery types.
On December 30, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Central SOEs and Doing a Peak and Carbon Neutral Work" which mentioned that increasing advanced energy storage, thermoelectric energy, geothermal energy, tidal energy and other forward-looking layout efforts in emerging energy fields.
In the new energy era, why is energy storage worthy of attention?
On December 29, Chen Yongchong, a researcher at the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Times Finance that we should face up to the characteristics of new energy power generation, give play to the regulating role of energy storage, and make energy storage become the main source of renewable energy. One of the physical foundations of new power systems.
Times Finance has noticed that major lithium battery manufacturers have stepped up their efforts on the energy storage track.
On December 30, staff from the securities department of Guoxuan Hi-Tech (002074.SZ) told Times Finance that with the increase in energy storage orders and the increase in production capacity, the company has built a dedicated energy storage battery production line.
In addition, industry leaders in the energy storage field are also constantly making efforts, and even fire-fighting equipment stocks can "take advantage" of the energy storage concept.
Image source: CATL official website
Infrastructure in the new energy era
With the "double carbon" goal, the proportion of new energy power generation is getting higher and higher, and the importance of energy storage has become more and more prominent. In the first 11 months of 2021, China's new energy power generation exceeded 1 trillion kilowatt hours for the first time, accounting for 13.8% of the entire society's electricity consumption during the same period, a year-on-year increase of 2.14 percentage points.
Different from fossil fuel power generation, new energy power generation such as wind power and photovoltaic are unstable and are easily affected by weather, season, wind speed, etc.
"We should face up to the characteristics of new energy power generation, which is unstable and has peaks and valleys; we must recognize its objective attributes and establish a corresponding power system. Energy storage should become an integral part of a new power system dominated by renewable energy. One of the fundamentals of physics," Chen Yongchong told Times Finance.
In June 2021, the "14th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy Development in Zhejiang Province" issued by the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Provincial Energy Bureau also proposed to "guide energy storage to build energy Internet with diverse integration and high elasticity" The power grid provides strong support."
Many energy storage-related incentive policy documents issued in 2021 are also actively guiding the commercialization of energy storage and making it "profitable."
The above-mentioned "Plan" of Zhejiang Province stated, "Explore more reasonable energy storage business models, promote energy storage cost sharing and ease."
In May this year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued a document "Opinions on Further Improving the Price Formation Mechanism of Pumped Hydropower Storage" ", supporting the inclusion of pumped storage energy in electricity prices, "gradually promoting pumped storage power stations to enter the market, focusing on improving the scientificity, operability and effectiveness of the electricity price formation mechanism, giving full play to the role of electricity price signals, and mobilizing the enthusiasm of all parties. ”
Guangdong Province has gone a step further and included energy storage costs in electricity prices.On December 1, Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission approved the "Implementation Plan for Agency Power Purchase by Guangdong Power Grid Enterprises (Trial)", which clarified the ancillary service fees in the agency power purchase price, mainly including energy storage and pumped storage power stations. costs and demand-side response costs, "relevant costs will be shared among all industrial and commercial users."
Image source: Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission official website
The commercialization of energy storage will be the next stage of development goal. Chen Yongchong believes that in the process of cooperating with the reform of the power system, energy storage should appear as a market subject and give a price signal for the value of energy storage.
CICC's research report analysis also pointed out that the three core elements for the rise of overseas electrochemical energy storage markets are power market mechanisms, policies and economics. Since overseas have relatively mature power spot markets and ancillary service markets, diversified power Variety can provide income support for energy storage.
Lithium battery giants have deployed energy storage
"In terms of volume, pumped hydropower storage is currently the main energy storage method. However, electrochemical energy storage is the most concerned future development direction. Pumped hydropower storage projects have geographical conditions requirements It is relatively strict, but the construction of electrochemical energy storage is relatively flexible," Chen Yongchong told Times Finance.
In principle, pumped hydro energy storage means "water flows to lower areas": when the power grid is at a low point, excess power is used to pump water from a reservoir with a low altitude (which can also be understood as "altitude") to a reservoir with a high altitude; to reach the peak load of the power grid At this time, the water in the high-elevation reservoir flows back to the downstream, driving the hydraulic generator to generate electricity.
According to the research report of Everbright Securities in August this year, pumped hydropower storage is currently the most mature and most installed mainstream energy storage technology . As of the end of 2020, the installed capacity of pumped hydropower stations in operation in my country is 30GW, and the scale under construction exceeds 50GW.
In 2021, electrochemical energy storage will usher in favorable policies. In July, the National Energy Administration released the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage", which clearly stated that by 2025, new energy storage will be transformed from the early stage of commercialization to large-scale development, and the installed scale of new energy storage will reach More than 30 million kilowatts (ie 30GW).
West China Securities research report estimates that the average annual compound growth rate of new energy storage from 2020 to 2025 will exceed 50%, and it is predicted that under a conservative scenario, the cumulative operational scale of electrochemical energy storage in China will reach 35.5GW in 2025. Under ideal scenarios, it is expected to reach 55.9GW.
Which companies will benefit from the electrochemical energy storage industry chain?
According to the data integrated by Zheshang Securities research report, in the electrochemical energy storage system, the battery module and inverter account for the largest value, accounting for about 60% and 20% respectively; energy management system and battery management Systems account for 10% and 5%.
Image source: Zheshang Securities Research Report
In the field of energy storage, major power battery manufacturers have already made plans. According to the "Energy Storage Industry Research White Paper 2021" released by the Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance, among the newly operational electrochemical energy storage projects in China in 2020, the top ten energy storage technology providers in terms of installed capacity are CATL (300750.SZ), Lishen , Haiji New Energy, Yiwei Power, Shanghai Electric Guoxuan New Energy, Nandu Power (300068.SZ), Ganfeng Battery, BYD (002594. SZ), AVIC Lithium Battery , Guoxuan Hi-Tech.
Image source: "Energy Storage Industry Research White Paper 2021"
In addition to well-known listed companies, there are also subsidiaries of many listed companies in this list. Haiji New Energy is a joint-stock subsidiary of Baichuan Co., Ltd. (002455.SZ), Yiwei Power is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yiwei Lithium Energy (300014.SZ), Shanghai Electric Guoxuan New Energy is owned by Shanghai Electric (601727.SH) and Guoxuan High-Tech hold 47.4% and 45.4% respectively.
Paineng Technology (688063.SH) is currently the only company in A shares that specializes in energy storage business. The energy storage battery system business accounted for 93.26% of revenue in 2020, making it the global leader in household energy storage.
On December 30, Paineng Technology told Times Finance that in addition to household energy storage, the company's products are also used in power generation side energy storage, industrial and commercial energy storage, etc.
In addition to lithium batteries, the most valuable component in the electrochemical energy storage system is the bidirectional inverter (PCS). The bidirectional inverter is an indispensable and important part of the energy storage system - it can not only invert the DC power of the battery into AC power , and transmit it to the power grid or use it for AC loads; it can also rectify the AC power of the grid into Direct current to charge the battery. Representative companies of
energy storage inverters include Sungrow (300274.SZ), Goodwe (688390.SH), INVT (002334.SZ), Jinlang Technology (300763.SZ), etc.
Among them, Sungrow is the leading company in energy storage integrated systems. In its communication with investors in November, Sungrow said that in addition to outsourcing battery cells, PCS, PACK, EMS, and BMS are all developed and produced by the company itself.
On December 29, Sungrow staff told Times Finance that the company’s related technologies are at the leading level in the industry and it has strong cost control capabilities.
Safety has given rise to the concept of energy storage firefighting
In 2021, the safety of lithium batteries has attracted more and more attention. Accidents related to electric bicycles and new energy vehicles often appear in the newspapers, and discussions on the safety of energy storage power stations have also been put on the agenda.
According to a research report by Guotai Junan , as of the end of 2020, the cumulative installed capacity of electrochemical energy storage was 14.2GW, of which lithium-ion battery installed capacity was 13.1GW, accounting for 92.25%.
This year’s “4·16” accident was an energy storage power station fire accident that shocked the industry. On April 16, a fire broke out at the energy storage power station of Guoxuan Fuweisi Optical Storage and Charging Technology Co., Ltd. located at No. 14 Ximachang A, Fengtai District, Beijing. The accident killed one electrician on duty, two firefighters, and one firefighter. Injured, direct property loss was 16.6081 million yuan.
According to the accident investigation report released by Beijing Municipal Emergency Management Bureau on November 22, it was determined that the direct cause of the fire was an internal short-circuit failure of the lithium iron phosphate battery in the battery room, which caused the battery to run out of control and catch fire, which in turn triggered a related incident. The battery in the adjacent north building caught fire and exploded. The
accident investigation report determined that this was a liability accident. The above-mentioned report mentioned that during the construction process, the company involved had the problem of constructing without filing the record; problems such as leakage of battery packs, heat and smoke, etc. occurred many times in the area where the incident occurred, but it continued to operate without completely eliminating safety hazards; It was found that the two ends of the outdoor underground cable trench between the north and south buildings were not effectively separated and blocked, and an accident emergency response plan was not formulated based on the actual risks of the site.
Image source: Beijing Municipal Emergency Management Bureau official website
The above-mentioned investigation report also recommended that the fire department should formulate and improve energy storage power station accident handling specifications and strengthen handling drills.
At the same time, the concept of “energy storage firefighting” has also emerged in the capital market.
On December 23, Jade Bird Firefighting (002960.SZ) answered more than half of the questions related to energy storage at the investor research event, and disclosed the company’s technical layout in the field of energy storage and firefighting.
Image source: Jade Bird Fire Public Relations
On December 30, Jade Bird Firefighting staff told Times Finance that the company’s revenue from the energy storage business is currently not convenient to disclose.
However, Times Finance noticed that on August 26, Jade Bird Fire responded on the online interactive platform that the company’s main customers in the field of energy storage are cabinet/box suppliers, and other customers include Henan Longqi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., Sungrow Power Supply, etc.
Henan Longqi Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. is an intelligent Internet of Things solution provider and construction service provider. The customer list disclosed on its official website includes State Grid , Datang Group, Huaneng Group , Xu Ji Group , Guodian NARI , China Resources Group , etc.; Sungrow is the leading company in energy storage integrated systems.
Taking advantage of the concept of energy storage firefighting, the stock price of Jade Bird Firefighting began to take off at the end of October. In the three months from the beginning of October to December 30, the stock price increased by 82.26%.
Chen Yongchong told Times Finance that to fundamentally solve the problem of energy storage safety, it is necessary to develop safer special batteries for large-capacity energy storage.
"Future special energy storage batteries should be safer and more stable than vehicle power batteries, with lower kilowatt-hour costs and sustainable resources. The current mandatory vehicle power battery standards require that after a battery cell undergoes thermal runaway, the battery The system will not catch fire or explode within 5 minutes, leaving time for safe escape for the occupants. Then, the requirement for the energy storage battery should be that even if a short circuit or other fault occurs, it will not burn or explode. "
December 30, the aforementioned Paineng Technology. The staff emphasized that the cells used in the company's products are all self-produced energy storage batteries, which are technically different from power batteries.
On the same day, staff from the Securities Department of Guoxuan Hi-Tech also stated that the company did not distinguish between power batteries and energy storage batteries in the early days. However, with the increase in energy storage orders and the increase in production capacity, the company has built a special energy storage battery production line. Energy batteries do not pursue higher energy density, but focus more on indicators such as battery cycle life.
In June this year, CATL also announced that it had conquered the core technology of 12,000 ultra-long cycle life, high-safety energy storage batteries, and mastered system integration technologies such as unified regulation and battery energy management of large-scale energy storage power stations. The relevant results have been Successfully applied to the energy storage power station in Jinjiang, Fujian.
2021 is obviously just the beginning of the energy storage industry. With the implementation of specific policies, the increase in the proportion of new energy power generation, and the profitability of energy storage systems, energy storage may usher in another wave of development. After
solves the problems of completeness and security, this track may present a new competitive landscape.
