From “power bank” to “agent”: AI reshaping the value of energy storage
The leap-forward development of China’s energy storage from following to leading is behind the synergy of material science, power electronics technology, power system reform and policy support. It is in this industrial soil that AI, as another “gift package” for energy storage of the times, is promoting the energy storage power station from a simple charging treasure and a stacking of scales to a more intelligent and value-creating key element in the new energy system.
Tian Qingjun pointed out that AI not only provides a huge application space for energy storage, but more importantly, AI energy storage is unlimited. It is driving energy storage to shift from “passive response” to “proactive prediction,” and from an “auxiliary role” to a “core engine.”
AI and energy storage: “two-way rush, mutual achievement”
For the relationship between new energy storage and AI, Tian Qingjun put forward a core point of view: new energy storage and AI, is two-way rush, mutual achievement. “Energy storage needs to be AI because AI can make it smarter and more efficient, making it more profitable in the electricity market. But AI also need energy storage-the essence of AI is electricity, and in the new power system of the future, energy storage is an indispensable ballast. Without energy storage, the large-scale development of AI will lose its reliable energy base.” Tian Qingjun said.
Based on this cognition, the vision has carried out in-depth exploration on the integration of AI and energy storage, and put forward the core concept of “physical artificial intelligence. Tian Qingjun explained: “The future energy system will no longer be a stack of equipment, but will evolve into an intelligent ecosystem. The competitive core of the energy industry will also shift from traditional ‘physical assets’ to ‘artificial intelligence assets ‘. We regard energy storage as an embodied robot for research and development. From product design to market trading to long-term operation and maintenance, AI is the underlying logic, the main body, not a tool.”
Three Dimensions: Prospective AI Energy Storage Practice
From the perspective of product development, AI is subverting traditional product development methods. The AI has greatly improved the efficiency of battery formulation, system design, and test verification, making product upgrades faster and safer. In the future, AI will participate in all aspects of product development and significantly reduce costs. Tian Qingjun particularly stressed that the research and development of the whole stack is very important. “Only by opening up the software and hardware can the AI and the system work better together. Simple assembly is definitely not competitive in the future.”
From the perspective of asset value creation, AI are playing an active role in networking, power trading, and ancillary services. However, there is currently a challenge-data integrity and data quality are still weak, and model construction is difficult. “We hope that China’s electricity market can be further opened up, provide more high-quality data, and promote the iteration of large models.” At present, Vision relies on the accumulation of new energy experience in the past two decades to create a “Vision Sky” meteorological model and a “Vision Sky” energy model. In the face of incomplete data and frequent adjustment of rules during the construction period of the domestic power market, the vision relies on the EnOS platform to access the super 1005GW energy assets, constantly cleaning, labeling, iteration, so that the model in the actual operation of the evolution.
in view of the “unity of knowledge and practice” problem of trading decision-making and physical execution, the vision insists on full stack self-research, from cell to PCS to EMS to ensure zero delay in instructions and responses. Last year, in the 12.8GWh energy storage cluster in Inner Mongolia, all projects were connected to the spot power market and passed the “three charges and three charges” verification of the power grid at one time, relying on the accurate execution capability of the AI through the whole stack.
From the perspective of asset operation and maintenance, the value of AI cannot be ignored. In the future, massive energy storage assets will face huge cost and quality challenges in the operation and maintenance process, AI in intelligent early warning, problem solving and other aspects can replace a large number of labor. Tian Qingjun especially reminded colleagues in the industry to pay attention to the full life cycle cost and safety of products. “Especially overseas, many projects require 15 or 20 years of operation and maintenance services. Without the help of AI, these are future risks.”
in Chifeng zero-carbon ammonia project, the world’s largest 100 off-grid renewable energy power system has been built in the long-term. through the deep integration of the large-scale weather model and the large-scale energy model of tianshu, the energy storage can predict the output of scenery in advance and dynamically adjust the load of the electrolyzer. at present, it has been running stably for more than 27 months, realizing the breakthrough of “from 0 to 1” independent new power system.
Energy storage goes to sea: from “manufacturing output” to “civilization output”
Tian Qingjun gives a deeper interpretation of the proposition that energy storage enterprises are “born with globalization. He pointed out that China’s energy storage industry is one of the few areas that has truly stood at the top of the global industry and can lead the development of the entire industry since the founding of New China. “Both our product technology and our supply chain system have this ability.”
“Energy storage enterprises’ born globalization’ is not a slogan, let alone simply go overseas to do a few businesses.” Tian Qingjun emphasized, “We are born global because we are lucky to be born in this era and have this ability; we are born global because we shoulder the mission of using China’s new energy storage to empower global energy transformation. All Chinese energy storage entrepreneurs and new energy entrepreneurs should have the responsibility and responsibility to stand in front of this historical wave. This has gone beyond the simple product output, is the output of Chinese civilization!”
Of course, challenges remain. Tian Qingjun focused on three points:
First, the challenges of geopolitics and trade barriers. In his view, internationalization is an indispensable part of China’s energy storage enterprises. Facing up to this reality and making long-term preparations is a subject that the industry must face. Instead of opening up the international market with the mentality of “doing business”, Chinese enterprises should, in line with the original intention of enabling the energy transformation of these countries, increase their integration in different countries, bring China’s technology, products, supply chain and experience into the local area, and help different countries develop energy storage industry according to local conditions. At the same time, we should be alert to risks and take measures to deal with them. Tian Qingjun also called on the international community to adopt an open and cooperative attitude and embrace advanced technologies from the perspective of domestic energy security and development.
Second, the challenge of the inner volume. As more and more Chinese companies go out to sea, the price war continues. The global market is large enough and the application scenarios are rich enough that every enterprise can find its own market. Tian Qingjun said bluntly that the inner volume is a sign of lack of confidence and a distortion of values. The continuation of the domestic price war overseas will damage the national interests and the brand image made in China. There is absolutely no need and should never be a “worthless” price war in the industry to maintain reasonable profits in order to cope with longer-term risks and challenges.
Third, the challenge of systemic risk. In the first three months of this year, Chinese companies took a large number of orders overseas, but Tian Qingjun expressed concern: “Our product iteration is too fast, the cell capacity doubles every 6 to 12 months, and the system has not been fully verified. Start large-scale delivery. This is not in line with the law of development of heavy assets industry, quality and safety risks, performance risks are accumulating. We must be on guard: don’t let today’s orders become a hidden danger for tomorrow.”
From “passive” to “active”
At the end of the dialogue, Tian Qingjun made a core prospect for the development of the energy storage industry in the “15th Five-Year Plan” in one sentence: “The 15th Five-Year Plan is a critical period for the construction of China’s new power system. Energy storage will further clarify its value and positioning and form its own business model, to empower more countries to complete the energy green and low-carbon transformation, becoming China’s new business card in the world.”
