RelyEZ Energy Storage: Seek "potential" and store green energy for low-carbon development
"The price of photovoltaic and lithium batteries has entered a downward channel, which is good for the energy storage industry. However, the overcapacity of domestic energy storage has emerged, and it is difficult for enterprises to go far. Wang Yu, founder and chairman of RelyEZ Energy Storage Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "RelyEZ Energy Storage"), said that adhering to productism and doing energy storage with refined manufacturing thinking will win greater market space and opportunities for energy storage companies and promote the healthy development of the energy storage industry.
New energy storage is an important technology and basic equipment for building a new power system and promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of energy, and it is also an important combination of green energy and sustainable industrial development. After years of market-oriented development, Shenzhen's electrochemical energy storage industry is at the forefront of the country. From January to May this year, the output value of Shenzhen's electrochemical energy storage was 118 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.7%. The installed capacity of power battery enterprises in Shenzhen is nearly 80GWh, accounting for about 27% of the country, and Shenzhen has been in a leading position in the electrochemical energy storage industry.
RelyEZ Energy Storage is a microcosm of Shenzhen's energy storage industry with advantages. It is understood that RelyEZ Energy Storage's products cover large-scale lithium battery energy storage systems, industrial and commercial lithium battery energy storage systems, household energy storage products, standardized PACK and modular energy storage products. The team has independently led the design and participated in more than 100 construction projects, with an overall project scale of more than 7GWh. The company's annual shipments in 2022 ranked eighth in the country and thirteenth in the world.
Explore the way ahead to welcome the arrival of the tuyere
Wang Yu, chairman of RelyEZ, was responsible for the development and construction of photovoltaic, wind power, solar thermal power generation projects and energy storage projects in new energy enterprises. At that time, the abandonment rate of wind power and photovoltaic in the five northwestern provinces remained high, and based on the careful research and judgment and thinking of the development of the industry, Mr. Wang smelled the smell of energy storage market opportunities. So, we had the idea of starting a business. Zhang Jiajing, co-founder and general manager of RelyEZ Energy Storage, said that Wang Yu put forward policy pilot suggestions to relevant departments in view of the current situation and industrial foundation of the local market and was adopted.
With a keen sense of smell, RelyEZ predicted the "trend" of energy storage development and planned the layout before the tuyere. It is the demonstration value generated by the revitalization and utilization of the project of curtailment of solar and wind that has brought RelyEZ to the table of the energy storage industry, and the Xinjiang project piloted by RelyEZ has also become the largest single photovoltaic distribution and storage project in the country that year. After several years of team building and high-quality delivery experience, RelyEZ Energy Storage has now entered a virtuous circle of steady growth.
According to reports, the company completed the delivery of 32 projects last year, and as of November this year, the company has achieved about 50 delivered projects, diversified market layout, and the continuous orders of many customers and partners have provided a solid guarantee for the steady growth of RelyEZ's energy storage business.
At the beginning of the "dual carbon" goal, the capital market did not pay much attention to the energy storage industry. In 2021 and 2022, the energy storage market is heating up rapidly. "Seeing the rise in the popularity of energy storage, there is no shortage of enterprises investing in a high proportion of corporate R&D expenses, recruiting glamorous and beautiful technical teams with high salaries, and it is not uncommon to win energy storage projects of more than 100 million yuan with network resources, and such characteristics and performance are relatively easy to meet the criteria for applying the listing of science and technology enterprises." Wang Yu said that after nearly two years of disorderly prosperity, the energy storage track has been re-examined, and the tightening of the front-end capital market has made it difficult for companies that rely on the business model of financing-driven IPO exit.
Statistics show that in the past year, more than 30,000 new energy storage-related enterprises have been established, and more than 40,000 existing energy storage-related enterprises have been established. Wang Yu pointed out that some energy storage companies that began to raise a large amount of money in the past few years by relying on the development of the bureau are now facing great pressure on profitability and sustainable development.
"From the beginning of its establishment, RelyEZ has set the business requirements of not losing money, and from 2019 to the present, RelyEZ has maintained positive cash flow and profits every year, which is rare in the industry." He said that fast is also slow, slow is actually fast, adhere to the basic logic and bottom-line thinking of the manufacturing industry, so that RelyEZ energy storage can go further and more practically.
In fact, the energy storage industry involves electrochemistry, power electronics, engineering structure and other aspects of technology coupling, not a simple assembly of products, the current situation of low-quality competition is unsustainable. "We have always been in awe of product safety, including batteries, although product cost is an important competitiveness, but long-term operation of energy storage products is more of a test of life cycle cost, reliability and safety." In Wang Yu's view, like other manufacturing industries, the energy storage industry has also entered a new stage of big waves and sands, which tests the internal strength of enterprises. Energy storage products are a multidisciplinary system engineering that requires extremely high safety requirements, and requires the technical precipitation of process technology and the accumulation of engineering project experience.
Heavy investment in technology to create a "moat"
"When RelyEZ was first established, the whole team was less than 10 people, and in just 4 years, it has now grown to a team of four or five hundred people." Zhang Jiajing said that since receiving the first project, RelyEZ has been growing on the run, which has also allowed the team to practice efficient collaboration and quickly implement projects to promote high-quality delivery.
In order to promote the rapid implementation and high-quality construction and delivery of the project, RelyEZ sincerely invites partners with many years of experience in the design and delivery of energy storage projects and engineers with more than 20 years of power design precipitation to join us, make every effort to fight the first battle, complete the order-driven path attempt, and minimize risks and costs.
It is understood that in the past few years, the domestic energy storage support policy is not very clear, and the business model is not very mature. Zhang Jiajing said that RelyEZ won the largest optical storage project in the country in 2019 and 2020, which initially confirmed the company's technical capabilities.
"In the past, distribution and storage were basically regarded as a sunk cost of business, but now, energy storage has gradually become an important part of electricity market-based transactions, and its main position is gradually clear, and energy storage is regarded as an independent asset that can be settled separately from the power grid." Zhang Jiajing said that through the continuous improvement of policies, the methods of settlement and sources of income are becoming more and more diversified. For example, by participating in the frequency regulation of the power grid and the peak-to-valley arbitrage, you can obtain benefits, and build a market strategy of mutual benefit, so that the income model of energy storage enterprises is more diversified and balanced.
With its profound new energy and energy storage technology, industry experience and resource integration capabilities, the RelyEZ team has successively won the favor of large customers, and has established cooperative relations with industry leaders such as NARI Group, Pinggao Group, and Changyuan Shenrui under the State Grid.
In order to better improve the business guarantee capability and product quality competitive advantage, RelyEZ Energy Storage chose the route of self-built production capacity. In November 2021, RelyEZ Energy Storage prepared to build a factory in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, and was completed and put into operation three months later, with the first production line with a capacity of 3GWh. Today, Jiangsu Yuanxin, located in Zhenjiang, has become RelyEZ's largest production base, with an annual production capacity of 11GWh.
It is understood that RelyEZ Energy Storage insists on heavy investment in research and development, with research and development expenses accounting for about 20%, and the company has obtained about 20 invention patents and is applying for about 20 invention patents. Next, RelyEZ will increase the research and development of BMS battery management system and PCS bidirectional converter to further promote the productization, modularization and integration of energy storage equipment.
At present, in addition to the highly market-oriented battery cells, RelyEZ Energy Storage has incorporated energy storage related products, processes, design and manufacturing into its own business and management, so as to ensure the efficient coordination of each link and the strict control of cost and quality to the greatest extent, and promote the healthy and sustainable development of the company's operation.
Embrace the big "trend" of "going to sea" and expand the broad future
With the rapid rise of the energy storage market and the expansion of scale, the domestic energy storage market has seen a pattern of insufficient high-end capacity and disorderly expansion of low-end capacity. In the case of the blockage of the front-end landing in the capital market, in order to survive, low-price competition and even stampede are inevitable. The overseas basic electricity price is about two to three times that of the domestic one, and the overseas spot trading market is also relatively perfect, and the peak-to-valley electricity price difference for energy storage is large, leaving enough profit space for the energy storage business. Wang Yu said that in this context, "going to sea" has been put on the strategic agenda of the development strategy of energy storage enterprises.
"Compared with the domestic market, which is too involuted, the overseas energy storage market does have many advantages and characteristics such as strong customer stickiness, higher profit margins, and relatively less pressure on capital investment in the early stage." Wang Yu said that despite this, not all enterprises can "go to sea". Although overseas customers can pay most of the payment before shipment, this is based on strict certification systems such as UL and CE to ensure the stable and reliable operation of energy storage-related products. Taking UL 1973 as an example, certification requires that the energy storage lithium battery pack must undergo a variety of tests, including a fire test, overcharge protection test, over-discharge protection test, temperature shock test, etc., to ensure that the battery pack can operate safely in various extreme environments.
In addition to the large energy storage market, RelyEZ has also set its sights on the "light, storage and diesel" projects suitable for the vast number of Africa and Latin America. This kind of project is neither pure large-scale energy storage, nor is it different from the general industrial and commercial energy storage scheme, it can be operated off the grid with the energy combination of photovoltaic + energy storage + diesel generator, to meet the local small, scattered, scattered and flexible energy independent market demand.
According to reports, RelyEZ Energy Storage has delivered the photovoltaic diesel storage project in Chad, Africa this year, which configures 6.4 MWh of energy storage outside the photovoltaic and diesel units to form an off-grid power supply system, which can greatly reduce nearly 1/3 of the electricity cost. By exploring the diversified application scenarios of energy storage, RelyEZ Energy Storage has made efforts in emerging businesses on the basis of traditional businesses to support the company's sustainable operation, expanded the company's business scope and profitability, and also reduced the possible risks of a single business and market.
In addition to many certifications, foreign customers also require energy storage projects to be bankable. Wang Yu pointed out that in foreign countries, energy storage projects should be recognized by financial institutions to ensure that the project can obtain loans from financial institutions after it is put into operation. Financial institutions need to comprehensively consider the brand effect, technical reliability, consistency, and after-sales service of products. For example, if the safe service life of the product is improved through the extended warranty payment method, these need to be supported by high-reliability and high-safety products. It is understood that RelyEZ Energy Storage has started to recruit local employees in Germany, Spain and California, the United States, and set up offices to protect and enhance its brand and operational capacity building, store green energy for the low-carbon development of the global economy, and continue to contribute to the strength and wisdom of RelyEZ.
Article reprinted to Nanfang Daily newspaper