From April 24th to 26th, the 9th China International Energy Storage Conference, hosted by the Energy Storage Application Branch of the China Chemical and Physical Power Sources Industry Association, was held at the InterContinental Hotel in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. During the "Electric Vehicle and Grid Interconnection" session on the afternoon of April 25th, Bai Jian, Senior Manager of the Charging System Development Department of Beijing New Energy Vehicle Co., Ltd., shared a keynote report entitled "Analysis of the Modes and Impacts of Electric Vehicles Participating in Power System Energy Storage." The following is a transcript of his speech:
Bai Jian: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Bai Jian from BAIC New Energy. The experts just introduced V2G, and I'll be focusing on the impact of energy storage technology on charging applications. Today's presentation will be divided into three parts: an introduction to charging applications, problems encountered in charging applications, and the impact of energy storage technology on charging technology. I believe everyone is familiar with charging piles, so the initial introduction will be relatively simple. Currently, electric vehicle charging mainly uses two methods: AC and DC. The orange part represents the AC part, and the blue part represents the DC part. The upper part is the AC charging system, where the AC-DC conversion component is the on-board charger. The lower part is the DC charging system, where the AC-DC conversion component is the ground charger (DC charging pile). Currently, the country has established a relatively complete standard system for everything from charging piles to battery packs. However, for electric vehicles, there are no specific standards and regulations for charging piles and beyond.
As you can see in this chart on the left, we conducted a survey based on major car manufacturers. Currently, most passenger vehicles still use charging methods below 500V, mainly to address the issue of mixed voltages of 500V and 750V. We also conducted a survey of some public charging stations in Beijing. Currently, DC charging stations are the main type, accounting for 85%, and 500V accounts for the majority of DC charging piles.
In the realm of private charging equipment, AC charging is the primary method, currently dominated by unidirectional 7000W. Internationally, companies like Tesla have already implemented tridirectional charging, while China is actively developing bidirectional charging, specifically V2G, a topic of great interest. This is accompanied by customized exterior designs and intelligent applications. The new energy vehicle market is developing rapidly. From what we understand, most new models generally start with a range of 350 kilometers, gradually approaching 500 kilometers, with charging times becoming shorter and shorter, indicating increasingly higher charging power.
Currently, charging technology primarily focuses on low-temperature fast charging. Over the next five years, three-phase charging and high-power charging will be vigorously developed. After 2022, more intelligent charging technologies are expected, including automatic intelligent charging and DC fast charging exceeding 350 kW. These technologies primarily address different user needs. For example, in taxis and public rentals, DC slow charging is gradually replacing AC slow charging. For outdoor enthusiasts, V2V technology is crucial, and for high-end users, high-power charging is the future preferred option. However, there are many challenges in charging. The biggest obstacle is power distribution. In residential charging, this is the issue of community power distribution; in public areas, the main constraint is the lack of capacity expansion.
These are some common problems with private charging, such as the common issue of extension cords (where people run their own cables if there are no charging stations), poor management within residential communities, and the problem of expanding power distribution capacity. In the public charging sector, the main issue is capacity expansion. With the increasing number of pure electric vehicles, the number of charging stations is also growing, and the DC charging rate is increasing exponentially, posing a significant challenge to power grid companies in terms of power dispatching.
Next, let's talk about energy storage. BAIC New Energy, as one of the first new energy vehicle manufacturers in China, has a market share exceeding 300,000 units. This huge sales volume also brings a problem: the future retirement of power batteries. BAIC New Energy is actively addressing this issue, driven by both profit and social responsibility. In 2016, they established Beijing Jiangxin Battery Technology Co., Ltd., primarily responsible for battery backend business, tiered utilization assessment, and energy storage technologies. Currently, the company's core technologies are battery assessment and energy storage. BAIC New Energy has partnered with Daimler-Benz Energy to establish a joint laboratory for in-depth research into energy storage. Jiangxin Technology is currently developing a PMS control system, which can collect and upload data to achieve battery equalization management and battery safety management. The demonstration project in Tibet (left) currently has a capacity of 5 megawatt-hours, achieving grid connection through photovoltaic power generation.
High-power integrated charging and storage systems have been developed. This primarily utilizes retired, second-generation batteries, combined with charging technology, to achieve rational power allocation and solve public power distribution problems. Automatic charging and V2G technology are also employed, with demonstration stations and energy storage applications. The energy storage in this case essentially provides capacity expansion for high-power charging. Another aspect is providing home energy storage solutions to address the needs of private users. As the driving range of electric vehicles continues to increase, a car typically has around 50 kWh of battery capacity, potentially reaching 60, 70, or even 100 kWh in the future. At this capacity, a full charge cannot be achieved overnight. Home energy storage can minimize power distribution demands for users by allowing for direct high-power charging with a small amount of stored energy, followed by slow charging after reaching a certain point. Furthermore, the use of onboard V2X technology can be fully utilized to provide various backup power services for homes, and peak-valley arbitrage can also be achieved.
We believe that energy storage has great application prospects in the charging field, and of course, it's not just limited to charging; it's closely related to the entire new energy vehicle sector. In the future, BAIC Group will also collaborate with the new energy vehicle and energy sectors to jointly promote industry progress. Thank you!
