In the energy consumption market, the proportion of heat and cold in terminal demand is much higher than that of electricity. Therefore, heat storage technology has extremely strong competitiveness and huge application prospects.

At present, the energy industry is in an era of major transformation. A new era of digital and intelligent energy utilization is accelerating its arrival. Power auxiliary services, comprehensive energy services, etc. are stimulating the release of new momentum of heat storage technology in the new energy business form.

Clean heating market

In the field of clean heating, heat storage electric heaters, heat storage electric boilers and other heat storage technology products have been affirmed by many government agencies and energy-consuming units. Water heat storage, solid heat storage and phase change heat storage technologies have been widely applied in various electric clean heating application scenarios such as residential buildings, schools, hotels, shopping malls and hospitals.

In the power auxiliary service markets of Northwest and North China, the participation of user-side resources in the peak shaving auxiliary service market has achieved remarkable results. With the in-depth development of the power auxiliary service markets in various regions, the participation of load-side resources such as heat storage electric heating in the power auxiliary service market will gradually become mainstream, which will in turn promote the rapid development of heat storage load-side peak shaving resources.

In addition, some heat storage technology enterprises have begun to expand their market layout beyond the conventional building heating sector, focusing on exploring other potential heating markets such as agricultural greenhouse heating, grain drying, and industrial steam, which has brought about significant incremental market space.

Meanwhile, under the trend of non-electric utilization of renewable energy and the development of multi-energy complementarity, multi-energy complementary technology solutions such as air source heat pump + heat storage, ground source heat pump + heat storage, solar energy + heat storage, and wind and solar power + heat storage have gained increasing recognition. Some heat storage technology manufacturers have begun to strengthen cooperation with other energy technology enterprises in an effort to achieve win-win development.

The market for flexibility transformation of thermal power plants

For many years, coal-fired power has been the main source of electricity supply in China. However, due to issues such as overcapacity, several recent documents have raised the alarm for the construction of new coal-fired power plants. The future direction of coal-fired power has become a hot topic in the energy industry, and it has become a consensus in the industry that the positioning of thermal power needs to change.

Assisting the grid connection of renewable energy generation, utilizing cogeneration, expanding heating capacity, and enhancing flexible peak shaving capacity have become the value choices for thermal power plants to "redeem" themselves.

In June 2016, China officially launched the demonstration work for the flexibility transformation of thermal power plants. The National Energy Administration issued two batches of a total of 22 pilot projects for the flexibility transformation of thermal power units. Heat storage technology has become one of the mainstream technical routes for the flexibility transformation of thermal power plants, with about half of them adopting heat story-related technologies for flexibility transformation.

This year, several major projects, including the Ningxia Zhongwei Thermal Power Heat Storage and Peak Shaving Heating Renovation Project with an investment of 160 million yuan, have been successfully initiated. Meanwhile, several projects in Baishan City, Jilin Province, such as the Electric Heat Storage and Peak Shaving Heating Project, are also advancing steadily. The application of heat storage technology in the flexibility transformation of thermal power plants continues to expand.

From the perspective of technical types, the application of heat storage technologies for peak shaving in thermal power flexibility mainly focuses on water heat storage + electrode boilers and solid heat storage electric boilers. The application of molten salt heat storage and new phase change heat storage technology solutions in the field of thermal power flexibility transformation still needs further verification.

Cold storage service market

Guangdong is one of the few regions in the country that offers electricity prices for cold storage. In the local area, cold storage technologies such as cold storage air conditioners have been widely applied. In addition, in the development of electric energy substitution in the five provinces and autonomous regions within the jurisdiction of China Southern Power Grid, namely Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Hainan, cold storage technology has played a significant role in reducing users' energy costs.

At present, in response to the application and development of cold storage technology, more regions have proposed to offer preferential policies such as peak-valley electricity prices. For instance, Sichuan, a major hydropower province, has launched the "off-peak water waste" trading variety to encourage the development of cold storage in electricity. Hunan encourages the construction of green cold storage facilities. Through energy-saving renovations and energy efficiency management, it fully utilizes the peak-valley time-of-use electricity price policy to implement new technologies such as ice storage, thereby reducing the electricity costs for enterprises. Starting from June 1st this year, Shandong Province has piloted a program where the off-peak electricity price for power storage technology devices such as cold storage (ice, water) air conditioners will be further reduced by 3 fen per kilowatt-hour (including tax) on the basis of the current standard...

The introduction of the above favorable policies will promote the further development of cold storage technology in emerging markets such as building energy consumption, cold chain logistics, and even data center heat dissipation. More water cold storage, ice cold storage, and phase change cold storage technology enterprises are beginning to lay out the development of the cold storage service market.

Integrated energy service market

The concept of integrated energy services remains highly popular and is regarded as the second major business that State Grid is vigorously promoting. Additionally, many state-owned enterprises and listed companies in the energy sector, including China Southern Power Grid and the five major power generation groups, are actively transforming and making strategic layouts.

The "integration" of comprehensive energy services is mainly reflected in providing services of different types of energy, including cold, heat, electricity, gas, etc. The application of cold and heat storage technologies is an important part of it.

At present, in the ongoing large-scale comprehensive energy service projects such as the Haitang Bay Demonstration Zone for Low-Carbon and Smart Energy Comprehensive Utilization in Sanya and the Comprehensive Energy Service Project of Xiamen Xiang 'an New Airport, cold storage technology will play an indispensable and important role.

In such a blue ocean market, heat and cold storage technologies will have a broader application space and are worth the active participation of enterprises in the heat storage industry.