[Las Vegas, USA] Organized by the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the grand opening of the United States Solar Power International (Known as RE+) trade shows took place in Las Vegas on September 12. CLOU Electronics, a subsidiary of Midea Industrial Technology, a business segment of the Midea Group, made a stunning appearance by showcasing a wide range of integrated energy storage system products and one-stop solutions for the entire lifecycle, catching the eyes of the industry. Driven by the ‘wave of global carbon neutrality,’ the new energy market has experienced a burst of growth. According to the data released by the US Energy Information Administration, the cumulative installation capacity of large-scale battery energy storage systems in the United States increased from 149.6MW in 2012 to 8.8GW in 2022, experiencing a significant surge in both scale and growth rate. The energy storage systems deployed in 2022 almost doubled the figure compared to the previous year.
In this context, based on the judgment of the future market, CLOU registered and established a local company in Delaware, USA. At the site of RE+ trade shows, Fu Yongjun, Vice President of Midea Group, President of Midea Industrial Technology, and Chairman of CLOU, along with Zhou Han, President of CLOU, jointly unveiled the US company of CLOU ESS (Energy Storage Systems). As one of the few energy storage companies http://clouess.com/ entering the US market, the establishment of CLOU will be an important milestone in the global layout of the energy storage business of Midea Group.
All-stack technology upgrade, professional system integration
The integration of new power systems and energy storage is a must. As an important support for the power system in terms of supply, configuration, regulation, and consumption, the integration of energy storage systems has a vital impact on the stability of the power system. According to Guo Hong, Chief Strategy Expert of CLOU Electronics, ‘The integration of energy storage systems is not a simple patchwork, but a complex system that covers HVAC, power industry, electromechanical automation industry, etc. The consistency of energy storage systems, thermal management, site adaptability, and the constant interconnection with power plants pose great challenges to integrators.’ Thus, for energy storage manufacturers, what is tested is not only their hard power of products but also the experience accumulation of power systems and the ability to provide entire lifecycle service and all scenarios’ solutions.
CLOU initially started with smart meters in 1996. It strategically laid out its energy storage business in 2009. With design as its leading business in system integration, it launched China’s first MW-scale box-type energy storage power station. It boasts a laboratory at the national level dedicated to engineering large-scale renewable energy storage and grid connection. Since then, it has been providing one-stop energy storage system solutions to power generation customers as well as those seeking industrial and commercial power consumption. By maintaining consistency and utilizing the robust computing power of the battery management system, it optimized the power output curve of power generation, offering storage and output management on the power generation side while also providing a stable operating environment for the power grid side.
In the field of product technology reserves, CLOU boasts a comprehensive range of self-developed control units, including PCS, DC/DC, BMS, EMS, and O&MS, along with project application capabilities that cover all application scenarios of energy storage. Through multi-dimensional technology breakthroughs, the company has integrated equipment, platforms, and services into an ecosystem, providing both customers and the energy storage industry with integrated solutions for the whole ecosystem and entire lifecycle management services. At this 2023 SPI trade shows, CLOU presented its new Aqua series of products launched in April 2023, including Aqua-C, an energy storage system for standard 20-foot containers with a capacity of 4.18MWh, Aqua-E, a capacity-increase cabinet with a capacity of 420KWh, and Aqua-E Pro, an industrial and commercial storage all-in-one machine with a capacity of 200KW/420KWh. Boasting a product cycle life of over 10,000 times and a temperature control accuracy of within 5 degrees at the systematic level, the Aqua series of products is in a leading position in the industry.
Currently, energy storage enterprises are actively entering the industrial and commercial markets. In addition to brand and channel, it is necessary to ensure security, stability, and reliability. All-stack technology upgrades and professional system integration are required to handle more complex scenarios and diverse spaces. Having been engaging in the energy storage industry, CLOU is dedicated to creating energy storage product solutions with ultimate safety, stability, performance, and intelligent management for users, continuously pushing on with product technology research and development, as well as quality improvement. For example, Aqua-C, the flagship product of the Aqua series of liquid-cooled units, supports dual-box parallel operation, saving more than 50% of floor space; Aqua-E can be paired with Aqua-C for capacity expansion applications, while Aqua-E Pro can be used as an independent system for industrial and commercial energy storage applications. The entire product line of CLOU Aqua is equipped with DCAC, which supports cluster-level management with an availability rate of 99.5%. Meanwhile, an active balancing system is applied to the entire system, reducing more than 40% of the time of debugging and maintenance.
In the face of the increasingly competitive energy storage market, CLOU remains fearless in its pursuit of innovation while steadfastly adhering to the principle of quality first. It will focus on ‘all-scenarios application,’ ‘entire lifecycle service,’ and ‘entire product matrix integration,’ and better understand customer needs to help customers achieve an excellent operating profit with better energy storage system design.
Ultimate all-scenarios service, focusing on value re-creation
From investment to operation of an energy storage power station, the life of lithium batteries generally ranges between 2000 and 8000 charge cycles, and there are approximately 5 to 15 years for its system life. Facing the ever-changing value of users, CLOU’s profound understanding of the power grid, mature technology system, and all scenarios service capabilities are helping global customers with the operation stability of energy storage power plants and continuous improvement of operating profit.
Take CLOU’s Haifeng AGC energy storage frequency modulation project, which is 30MW/15MWh in size. In 2020, the CLOU Haifeng Fire Storage Joint Frequency Modulation Project was selected by the National Energy Administration as one of the first eight pilot demonstration projects for scientific and technological innovation (energy storage). To this day, it has achieved an equivalent cycle of over 9,000 times. In the US market, CLOU has successfully gained a foothold with significant projects, including Indiana’s first large-scale lithium-ion energy storage project with a capacity of 24MW/63MWh, Texas’ largest energy storage power station in the North American market boasting 99MWh, and South America’s largest grid-side energy storage project with a staggering 485MWh capacity. According to the statistics provided by Orennia, an international consulting organization, the top six projects in the United States with the highest operating profit of independent energy storage in 2021 all came from CLOU.
In 2023, Midea Group officially assumed control of CLOU. By joining the Midea Industrial Tech. business segment, and with the support of a global top 500 enterprise, CLOU not only received substantial capital investment but also gained access to Midea’s technology and customers, as well as a vast global channel and a three-tier research and development system. CLOU, with the support and efficient collaboration of Midea Central Research Institute’s three-tier research and development system, including Midea Central Research Institute, Industrial Technology Research Institute, and the product company team, is dedicated to focusing on existing individual project scenarios and actively preserving advanced next-generation technologies in the field of energy storage.
As a ‘Leading Solution Provider of Energy Storage Systems (ESS) with a Better Understanding of Electricity,’ CLOU’s energy storage business has covered the major application scenarios and markets, achieving rapid response to customers from early project investigation, on-site delivery, and post-sales service, and creating a value of 1 + 1 + 1> 3. With years of technology accumulation in power systems and extensive practical and operational experience in energy storage projects, CLOU aims to maximize operating profit and become an important force in promoting the era of carbon neutrality by creating more diverse power trading methods for its customers through multiple technologies and scenario solutions.
