Surge in Commercial and Industrial Energy Storage Market in Q1 2025: Trends and Insights

Industrial and Commercial Energy Storage Soars in Q1 2025
Since the beginning of 2023, the industrial and commercial energy storage market has experienced explosive growth driven by policies, technological advancements, and increasing market demand. This upward trend is expected to continue in 2025. This article summarizes the installation capacity, bidding prices, registration status, production capacity layout, and product innovation trends in the domestic industrial and commercial energy storage market for the first quarter of 2025.

<b>Q1 Installation Capacity Increased by 54.85%</b>
According to incomplete statistics from the CESA Energy Storage Applications Branch industry database, the user-side industrial and commercial energy storage installation capacity in Q1 2025 reached 776.13 MW/1924.71 MWh, marking a year-on-year increase of 54.85%. Among these, standalone industrial and commercial energy storage projects accounted for 635.13 MW/1518.87 MWh, representing 78.91% of the total capacity. The remaining installations included storage charging, photovoltaic storage, emergency power supplies, distributed photovoltaic storage, and microgrid storage, totaling 141 MW/405.84 MWh, or 21.09% of the capacity.

Geographically, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Zhejiang continued to lead the industrial and commercial storage market. With the rise of diversified applications such as distributed photovoltaic storage and microgrids, regions like Anhui, Henan, and Xinjiang are becoming increasingly active.

Notably, at the beginning of February, the Huadian Tianshan North Foothill 50MW/200MWh microgrid energy storage project was officially put into operation. This project is located nearly 80 kilometers from the nearest power source. The innovative collaborative working model of the photovoltaic and diesel microgrid ensures stable power supply to the load. The project supports off-grid, grid-connected, and grid-forming operational modes and is equipped with active voltage and frequency support, fault ride-through, and black start capabilities, making it a benchmark for world-class microgrid energy storage projects.

<b>Over 90% of Projects Awarded Through EPC Contracting</b>
In terms of the bidding market, the user-side industrial and commercial energy storage EPC (including direct current side equipment) and system procurement scale for Q1 2025 amounted to 1.23 GW/3.71 GWh, with the EPC procurement scale reaching 1.79 GW/3.29 GWh, accounting for 91.13% of the total capacity. This indicates that over 90% of industrial and commercial energy storage projects were awarded through EPC contracting methods. Projects were primarily concentrated in Jiangsu, Henan, Anhui, Zhejiang, Shandong, Fujian, and Sichuan provinces, with Jiangsu and Henan each exceeding 1 GWh in procurement capacity.

Major stakeholders in the bidding process included companies like Jiyuan Yuchuang Energy, Suzhou Thermal Power, Guangzhou Energy Storage Group, Taifeng New Energy, Guosheng Holdings, China Telecom, Hongqiao Park, Nenghui New Energy, Shandong High-speed Group, Star Energy Investment, Woheng New Energy, Boda New Energy, and others, with each having procurement scales exceeding 100 MWh in Q1 2025. Among them, the largest procurement scale was from Henan Jiyuan Yuchuang Energy Co., Ltd., which had a bidding project for a vehicle-grid interactive heavy-duty charging station with a mixed storage scale of 200 MW/800 MWh, including a 100 MW/200 MWh lithium iron phosphate storage system and a 100 MW/600 MWh vanadium flow battery storage system.

At the end of March, China Energy Construction Group, Flow Battery Technology Co., and the First Design Institute of China Machine Building Group jointly won the EPC bid for this project at 1.93945 billion yuan, equating to a unit price of 2.4243 yuan/Wh. Additionally, Jiangsu Guangyuan Power Construction Co., Southern Power Grid Power Technology Co., Anhui Special Construction Power Engineering Co., and Guangdong Zhenshen Power Design Institute Co. formed a consortium, each winning bids for industrial and commercial energy storage exceeding 300 MWh in Q1 2025. Other consortiums also won bids exceeding 200 MWh.

On March 19, Keda Guokong successfully won the bid for the China Telecom (Anhui) Intelligent Computing Center's energy storage project (Phase 1). This project is located in the Nankang District of Hefei City, Anhui Province, equipped with a 25 MW/200 MWh lithium iron phosphate battery storage container. It aims to peak shaving and reduce electricity costs with an estimated project procurement amount of 373.998 million yuan (including tax), adopting a "cooperative leasing" model, where the bidding company constructs energy storage facilities for the computing center, sharing profits during the ten-year revenue-sharing period.

<b>Average Bid Price for Industrial and Commercial Storage Systems at 0.6659 yuan/Wh</b>
Regarding the bidding prices, the EPC bid prices for lithium battery industrial and commercial energy storage projects in Q1 2025 mainly ranged from 0.7868 to 1.5 yuan/Wh, with an average price of 1.1029 yuan/Wh and a weighted average bid price of 1.0133 yuan/Wh. The lowest bid came from a 25 MW/100 MWh user-side energy storage project in Qianshan City, which utilized a full-process integrated contracting method, with a bid of 78.681457 million yuan, equating to 0.7868 yuan/Wh, marking the lowest bid for industrial storage EPC in Q1 2025.

The lowest successful bid price was from the energy storage EPC project for Hunan Liantian Cement Co., which involved constructing a 5 MW/15 MWh energy storage unit. In March, Runjian Co. won this bid with a price of 12.00359 million yuan, translating to 0.8002 yuan/Wh.

In Q1 2025, the entry-level bid prices for lithium battery industrial and commercial energy storage systems ranged from 0.4493 to 1.0487 yuan/Wh, with an average price of 0.6756 yuan/Wh and a weighted average successful bid price of 0.6659 yuan/Wh. The lowest entry-level bid came from Xinjiang Tianlong Mining's distributed photovoltaic project, where the energy storage system equipment procurement project, totaling 4.5 MW/18 MWh, was won by Yishite Group Co. with a bid of 8.0865 million yuan, resulting in a bid price of 0.4493 yuan/Wh, establishing a new low for industrial storage system bids in Q1 2025.

<b>Registration Capacity Grew by 234.36%, with Jiangsu Accounting for 59.17% of the Total</b>
According to incomplete statistics from the CESA Energy Storage Applications Branch industry database, there were a total of 2474 newly registered user-side industrial and commercial energy storage projects in Q1 2025. Among these, 1758 projects disclosed specific construction scales, totaling 6.53 GW/16.16 GWh, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 234.36% compared to Q1 2024.

In terms of configuration methods, 1902 standalone industrial and commercial energy storage projects were newly registered, accounting for 76.88% of the total, with a total scale of 6.1 GW/15.2 GWh, representing 94.07% of the capacity. Among these, 1025 projects disclosed initial investment amounts totaling 5.448 billion yuan.

Additionally, 572 projects related to photovoltaic storage, distributed photovoltaic storage, and microgrid were newly registered, comprising 23.12% of the total, with a capacity of 431.17 MW/958.7 MWh, making up 5.93% of the total capacity.

In terms of initial unit price, the initial investment unit price for standalone industrial and commercial energy storage projects in Q1 2025 ranged from 0.86 to 1.58 yuan/Wh, with 77.55% of projects falling within this range.

Regionally, Jiangsu registered 604 new industrial and commercial energy storage investment projects, with a scale of 3.86 GW/9.56 GWh, accounting for 59.17% of the national total. This places Jiangsu at the forefront of the country, with over 20 industrial storage projects exceeding 100 MWh. The largest single project exceeds 800 MWh.

In comparison, Guangdong registered 830 MW/2188 MWh, accounting for 13.54% of the total capacity; Zhejiang registered 922 MW/1893 MWh, accounting for 11.71%, ranking second and third nationally, respectively.

Jiangsu's leadership in industrial and commercial energy storage is attributed to several factors: a robust industrial foundation, substantial policy support, and an attractive pricing mechanism. The province's manufacturing sector is highly developed, with a concentration of foreign enterprises and numerous high-energy-consuming industrial parks. As businesses undergo digital transformation and enhance green production demands, the demand for industrial and commercial energy storage has surged.

Moreover, Jiangsu provincial and municipal governments have introduced multiple supportive policies for energy storage. For example, measures in Suzhou Industrial Park promote energy storage facilities for photovoltaic projects, providing subsidies for energy storage projects connected to the carbon peak platform that were commissioned after January 1, 2022, at a rate of 0.3 yuan/kWh for three years.

In 2024, the Jiangsu Development and Reform Commission clarified a multi-tiered, differentiated subsidy standard within the "Implementation Rules for Jiangsu's Power Demand Response," with the highest subsidy for 0.5-2 hour demand responses reaching 4.8 yuan/kWh. Additionally, real-time demand responses under 0.5 hours are eligible for both a 3 yuan/kWh energy subsidy and a 10 yuan/kW capacity subsidy.

In addition to provincial policies, several cities in Jiangsu, such as Changzhou and Suzhou, have issued relevant subsidy policies for industrial and commercial energy storage, enhancing the economic viability of such projects.

With the price mechanism incentive in place, Jiangsu's time-of-use electricity pricing policy allows for profitable arbitrage opportunities for energy storage projects. In 2024, for a 3-hour energy storage project, the average peak-valley price difference in Jiangsu reached 0.9 yuan/kWh, providing a substantial arbitrage opportunity.

Currently, Jiangsu is poised to become a benchmark region for industrial and commercial energy storage development, backed by a robust industrial foundation, strong policy support, and a relatively favorable pricing mechanism. However, it is worth noting that in April 2025, the Jiangsu Development and Reform Commission released a notification seeking to optimize the time-of-use electricity pricing structure to promote renewable energy consumption and support economic and social development.

The proposed adjustments would reduce the average peak-valley price difference to 0.6485 yuan/kWh, significantly lower than past averages. This policy also optimizes summer and winter periods, adding more off-peak periods during spring and autumn.

Under this framework, Jiangsu now has the conditions to support 7-hour long-duration storage, but the insufficient price difference for charging and discharging limits the operational cycles of energy storage stations to "one charge and one discharge," posing considerable challenges to the sustainable profitability of existing industrial and commercial energy storage projects. The new round of time-of-use pricing policies in Jiangsu could have profound impacts on the industrial and commercial energy storage sector.

<b>Capacity Expansion Continues</b>
With the development of the industrial and commercial energy storage market, domestic industrial storage capacity continues to expand. According to incomplete statistics from the CESA Energy Storage Applications Branch industry database, in Q1 2025, eight industrial and commercial energy storage-related production projects updated their dynamics, six of which announced design annual production capacities totaling 45.2 GWh with a total investment of 9.4335 billion yuan. Four projects disclosed annual output values after reaching full capacity, totaling 22.2 billion yuan.

Ganfeng Lithium's annual production project for new lithium batteries and energy storage officially commenced, with a total investment of 5 billion yuan. Once fully operational, the project will focus on research and production of lithium iron phosphate, semi-solid battery cells, lightweight power batteries, portable outdoor energy storage systems, household energy storage, and industrial and commercial energy storage systems. The first phase of the Pack factory and supporting facilities is scheduled for completion and acceptance in April 2025, with overall project construction expected to finish by mid-2025 and full production anticipated in 2026, yielding an annual output value of 11 billion yuan.

The headquarters research and manufacturing base project of Hu塑科技 has also commenced, with a total investment of 235 million yuan. Its annual production upgrade project for key equipment in energy storage systems was completed in February, focusing on digitizing, automating, and innovating production lines for backup batteries and energy storage BMS, creating an "AI + green manufacturing" ecosystem with intelligent production lines and key laboratories.

Ningbo Deye's energy storage production line project, with an annual capacity of 2 GWh, and a technological modification project with an annual capacity of 1.2 GWh for energy storage batteries and integrated systems have also completed registration. Jinlang Technology plans to build a new production line for high-capacity hybrid energy storage in Ningbo, Zhejiang, with a total investment of 313.0767 million yuan. This project will add a capacity of 25,000 units per year for hybrid energy storage inverters over 20 kW, primarily for industrial and commercial energy storage systems and large residential energy storage systems.

Kunyu Power's Baise project, with an annual capacity of 6 GWh for battery cells and energy storage systems, has begun construction with a total investment of 2.8 billion yuan, expected to generate an annual output value of approximately 7.2 billion yuan and annual tax revenue of around 180 million yuan. The project will mass-produce Kunyu Power's 720 Ah Tianchi series super batteries, providing comprehensive smart energy storage solutions across various scenarios, including generation-side storage, shared storage, household energy storage, industrial and commercial peak shaving, and network energy.

Wei Lan New Energy has launched Guangdong's first half-solid energy storage battery production line, which is the first nationwide to mass-produce high-capacity 314 Ah half-solid energy storage battery products. As a key project in Guangdong's energy development plan, this production line involves a total investment of about 1 billion yuan and is expected to achieve an annual capacity of 6 GWh, with an estimated annual output value of 2 billion yuan. The production line utilizes Wei Lan's self-innovated nano-solid electrolyte technology, suitable for various applications including grid-side storage, 5G base station storage, industrial and commercial storage, data and computing center storage, commercial vehicles, rail transit, electric construction machinery, and electric ships.

Domestically, user-side energy storage capacity continues to rise, providing robust support for the large-scale and intelligent development of industrial storage.

<b>Product Development Trends</b>
According to incomplete statistics from the CESA Energy Storage Applications Branch industry database, in Q1 2025, 17 companies, including BYD, Sunshine Power, Hongzheng Energy, Singularity Energy, Huazhi Energy, China Mobile Energy, Dongfang Risheng, Qing'an Energy Storage, and Changyuan Energy, released 24 models of industrial and commercial energy storage cabinets. As the application scenarios for industrial and commercial energy storage broaden and demands diversify, the design and development of energy storage products are showing trends of increasing refinement and specialization.

1. <b>Large-Scale Development</b>: As single large projects in industrial and commercial energy storage increase and land resources become tighter, energy storage cabinets are also trending toward larger sizes. Among the 23 industrial and commercial energy storage cabinets released in Q1 2025, eight have capacities exceeding 400 kWh, accounting for over one-third, with the largest being the eFlex 836 kWh liquid-cooled energy storage system released by Dongfang Risheng in Japan in February. Additionally, Sunshine Power, Kelun Electronics, and Penghui Energy have all launched new products exceeding 500 kWh.

2. <b>High-Capacity Cell Integration</b>: Many new products are now equipped with cells of 300+ Ah. For example, the newly released 268KWh-CTR energy storage system by Honeycomb Energy utilizes a 350 Ah cell; Huazhi Energy's 150 kW/313.5 kWh liquid-cooled/wind-cooled energy storage cabinet and Singularity Energy's eBlock-261/418 energy storage cabinets both employ 314 Ah cells; while Anhui Mingmei's HV419 liquid-cooled energy storage cabinet is equipped with a 315 Ah cell. Cells of 300+ Ah have become the mainstream choice for industrial and commercial energy storage.

3. <b>Liquid Cooling Adoption Exceeds 80%</b>: Over 80% of the newly released industrial and commercial energy storage products in Q1 2025 utilized liquid cooling methods, including some immersion liquid-cooled energy storage cabinets.

4. <b>Modularization and Integration</b>: Considering transport conditions, flexible configurations, installation cycles, and complex environments, modular design has become mainstream for industrial and commercial energy storage products. Most new products adopt an integrated design, combining battery systems, BMS, PCS, EMS, temperature control systems, fire protection systems, and distribution systems, thereby enhancing overall system integration.

5. <b>AI Empowerment and Intelligent Upgrades</b>: In 2025, the next generation of AI is gradually being applied in new industrial and commercial energy storage products. By utilizing AI management systems alongside BMS and big data, real-time monitoring of battery status and early fault warnings can be achieved, enabling millisecond-level fault prediction and self-healing mechanisms. AI can accurately forecast power generation and load, dynamically balance "source-network-load-storage," and achieve intelligent scheduling of multiple energy sources (photovoltaic/wind power/grid), establishing a real-time dynamic electricity pricing strategy generation system and maximizing economic returns. Furthermore, AI can conduct digital twin monitoring of module health, improving operational efficiency and reducing maintenance costs.

6. <b>Integration with Photovoltaics and Diverse Application Scenarios</b>: Currently, the application scenarios for industrial and commercial energy storage are becoming increasingly diverse, including high-energy-consuming industries, commercial centers, zero-carbon parks, data centers, communication base stations, hospitals, and more. More and more industrial and commercial energy storage solutions are becoming "scenario-based," offering diversified and differentiated products to meet various commercial needs. For example, Changfeng Green Energy launched the second generation of its Lingxi series of integrated photovoltaic storage products, with a combined grid-connected and off-grid 125 kW/250 kWh product that supports 125 kW PCS AC output and 120 kW DC photovoltaic input along with grid-connection and disconnection functionality. Singularity Energy's eBlock-100C energy storage cabinet highlights the "integrated photovoltaic storage" feature, targeting newly constructed commercial photovoltaic storage power station scenarios, offering both grid-connected and off-grid modes, and providing various EMS modes such as self-consumption, economic mode, and backup mode.

Sunshine Power has pioneered a grid-forming energy storage solution for commercial applications, extending grid-forming technology into the distributed energy storage sector. Its newly iterated 400V commercial energy storage product, Power Stack 255CS, offers two systems tailored to different demand scenarios with storage capacities of 257/514 kWh.

In summary, the domestic industrial and commercial energy storage market in Q1 2025 has demonstrated robust growth across installation capacity, bidding markets, registration status, industrial chain layout, and new product releases. Regions such as Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Zhejiang continue to maintain their leading positions, while emerging markets are accelerating their development. Despite facing potential challenges such as adjustments in time-of-use pricing mechanisms and intensified market competition, ongoing breakthroughs in energy storage technology and the continuous expansion of application scenarios are expected to inject strong momentum into the industry. In the future, industrial and commercial energy storage will play an even greater role in the digitalization and green low-carbon transformation.