UPS is currently developing in the direction of energy-saving, environmental protection, and high energy, the most prominent technological change is the replacement of lithium batteries for lead-acid batteries. Lithium batteries have high life, high capacity, less pollution, and other advantages are expected to replace the lead-acid batteries as an important part of the UPS power supply system. At present, Impress, Huawei, Schneider, CATL, and other equipment and lithium giants are accelerating the layout of UPS lithium batteries.

In this article, Impress Energy editor will provide comprehensive industry data and analysis reports for practitioners who want to understand lithium batteries for UPS from UPS equipment, the scale of demand for lithium batteries for UPS, competitive landscape, product costs, UPS performance requirements for lithium batteries, risks and recommendations, and market outlook.

1. UPS Equipment Market Analysis Report

UPS is an equipment power protection device that ensures continuous power supply in case of main power interruption. 2019 saw a decline in domestic UPS sales growth due to the overall economic downturn and the tightening of new data centers in first-tier cities. 2019 saw domestic UPS sales of 1.526 million units, a slight increase of 0.3% from 1.522 million units in 2018. However, with the implementation of the "new infrastructure" strategy, the UPS market is expected to regain the momentum of rapid growth.

Currently, domestic UPS manufacturers with scale advantages are starting to go abroad and export high-end UPS products to compete with international brands in the world. With the rapid growth of China's information industry, UPS power supply as a protection device for information equipment, the application in various industries is becoming more and more common, becoming an indispensable device around IT. At present, the UPS power supply system equipment market for information equipment is in a period of steady rise.

2. The scale of demand for lithium batteries for UPS

At present, there are two domestic UPS lithium battery supplier supply models: one is to supply equipment vendors first according to the demand of UPS equipment vendors, and then sold by the equipment vendors to end customers; the other is the industry agents and system integrators directly to the terminal large customers (large operators) channel system to meet the high-power and ultra high-power UPS lithium customization needs.

According to the data, UPS battery demand in 2019 is 12GWh-15GWh, but the penetration rate of lithium in UPS is less than 5%. By 2025, the UPS lithium rate will reach at least 40%, and overall there is still a very large room for growth.

UPS's high-power, the modular trend continues to strengthen, especially the modular UPS power supply 2019 growth rate of 9.5%, higher than the overall market size of 6.2% of the market rate. With the advantages of high energy efficiency, fast delivery, and continuous expansion, modular UPS is expected to exceed 50% of the application ratio in the next three years. The trend of switching to lithium batteries for UPS will be even more rapid in the future, with 10% of data centers already using lithium battery UPS power supplies as energy storage devices, which shows a great trend.

3. Product cost of lithium batteries for UPS

Analysis of UPS lithium battery product costs, application demand characteristics, and mainstream matching models to help customers fully understand the advantages and disadvantages of UPS lithium batteries relative to lead-acid, as well as UPS lithium battery models and performance needs. 2020 domestic UPS lithium battery mainstream lithium iron phosphate average price of 0.65-0.75 yuan / Wh, the high rate models than conventional batteries 0.2-0.3 yuan / Wh Wh, some high-end models of batteries can reach an average price of 1.5 yuan / Wh.

It is predicted that within two to three years, the price of lithium batteries will gradually converge with the price of lead-acid batteries. In the next 2-3 years, the price of lithium battery materials will continue to decline, but the decline in space is gradually reduced. Therefore, in the future, the cost of lithium batteries will fall more through the optimization of battery pack design and PACK process improvement and scale effect to enhance.

The biggest resistance is that lithium batteries do not yet have the cost advantage, and the application of standards is not uniform, resulting in the high cost of universal access. Future lithium cost at what point in time can be equal to lead-acid, UPS lithium battery working mode and working conditions requirements, mainstream battery pack models and configurations are what will be the focus of analysis.

4. The competitive landscape of lithium batteries for UPS

The industry of lithium battery UPS has high growth, but the market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and the industry is currently demanding a high level of safety and energy density for lithium batteries for UPS, and many new entrants are under cost pressure. What will be the impact of the current market demand and competition pattern on new entrants, and how fast the future development of lithium battery UPS will be the focus of research.

Impress Energy understands the matching application of lithium batteries in the UPS industry and the current situation and characteristics of the lithium battery UPS industry, insight into the development trend of the industry, adhere to the safety, high efficiency, energy-saving, green, as the design and development concept, to provide users in various industries with safe, stable and efficient lithium products and solutions.

Also, two of the three international brand manufacturers, Schneider Electric, Eaton, and Emerson Network Power, have clearly defined the layout and progress of data center lithium battery applications. Huawei is also actively laying out the UPS lithium battery market. Huawei Digital Energy has launched a UPS lithium battery system solution with high security, reliability, longer service life, smaller footprint, and simpler operation and maintenance to address the needs of data center users in terms of UPS.

5. UPS performance requirements for lithium batteries

At present, from the whole industry chain competition, domestic small and medium-sized "workshop" UPS production enterprises weak competitiveness, which is reflected in the competition of the whole industry chain, especially in the brand and R & D performance is poor, sales also need to further improve. Traditional lead-acid battery's short life, poor reliability, low energy density, large footprint, and other shortcomings are increasingly prominent, lithium battery UPS solutions, whether in terms of reliability, availability, or flexibility, have taken advantage of.

UPS lithium battery cell performance requirements are mainly reflected in the high cycle life, high stability, high multiplier performance, wide operating temperature range. At this stage, the domestic UPS lithium battery mainly uses lithium iron phosphate technology route, good safety, long life of lithium iron phosphate mainstream status is difficult to shake for the time being. In terms of performance requirements, high energy/power density, high safety, and the high cycle is the long-term pursuit of future lithium products.

6. UPS lithium battery industry recommendations

Although the UPS lithium battery industry is in a period of rapid development, the future incremental space is huge, but the industry development is still facing more problems, such as the lack of lithium economy, long investment recovery cycle, product technology route changes. For most of the lithium battery UPS enterprises whose capital and technical strength are not particularly strong, they should first start from the application link, find the right target market, provide solutions to customers, and flexibly respond to technical and market changes.

The development of China's lithium battery industry is very promising, but the foundation is still very weak, not only in technology to progress but also low-level duplication and overcapacity of the stubborn disease has the potential to re-enact. To make the healthy development of China's lithium battery industry and win the first opportunity, it is inseparable from the scientific planning and reasonable constraints of the government and industry management departments, but also requires the calm decision of the relevant enterprises.

Lithium battery enterprises need to understand the market comprehensively, discover market investment opportunities, avoid market investment risks, consider the key elements and management requirements of the whole life cycle stages of lithium battery energy storage system, such as design, manufacturing, installation, operation, maintenance, and recycling, and accelerate the realization of the whole process, the whole element of refinement and systematic management. 

7. UPS lithium battery market development prospects

As various UPS manufacturers provide components, product design and technology is not the same, centralized monitoring and various types of equipment monitoring software has a difficult to compatible characteristics, coupled with follow-up service considerations, users often tend to use the same manufacturer's products within a system. In this way, with a complete product line from UPS to related products and strong comprehensive strength of the manufacturer, the competition will have more advantages.

As manufacturers continue to grasp the needs of users, the future UPS will no longer be a single unit of uninterruptible power supply equipment, but will move toward a full set of uninterruptible power supply, cabinets, power management, cooling, power cables and data cabling for a full set of power supply and management solutions, "total solution" UPS become a widely accepted choice for users.

Subway, transportation, military, communications, data centers and other important industries in urgent need of UPS lithium battery products, the huge power supply gap and the important sector requirements for continuous power supply, to the UPS lithium industry development brings important opportunities. It can be expected that, with the development of China's strategic emerging industries, UPS industry will usher in a new round of rapid development period.