The lithium battery industry is known as the oil of the 21st century. With the continuous implementation of the national sustainable development and “dual carbon” policy, the new energy industry continues to flourish, and the transportation structure has undergone important changes. All this has made my country’s lithium battery industry achieve rapid growth in recent years. According to statistics, my country’s power battery output has reached 2.77T in 2021, and the Twh era of China’s lithium battery industry has arrived. Xue Yi, Vice President of Medium Voltage Business Strategy and Industry Development at Schneider Electric Energy Management, said, “Faced with the opportunities and challenges in the Twh era, the lithium battery industry needs agile, safe and sustainable development from the upstream, midstream and downstream. When it comes to operation and maintenance, we look forward to working hand in hand with various partners in the lithium battery industry to seize this important development opportunity with more efficient and greener solutions.”
On August 18, the “2022 Schneider Electric Lithium Battery Industry Cloud Summit” was successfully held online. As a high-profile lithium battery industry conference, the conference invited Hu Chaohan, vice president of Shanghai Electronics Engineering Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., and Gao Xiaobing, director of Gaogong Lithium Battery Research Institute, together with Schneider Electric energy management, industrial automation, intelligent manufacturing consulting and other industries. Experts in subdivision fields will analyze the industry trends in depth, discuss the digital solutions of the lithium battery industry under the integration of automation and electrification, and seek a common development path for the lithium battery industry.
The lithium battery industry is at the right time, and the large-scale and intelligent development of enterprises is the key
At present, in China, lithium batteries have been applied in many industries, among which the fields of new energy vehicles and energy storage account for the highest proportion. Gao Xiaobing, Dean of the High-tech Lithium Battery Research Institute, pointed out, “At present, China’s power batteries have been exported in batches. From the perspective of market size, the output value of domestic power batteries is also growing rapidly. In the next three years, China’s lithium batteries will be in a concentrated expansion period. .” In the context of such rapid development, the development of the lithium battery industry “blowout” has become inevitable. At the same time, how to quickly seize this development opportunity, realize rapid investment and large-scale development has become an important issue.
Based on the rich experience in designing lithium battery factories, Hu Chaohan, vice president of Shanghai electronic Engineering Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd., believes that China’s current lithium battery development is in a leading position in the world, but it is still in a stage of rapid progress. “At present, the design of lithium battery factories is developing in the direction of increasing scale and increasing intelligence. Smart lithium battery factory design can reduce the overall factory cost and improve product process quality for enterprises. improvement, and the control of overall operating costs.” Through excellent factory design, lithium battery companies can be more competitive and achieve more benign and sustainable development.
Seize growth opportunities and make factories agile, safe and sustainable
Although the current demand in the lithium battery market has made large-scale factory construction an important trend, high factory construction costs, complex structural environment, and high safety risks have all become obstacles for companies to invest and develop in the lithium battery industry. To this end, Li Wei, electronics industry architect of Schneider Electric Energy Efficiency Low Voltage Marketing Department, and Hu Wei, senior solution architect of digital energy efficiency business shared Schneider Electric’s full life cycle digital solutions based on agile, safe and sustainable ideas. Provide drive and assistance for lithium battery companies to build factories.
The agile digital solution is to help enterprises shorten the construction cycle, quickly put into production, and realize flexible power distribution and worry-free expansion through lightweight deployment. This solution performs digital monitoring of a single power distribution room or important circuit, and is based on the core innovative products of the edge control layer of the EcoStruxure Power architecture and platform – active operation and maintenance expert PMBox and station control master POI Plus, to realize the full range of medium and low voltage power distribution scenarios. Coverage, and through the innovative application of minimalist digital, the digital capabilities are natively preset in the design stage, thereby improving the reliability of the whole life cycle from construction to deployment, from commissioning to operation, and improving the overall operation and maintenance efficiency.
The safe digital solution is an economical solution. In response to the demand of the lithium battery industry for the reliable operation of the production line, the PO system is used to monitor the medium and low voltage of the entire station to build a safety base for the lithium battery factory. According to Li Wei, “Schneider Electric has also designed two different power distribution architectures to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the production line for the different power requirements of the main material production plant of lithium batteries and the cell and PACK factories.” Power system characteristics, equipment sensitivity, and security digital architecture also impose four-fold guarantees on power quality. Different product combinations are used to comprehensively manage problems such as low power factor and high harmonics in the system to fully meet the needs of different types of customers. Power system construction needs in safety production, intelligent operation and maintenance, etc.
Smart digital solutions further take into account the energy management and sustainable development of enterprises. By using the advanced functional modules in the PO system, the POEM digital energy efficiency system and the POAE asset health experts, this solution can monitor the energy consumption and manage the asset health of the entire plant. Hu Wei said: “Using digital technology and software, our solution can fully realize equipment monitoring, energy consumption statistical analysis and asset health management, helping customers to continuously promote energy conservation and emission reduction while improving operation and maintenance efficiency.” This solution The plan can help enterprises to do long-term planning and management, and then achieve sustainable development and achieve carbon reduction goals.
Digitally sort out every aspect of lithium battery production to achieve safe and efficient intelligent manufacturing
The rapid development of the lithium battery industry requires attention not only to the basic factory power distribution deployment, but also to the many challenges in the manufacturing process of lithium battery products. The lithium battery production line is composed of several processes such as electrode production, cell synthesis, chemical composition, module testing and packing. How to achieve high-efficiency and high-quality lithium battery production, how to do a good job in material management and control, and how to prevent equipment maintenance, These are the problems faced by the current development of lithium battery-related enterprises.
“Digitalization is going deep into all aspects of battery production and manufacturing, helping lithium battery manufacturers to create ‘acceleration’ in the development competition.” Hua Cuirong, manager of Schneider Electric’s industrial automation lithium battery industry, introduced Schneider Electric’s lithium battery industry automation solutions at the meeting: “We sort out every link of lithium battery production from a digital perspective, based on reliable interconnected equipment, under the EcoStruxure Machine architecture. Improve the automation and intelligence level of the production line, escort real-time control, reliable operation, and efficient operation and maintenance, and drive the value of the supply chain of the lithium battery industry.”
On the basis of realizing production automation and intelligence, enterprises still need a set of management solutions to realize the vision of green intelligent manufacturing. For example, by building a lean management system, it helps to sort out the project management process, optimize the organizational structure, and establish perfect manufacturing indicators. System, and provide production line design and optimization, warehouse management and plant layout guidance, etc. To this end, Li Zhengjun, senior consultant of Schneider Electric’s Green and Intelligent Manufacturing Consulting Business Department, introduced Schneider Electric’s intelligent manufacturing solutions for the lithium battery industry: “Guaranteed by management foundation + technical foundation, we have created a panorama of the intelligent manufacturing solution architecture for the lithium battery industry. This The plan covers consulting and digitalization, helping enterprises overcome various difficulties on the road of intelligent manufacturing transformation and upgrading, grasp the pace of competition, and move forward steadily.” The plan will systematically cover carbon neutral consulting services, as well as intelligent operation and maintenance methods , to help customers achieve various benefits such as cost reduction and efficiency increase, safe operation, low-carbon energy saving, etc.
Insight into the trend of lithium battery industry, and work together to achieve a green future
At the meeting, Schneider Electric also released samples and white papers of the lithium battery industry, aiming to analyze the structural characteristics and development opportunities of China’s lithium battery industry under the current industry development trend, analyze the driving factors for the development of the lithium battery industry, and discuss effective energy management. and industrial automation solutions.
As a digital transformation expert in global energy management and automation, Schneider Electric is committed to accelerating the development of the lithium battery industry with technology, insights and practices. Xue Yi said at the meeting: “In such an accelerated period of industry development, we look forward to sharing digital energy management and intelligent automated manufacturing capabilities with the lithium battery industry by using products and solutions as carriers, and working with industry customers to provide lithium battery power. rapid, high-quality, and green development.”
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