Source, Grid, Load, Storage, and Intelligence (SGSI) Integration: Reshaping the Industry Ecosystem under Policy No. 136

Recently, the photovoltaic industry has seen new policies. According to the "Notice on Deepening the Market-Oriented Reform of New Energy On-Grid Electricity Prices and Promoting the High-Quality Development of New Energy" (NDPRC [2025] 136) jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration (hereinafter referred to as "Document 136"), it is pointed out that promoting new energy on-grid electricity to participate in market transactions, on-grid electricity prices are formed through market transactions, and establishing a "price settlement mechanism for the sustainable development of new energy." The policy has attracted close attention from the industry since its release.
“From the perspective of Document 136, although photovoltaics are not yet the main force in the power sector, they are developing in that direction. Today, even thermal power plants have not fully participated in market transactions, but new energy electricity is about to begin trading, which means that photovoltaics will play a greater role. We need to think carefully about the new direction of the industry in the future.” Wang Yingge, vice president of GoodWe Power Inverter Co., Ltd., recently said in an interview with a reporter from China Energy News.

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The integrated development of photovoltaics and energy storage has become a trend

With the participation of distributed photovoltaics in electricity trading, the combined development of photovoltaics and energy storage has become an inevitable trend. “From the perspective of power generation characteristics, distributed photovoltaics are affected by sunlight and their power generation is unstable. Energy storage can store electricity when there is sufficient sunlight and release electricity when there is a lack of light, ensuring a stable electricity supply. In addition, the combination of distributed photovoltaics and energy storage can improve the self-sufficiency rate of energy, reduce dependence on the main grid, and enhance the reliability of power supply, maintaining power supply even in the event of a grid failure. Previously, most industrial and commercial energy storage projects were independent, and even in the same station, photovoltaics and energy storage belonged to different operating entities and adopted different revenue models, which could not effectively cooperate, resulting in the inability to use energy storage to achieve peak shaving when the surplus electricity on-grid Price is low. Under the new policy, energy storage will become a reservoir tool, effectively regulating electricity Price and improving the rate of return of photovoltaic projects.” Wang Yingge explained. In addition, the new policy requires that the on-grid portion of new energy must participate in trading, bringing new opportunities for the combination of virtual power plant technology and distributed generation. “Virtual power plants need to aggregate different energy sources for trading, and transactions by a single entity can hardly ensure profitability. The participation of new energy in market transactions has provided the conditions for virtual power plants to become a reality.” Wang Yingge frankly stated, “In this process, there are still considerable challenges. On the one hand, there is the electricity load side. The operating status of the load side will directly affect electricity consumption, so in the process of project implementation, we need to pay attention to whether the load side can operate stably in the long term; on the other hand, aggregating different energy sources requires a complete set of management models and smart energy management platforms, and complex algorithms are also needed to support it.” It is worth mentioning that GoodWe has created multiple demonstration projects based on its technical accumulation in grid, internet, and power electronic equipment hardware and software. It is also continuing to strengthen AI algorithms, striving to shape its core competitiveness, and has already made layouts in the smart energy sector as early as 2021. According to Wang Yingge: “GoodWe itself does not directly conduct virtual power plant business, but provides services and solutions for virtual power plants. In this regard, we have hardware support from inverters, energy storage, and heat pump products, and we also have the EPC overall solution capability.”}, {

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Initiating the Elimination of the Unfit

In Wang Yingge's view, after the new policy, the photovoltaics and energy storage industry needs to further compress costs to ensure profitability.

GoodWe Smart Energy Building "After the market-oriented trading of photovoltaic power, the decline in electricity Price revenue is a general trend. The spot trading Price is only a little more than 10 cents, and even with the addition of medium and long-term Price and mechanism Price guarantees, it will not be too high. The existence of compressible space in the intermediate links has become the key. For example, industry pain points such as too many channel links and excessive development costs need to be solved urgently, which will force channel transformation. At the same time, it will also promote the emergence of high-quality enterprises, while some less competitive enterprises will withdraw from the household market.” Wang Yingge said. “From the perspective of inverters, although the efficiency is relatively high at present, we are still continuously improving efficiency. In addition, it is necessary to pay attention to the long-term reliability of products, which can significantly reduce the cost of electricity generation over the entire life cycle of the power station. GoodWe's GT series 100-125kW industrial and commercial inverters, for example, have highly efficient power generation and are robust and reliable, and have been widely used in scenarios such as nuclear power plants and gas stations with very high safety requirements.” Wang Yingge said. “However, grid-connected inverters have been relatively mature after more than ten years of development, and the room for cost reduction is relatively limited. The next focus of cost reduction may be in the energy storage field.” Wang Yingge explained, “When combining photovoltaics and energy storage, it is found that the proportion of energy storage in the system is quite high. The core of future cost reduction in the combination of photovoltaics and energy storage should be the development of energy storage technology and the reduction of energy storage costs, and the long-term reliability of the equipment must also be guaranteed.”}, {

“At present, the basic warranty period for inverters is 5 years. Referring to the development trend of the home appliance industry, future warranty requirements will gradually increase, and equipment needs to be more durable and reliable for a longer period. Energy storage products have stricter safety assessments and must ensure safe and stable operation, which also puts higher demands on technology. Ensuring low failure rate and long-term stable and reliable operation of the equipment, increasing the actual operating hours of the equipment, and spreading out the cost, the cost of electricity generation can also be reduced accordingly; conversely, if the equipment frequently has problems, the cost of electricity generation will increase, and equipment replacement and maintenance and repair will be required.” Wang Yingge said.

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Developing Towards Source, Grid, Load, Storage, and Intelligence (SGSI) Integration

Regarding the future direction of energy development, Wang Yingge believes that "source, grid, load, storage" + "intelligence", namely SGSI, should also be developed. In fact, provinces such as Shandong and Henan have already issued relevant policies encouraging the coordinated development of energy storage and source-grid-load. GoodWe has made early layouts in one-stop solutions for source, grid, load, and storage. In the past decade, GoodWe's distributed inverters have been in a leading position in shipments, with a cumulative shipment of more than 100GW. GoodWe's "China Red, Photovoltaic Core" has entered thousands of households, and energy storage products range from household to industrial and commercial to large-scale storage, with a rich product line. Photovoltaic building materials are expected to achieve market share leadership this year, and its subsidiary Yude can achieve turnkey projects in household and commercial photovoltaic fields, and GoodWe's air source heat pumps are popular in Europe. GoodWe's smart energy management platform has realized the access of more than 3GW of distributed energy, providing management platforms for local energy investment enterprises. Wang Yingge pointed out that at present, technological innovation achievements in the photovoltaic industry are emerging in endlessly, but there is a real lack of revolutionary and disruptive technological innovation that can lead the entire industry. “It seems that everyone is doing innovation now, but there is a lack of original technological innovation. Next, the industry still needs to settle down and cultivate photovoltaic, energy storage, and smart energy technologies.” Wang Yingge believes: “Policies can work on technology guidance, grid connection procedures, and reducing external costs, setting good technical standards, encouraging enterprises to increase R&D investment, mastering core technologies, and avoiding the phenomenon of ‘bad money driving out good money.’