JD Energy is bringing its experience working with high voltage transmission infrastructure to the European market, as the Chinese BESS manufacturer seeks to grow its business on the continent as demand for grid-forming BESS assets grows.
Martin Liu, Vice President of Overseas Business at JD Energy told ESS News the company’s leadership team has decades of experience working on ultra-high-voltage transmission before turning to energy storage – a background which Liu argued can set the company apart from rivals.
“If you want to provide the best solution, you must have very deep understanding about the power grid,” he said.
JD Energy was founded in 2018 by a renowned power electronics expert together with a team of seasoned engineers, each bringing more than a decade of experience in advanced energy storage technology development. The company specializes in the research, development and commercialization of core technologies and products for advanced battery energy storage systems.
Martin Liu explained that JD Energy’s leadership has extensive experience in advanced power systems, power electronics and grid technologies. It’s the kind of engineering expertise that can directly translate into storage systems built to support modern power grids, according to Liu.
JD Energy is already offering grid-forming technology and Liu said the company has certification for grid-forming, black-start and off-grid operation. Liu said JD Energy expects to commission its first grid-forming project in Germany before the end of the year.
The company used The smarter E show trade show held in Munich in June to showcase its portfolio, including its eBlock range of C&I cabinets available in a variety of capacities, and the newly launched 6.2 MWh Galaxy-2 energy storage system, built for grid-scale applications. JD Energy’s subsidiary StrPower also showcased its solid-state transformer product at the exhibition.
The technical argument for JD Energy’s containerized BESS solution, as explained by Liu, is that its energy storage solution avoids self-charge and self-discharge losses found in conventional centralized container designs, where multiple battery racks share a singe DC busbar and centralized power conversion system. In this layout, when state-of-charge is carried between racks then current can circulate from higher-voltage to lower-voltage racks even when the system is switched off, Liu said, accelerating degradation.
JD Energy uses a distributed architecture with a string-level PCS beneath each battery rack, which Liu said allows for 100% depth of discharge while avoiding circulating currents.
On safety, Liu said JD Energy fits sensors to every individual battery cell rather than every rack – he put the industry norm at five to seven sensors per rack – feeding voltage, temperature and current data into an AI-based cell health system designed to flag thermal anomalies before they escalate. He also said the system has passed third-party fire-propagation testing, claiming a four-hour delay between a single-cell thermal event and any spread to a neighboring pack, giving operators time to intervene.
A further safety claim rests on integrating the battery management system (BMS) and PCS into a single unit, which the company says eliminates the communication delay that can occur when the two systems are sourced separately and must exchange trip signals in real time.
Germany is one of a clutch of international markets where JD Energy has established a foothold since launching its export business in 2022. Liu said the company has now shipped to more than 10 countries, including Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Hungary and Japan. JD Energy reports total delivered capacity globally of more than 10 GWh since launching its all-in-one liquid-cooled energy storage system in 2022.
JD Energy has invested in boots on the ground to support its European ambitions. The Chinese company has an office in Dusseldorf, Germany, as well as an after-sales service center in Hungary covering the wider European market. Deals are being made, including around 1 GWh of strategic agreements signed during The smarter E exhibition in Munich.
“From 2022 to now we delivered more than 2,000 projects total capacity more than 10 GWh,” said Liu. “We are very confident to promote in Germany and in Europe.”
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