Six roles on the grid side of China's energy transition

Mandate

Turn a fast-growing developer into a company that could fund its own stations, survive falling equipment prices and withstand the scrutiny of public investors.

Outcomes

• Raised RMB 2.6 billion from Mingquan Energy Investment Group in 2022 without a buy-back right; average cost of new project loans fell from 5.6 to 3.7 per cent.
• Grew the owned fleet from four stations and 0.9 GWh to 21 stations and 5.6 GWh by December 2025.
• Held integration gross margin at about 10 per cent through the 2024 price war by refusing tenders below a cost-based floor.
• Moved station revenue from capacity leases to market trading after the 2025 reform; trading and compensation rose from 44 to 71 per cent of station revenue.
• Grew export revenue from RMB 0.31 billion in 2021 to RMB 1.57 billion in 2025.

Decisions in context

I became chief executive in January 2021, when Fang Dezhi, our founder, became full-time chairman. Qianyue then owned four stations with 0.9 GWh of storage and had earned RMB 1.9 billion in 2020. My first task was capital: our stations were financed with expensive project loans and the founder's guarantees, and in 2022 I recommended a provincial state-owned investor over a higher private valuation. The next three years brought the decisions that define this role: a price floor through the 2024 price war, a commissioning fire and the safety programme that followed it, the withdrawal of our listing application and the rebuilding of station revenue after the 2025 reform. I lead 2,450 people through an executive committee of nine and sit on a board with founder, state, growth-fund and independent members. Revenue reached RMB 5.45 billion in 2025, with the owned fleet at 5.6 GWh.

Reason for the move

Current role. Not seeking an executive move; considering one independent directorship with the agreement of Qianyue's board.

Mandate

Bring operating discipline to station construction and give the company its own system-integration plant.

Outcomes

• Commissioned the Zibo integration plant in 2020 with an initial capacity of 4 GWh a year.
• Cut average station construction time from eleven months to seven.
• Set up the company's first central operations centre, monitoring every station around the clock.
• Introduced standard station designs that reduced engineering hours per project by about a third.

Decisions in context

Fang Dezhi recruited me from Wenlan Power Cell in April 2019 to run operations at a company that owned the stations it built. Qianyue was three years old, had four stations under construction or in service and bought complete systems from outside suppliers, which left it with little control over quality or delivery. I led construction, operations and the build-out of our own integration plant at Zibo, a RMB 380 million investment that began production in 2020 with capacity of 4 GWh a year. We standardised station designs, cut average construction time from eleven months to seven and opened a central operations centre that watched every station day and night. The work was operational rather than strategic, and it gave me a detailed knowledge of our stations that I have relied on as chief executive. I took over as chief executive in January 2021, when the founder moved to full-time chairman.

Reason for the move

Appointed chief executive when the founder became full-time chairman.

Mandate

Build a stationary storage business from a bus-cell maker's spare capacity.

Outcomes

• Grew storage revenue from RMB 40 million in 2014 to RMB 2.1 billion in 2018.
• Delivered the company's first 100 MWh grid-side system in 2018.
• Shipped the company's first containerised systems abroad, to Australia, in 2017.
• Built a laboratory that cycled production cells to failure and fed degradation data into warranty pricing.

Decisions in context

I joined Wenlan Power Cell in January 2014 because I believed storage would decide how much more wind and solar China's grids could take, and Wenlan had idle cell capacity after a slowdown in bus orders. The chairman, Shen Kaiwei, gave me twelve people and asked for a storage business. We began with small commercial systems, moved into grid-side projects and by 2018 had a division of 340 people earning RMB 2.1 billion. Our first export systems went to Australia in 2017, and our first 100 MWh grid-side system was commissioned in 2018. The decision I am proudest of was the laboratory: we cycled our own production cells to failure, which told us how they aged before customers found out and gave us honest numbers for warranties. I left in 2019 to run operations at a company that owned its stations and would live with how they performed.

Reason for the move

Wanted to run a company that owned its stations and lived with their performance, which a cell maker could not offer.

Mandate

Connect a fast-growing wind fleet to a weak regional grid and reduce the output lost to curtailment.

Outcomes

• Connected 1.9 GW of wind capacity across 23 farms.
• Retrofitted low-voltage ride-through capability on 640 turbines after the regional disconnection events of 2011.
• Built a forecasting and scheduling team that reduced our farms' curtailment from about 24 to 16 per cent between 2011 and 2013.

Decisions in context

I moved to Taolin New Energy in July 2008 as head of grid integration for its north-west branch, which was building wind farms in Gansu faster than the regional grid could carry their output. My team handled grid-connection studies, negotiations with the grid company and, increasingly, the daily conversation with dispatchers about how much we could generate. In 2011 a series of mass turbine disconnections on the regional grid led to mandatory retrofits, and we upgraded 640 turbines within a year. I became deputy general manager that year, with responsibility for operations across 23 farms. Curtailment cost the branch roughly a fifth of its potential output in the worst years. Better forecasting and scheduling brought our farms from about 24 per cent to 16 per cent by 2013, but no forecast could store electricity. I left to work on the equipment that could.

Reason for the move

Saw that storage would decide how much more renewable output the grid could absorb, and joined a cell maker to build it.

Mandate

Deliver substation and transmission projects abroad on time and through commissioning.

Outcomes

• Delivered two 220 kV substations in Kazakhstan on schedule.
• Led the design work for a 132 kV transmission reinforcement in Pakistan.
• Wrote the institute's first commissioning handbook for overseas sites.

Decisions in context

In September 2004 the institute moved me from planning to its international projects department, where I managed substation and transmission work abroad. I spent much of the next four years on site, first in Kazakhstan, where we delivered two 220 kV substations on schedule, and then on the design of a 132 kV transmission reinforcement in Pakistan. The projects were small by the standards of the institute's domestic work, but they taught me how a client abroad judges a Chinese contractor: by what happens when commissioning fails and whether the engineers are still on site to fix it. I wrote the institute's first commissioning handbook for overseas sites from what went wrong on mine. By 2008 the wind build-out in north-west China was accelerating, and I wanted to work on the generation side, where the grid problems I had studied were becoming commercial ones.

Reason for the move

Wanted to work on the generation side as China's wind build-out began in the north-west.

Mandate

Carry out load-flow and stability studies for the expansion of the regional 330 kV network.

Outcomes

• Completed stability studies for eleven 330 kV transmission projects.
• Ran the institute's first study of connecting large wind farms to the regional network.
• Promoted to senior engineer in 2003.

Decisions in context

I joined Lianshan Electric Power Survey and Design Institute in Xi'an in July 2000, straight from my master's degree, as one of fourteen engineers in its grid planning department. For four years I ran load-flow and stability studies for the expansion of the 330 kV network across north-west China, and I completed studies for eleven transmission projects. In 2003 I ran the institute's first study of connecting large wind farms to the regional network, which showed how quickly the grid's limits would bind once wind capacity grew. Few people at the institute thought that would matter soon; within five years it was the main constraint in the region. I was promoted to senior engineer in 2003, supervising two junior engineers. In 2004 the institute asked me to move to international projects, and I accepted because I wanted to see equipment built and commissioned, not only modelled.

Reason for the move

Asked by the institute to move to its international projects department.