Driven by the country’s “dual carbon” goals, there is a surge in demand for renewable energy on the Chinese mainland, leading to rapid market growth. We established the Towngas Energy brand in 2016 to provide one-stop zero-carbon services for the Group’s city gas project companies. These include energy planning, low-carbon energy supply, energy-saving solutions, energy system digitalisation, and carbon-electricity management. Building on our strong foundations, Towngas Smart Energy actively develops smart energy projects based on three major directives: integration, decarbonisation, and digitalisation.
The Group leverages digital technology to drive the low-carbon transition of the industry towards renewable energy. We provide integrated energy management and services, including investment, construction, and operation of distributed photovoltaic (PV) systems, energy storage, battery charging and swapping stations, multi-source energy supply, and other energy infrastructure. Additionally, we offer smart value-added services such as energy efficiency and carbon management, virtual power plants, green power trading, and PV-storage asset trusteeship. With our Smart Energy Ecosystem Platform, we deliver intelligent services to foster the development of zero-carbon industrial parks and low-carbon factories. Our comprehensive solutions empower businesses to implement effective ESG management, contributing to the country’s “dual carbon” goals. To date, we have deployed over 1,000 smart energy projects across 24 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities nationwide, and developed 128 zero-carbon smart industrial park projects.
One-stop Smart Energy System
In 2024, our distributed photovoltaic projects have a cumulative grid-connected installed capacity of 2.3GW, with electricity generation reaching 1.83 billion kWh. The customer base covers 20 industries, including eight major emission-control industries such as petrochemical, building materials and non-ferrous metals, etc., serving both private companies as well as large-scale central and state-owned enterprises.
Building on our photovoltaic customer base, we have been able to leverage our unique smart microgrid technologies and products to expand our “Energy as a Service” (“EaaS”) projects. Our customers thus enjoy one-stop energy management services that integrate “photovoltaics + energy storage + electricity sales” facilities.
EaaS Smart Microgrid Project
In 2024, we completed Shenzhen’s first industrial EaaS smart microgrid demonstration project—the Skywell Auto project in Pingshan, Shenzhen. Tailored to customer’s energy usage requirements, we developed a comprehensive energy solution that includes building a photovoltaic power station to supply green electricity, installing energy storage to shift peak electricity usage, deploying energy routers to optimize energy flow, using Microgrid Star for effective microgrid control, and integrating with a virtual power plant for grid peak shaving. This project has significantly increased energy efficiency and economic benefits, setting a new benchmark for smart energy and carbon services.
By the end of 2024, we had installed 8MW of distributed photovoltaics on 75,000 square metres of rooftop space of Skywell Auto’s plant. This generates over 8.8 million kWh of green electricity annually, reducing carbon emissions by approximately 4,590 tonnes and saving around RMB 2 million in electricity costs each year.
Virtual Power Plant
Leveraging our smart microgrids, we actively develop virtual power plants and participate in electricity market transactions, achieving industry-leading breakthroughs in cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai. In 2023, the first virtual power plant for a public institution in Shenzhen was officially commissioned at Futian District Party Committee Compound. Jointly developed with Shenzhen Fuxin Dual Carbon Industry Operation Management Company Limited, the project integrates technologies such as photovoltaics, energy storage, charging piles, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), central air-conditioning systems and other distributed power supplies, with a load capacity of 3.6 MW and a real-time adjustability of 300 kW. During peak electricity consumption periods, the virtual plant can output excess electricity to the grid in order to ensure stable operations. Virtual power plants can integrate more energy resources among public institutions and play a significant role in balancing the supply and demand of the power grid.
Building A Green and Low-Carbon Power Plant
For this company’s Guangzhou-based factory, Xinhao Precision Technology, we provided an integrated smart energy solution based on the four-pronged approach of “Green Power + Energy Saving + Intelligence + Offsetting”. It includes a 5.2MW distributed photovoltaic system with the capacity to generate 5.4 million kWh of green power annually. We also upgraded their industrial central air-conditioning and air compressor systems and installed a waste heat recovery system that supplies domestic hot water for 3,000 customers. With our solutions, the client has obtained the 2021 carbon-neutral certification issued by the Guangzhou-based China Emissions Exchange.
Our seven key businesses include Towngas Carbon Asset, Towngas Green Power, TCSET, Towngas Smart Energy Power Engineering, Towngas Energy Technology, Towngas Digital Energy, and Towngas Energy Academy. These business units cover seven main service areas in the renewable energy field, including zero-carbon technology, intelligent operation and maintenance, low-carbon factories, energy storage in industrial parks, virtual power plants, carbon management and trading, as well as green power trading. We believe these seven business units will work synergistically to provide personalised and one-stop zero-carbon services to meet the diverse needs of our customers.