Smart PV frequently appears in reports about CNBM Technology, often mentioned in contexts such as "PV plant control systems based on industrial Internet architectures," "smart PV solutions," and "energy management systems in low-carbon smart campuses."
This highlights the growing importance of the Digital Power business for CNBM Technology, particularly its solution-based services, which have become a core offering. This capability is built on the company's extensive experience, resources, and strong partnerships.
Currently, CNBM Technology is expanding into the rapidly growing C&I market and integration services. At the same time, it is strengthening its digital energy capabilities through independent R&D and support from its partners, like Huawei.
Journeying together for over a decade
Founded in 2005, CNBM Technology is a subsidiary of the China National Building Materials Group Corporation (CNBM) and registered a revenue of over CNY19.2 billion in 2023. CNBM Technology provides two primary service offerings: ecosystem services and intelligent digital services. The company has established strategic cooperation relationships with many leading ICT vendors in and outside China. At the same time, it is creating its own digital solutions and developing a unique pipeline to help customers during the integration of digital intelligence services.
CNBM Technology first started exploring a partnership with Huawei Digital Power back in 2012. Now, it is one of Huawei's major ecosystem partners and has held the top market share in China's government and enterprise business among distributors for 15 consecutive years.
Xi Hai, General Manager of the Renewable Energy Department of CNBM Technology, has witnessed the evolution of this cooperation from first contact to fruitful achievements. He recalls that the partnership first started with a visit by Hou Jinlong, Director of the Board of Huawei and President of Huawei Digital Power, to CNBM Technology to discuss cooperation opportunities in an overseas project. Huawei's Smart PV product portfolio impressed Xi Hai due to their potential in the PV market. This was CNBM Technology 's first step into the solar power industry.
In the middle of 2013, Huawei Digital Power officially started to recruit partners. CNBM Technology quickly responded and received cooperation authorization in August 2013.
According to Xi Hai, few vendors were interested because of the limited PV market scale. However, CNBM Technology had a positive outlook on the digital energy industry and decided to become one of Huawei Digital Power's first partners.
Xi Hai proudly displays the "Fellow Traveler" trophy Huawei granted him on his desk, which is showcasing the success of this cooperation.
Leading technologies win customer trust
Talking about their cooperation over the last decade, Xi Hai described it as a relationship built on mutual understanding and support to overcome challenges.
Although both companies saw a promising future for renewable energy, they inevitably encountered setbacks due to factors such as market changes. However, neither backed down, even in difficult times, and their perseverance paid off. In 2023, CNBM Technology's revenue from doing business with Huawei Digital Power exceeded CNY2 billion, a ten-fold increase in ten years.
Huawei Digital Power offers superior products and technologies, which has made it quickly become a market leader. In particular, it offers some of the market's best PV inverters, which has further consolidated its position in the market and allowed it to leverage its ICT expertise with power electronics technologies to support PV intelligence.
Xi Hai vividly recalls one specific meeting held by the State Power Investment Corporation Limited (SPIC) in Golmud, Qinghai. The meeting discussed the test results proving that Huawei's inverters had a much higher energy yield and a lower fault rate than other mainstream inverter brands under the same test environment. Up until now, Huawei's inverters have been running stably for more than ten years. Such an amazing performance is all down to Huawei's principle: Huawei will do everything it can to outperform others in a specific market domain.
The C&I market is expected to boom
Currently, CNBM Technology is cooperating with multiple Huawei Digital Power product lines, including FusionSolar, energy storage systems (ESSs), Smart Charging Network, and Data Center Facility. The company has also obtained a series of Huawei certifications, such as distributor, diamond partner, value-added partner, and 4-star service provider.
Unlike other information services provided by CNBM Technology, the digital energy service directly targets end customers. It focuses on China's renewable energy market, which is primarily comprised of five large and six small power generation groups. The aim is to help energy enterprises build utility-scale plants by expanding cooperation opportunities.
While the digital power market is very targeted, the C&I market involves a wider range of customers. For example, in Western China, C&I mainly involves utility-scale plants that have been operating for years. Meanwhile, regions in Eastern China have a larger space for a distributed PV market in factories, schools, and industrial parks.
According to Xi Hai, CNBM Technology boasts 20 years of expertise in enterprise-level ICT value-added distribution, nearly 10,000 channel partners, about 100 branches and offices in China, and more than 1000 value-added distribution business teams working in various regions and industries. CNBM Technology plans to streamline internal resources to expand the C&I distributed PV market. As Huawei's authorized VAP, CNBM Technology looks forward to working with channel partners and helping them grow, says Xi Hai.
Huawei strongly supports CNBM Technology. The two companies have worked together extensively to enable channel partners and help them achieve business success.
Building new integration service capabilities
CNBM Technology has begun transforming its renewable energy business and has been looking for new development directions since early 2024.
According to Xi Hai, CNBM Technology felt the urgency to establish its presence in the integration service market amid technological changes and new development plans.
This move is strategic both for the renewable energy department and the company as a whole. By building an integration service team and forging its core capabilities of "professional IT services + multi-vendor joint solutions," CNBM Technology is committed to integrating multiple products, services, and brands, as well as providing scenario-specific solutions and services for industry customers.
CNBM Technology has rolled out many solutions in the digital energy domain. These include its flagship energy management solution deployed in low-carbon smart campuses. This green solution integrates PV, ESS, power consumption, and charger management to form a comprehensive energy management and control platform. By doing so, campuses can improve energy utilization and quickly regain the investment they make in renewable energy while cutting carbon emissions.
The smart manufacturing expertise that CNBM Technology has accumulated over the years is vital to the transition toward integration services. Designed for the industrial Internet architecture, the self-developed Smart PV plant control system includes three key components: the equipment-side collection and control system, the plant-level management system, and the centralized control system.
Through solutions like these, CNBM Technology embraces new development opportunities in the renewable energy sector. At the same time, the company is pursuing overarching goals. It aims to create value for partners and customers, thus promoting renewable energy development, says Xi Hai.
