The lithium battery industry is shifting from “scale expansion” to a new stage of “technology-driven + ecological synergy”, with high-end, green, intelligent and digital becoming the core development direction. Today, Schneider Electric appeared at the 17th China International Battery Technology Exchange Conference/Exhibition (CIBF2025) with the theme of “Digital Intelligence Accelerates ‘Lithium’ to Enjoy the Future”. As a leading company in the field of global energy management and automation, Schneider Electric has actively enabled the development of the lithium battery industry through its digital technology and industry solutions in recent years, helping companies achieve transformation and upgrading in the fields of intelligent manufacturing, energy efficiency optimization and sustainable development.
The lithium battery industry has developed rapidly and has become a key driving force for global energy transformation and green economy
The explosive growth of new energy vehicles and the global “carbon neutrality” goal have promoted the rapid increase in the penetration rate of electric vehicles (EVs), and the demand for power batteries has continued to grow at a high speed. The energy storage market has accelerated its expansion, and the grid connection of renewable energy (wind power, photovoltaics) has spawned large-scale energy storage demand. Lithium batteries have become the mainstream technology due to their high energy density and rapid cost reduction. Consumer electronics and emerging applications, smart phones, wearable devices, etc. continue to upgrade, and emerging fields such as drones and power tools support the stable growth of lithium battery demand. At the same time, the industry is supported by both policies and capital. Governments of various countries have promoted the localization of the lithium battery industry chain through subsidies and tax incentives. At the same time, the capital market has invested heavily in lithium battery technologies including sodium batteries and solid-state batteries.
The dual-wheel drive of “digitalization + electrification” helps the lithium battery industry move towards high-quality development
The production process of lithium batteries is complex, covering electrode preparation, battery cell assembly, formation testing and other links, and has extremely high requirements for production efficiency and product consistency. With its EcoStruxure™ industrial IoT platform, Schneider Electric provides digital twin simulation technology to optimize production line design and effectively shorten the production cycle; integrates PLC, SCADA and other systems through automated control technology to improve equipment coordination efficiency; uses predictive maintenance technology and AI algorithms to analyze equipment data to reduce downtime risks. At the same time, full-process data tracking technology is implemented based on the digital platform to ensure product consistency.
Lithium battery production is a high-energy-consuming industry. Schneider Electric helps companies save energy and reduce costs through energy management systems (EMS+) and microgrid solutions. Through real-time monitoring, the consumption of electricity, water, gas and other energy sources is collected and analyzed throughout the plant, and energy efficiency is optimized using AI algorithms. At the same time, green power integration supports the access of distributed energy sources such as photovoltaics and energy storage to promote low-carbon production.
The lithium battery industry faces strict environmental regulations and ESG (environment, society, governance) pressure. Schneider Electric provides green intelligent manufacturing (Green Premium™) solutions to help companies achieve sustainable development and green manufacturing through carbon emission tracking and optimized carbon footprint management from raw materials to production links, as well as automation and efficient resource utilization of battery recycling production lines.
Schneider Electric helps lithium battery companies cope with the multiple challenges of capacity expansion, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and sustainable development through the dual-wheel drive of “digitalization + electrification”. Its core value lies in the deep integration of industrial automation, energy management and digital technology, providing the industry with full-chain empowerment from “design-construction-operation”, and helping the lithium battery industry to accelerate its progress towards intelligence, greening and globalization.
Comprehensive intelligent operation solutions enable lithium battery companies to optimize production operations
Lithium battery manufacturing companies need to use digital applications to achieve efficient management of production operations. To this end, Schneider Electric provides a comprehensive set of intelligent operation solutions, covering ProLeiT Plant iT process control system, MOM production operation management system, predictive maintenance consultant PMA and EcoStruxure Machine Expert Digital Twin Software (EMET). These solutions cover the digital operation needs of the entire life cycle of the enterprise, as follows:
ProLeiT Plant iT process control system: The system integrates advanced digital systems such as process control system (PCS), manufacturing execution system (MES) and packaging line management system (LMS), realizing full process coverage from production data collection, process control to manufacturing execution. It not only makes the production process highly transparent and traceable, but also realizes the integration of batch management, material management, formula management and order management, significantly improving the efficiency and accuracy of production management. In the key processes of lithium battery manufacturing, such as ternary lithium/lithium iron phosphate precursor liquid control, reactor control, lithium carbonate salt and electrolyte production and preparation, the system can meet the user’s intelligent control needs and ensure the stability of the production process and the flexibility of operation.
MOM production operation management system: Based on the concept of lean production, the MOM system comprehensively covers the four key areas of production, quality, warehousing, and operation and maintenance, and realizes the closed-loop management of production and operation activities that is globally observable, measurable, controllable and optimizable. It helps enterprises significantly shorten the product innovation cycle, significantly improve product quality and safety, realize the standardization of formula and process control, and the transparency of lean management throughout the process, thereby effectively improving production efficiency and reducing resource waste.
Predictive Maintenance Consultant PMA: With the help of smart sensors and edge computing gateways, PMA can obtain temperature and vibration data of equipment operation in real time, and integrate fault prediction algorithms that combine mechanism and mathematics, industry-specific knowledge, and AI algorithms. Operators can monitor the health of equipment in real time through web and mobile platforms, accurately locate equipment failures, and obtain fault repair suggestions, thereby realizing intelligent operation and maintenance.
EcoStruxure Machine Expert Digital Twin Software (EMET): This software provides a full-process digital solution from design, simulation to operation and maintenance. By virtually designing, developing and simulating real machines, creating digital twin models, and creating a “digital mirror” throughout the entire life cycle of production and operation projects for lithium battery manufacturers.
From plant management solutions to production line automation solutions, provide overall control solutions for battery cell factories
In order to further build a transparent factory for lithium battery production, companies need to not only focus on the optimization of production processes, but also upgrade and optimize plant management links such as production environmental control, energy management, and electrical systems. In this regard, Schneider Electric’s plant management solutions for the lithium battery industry, with its core capabilities in automation, digitalization and electrification, help companies build an intelligent plant system covering “cloud-edge-end” to ensure efficient operation and safety compliance of the entire factory. Specifically:
Lithium battery production environmental control solution: Based on the EcoStruxure open automation platform (EAE), this solution can not only meet the consistency and sensitivity of the temperature and humidity control of the core environment of the lithium battery factory, maintain high cleanliness levels such as electrodes and assembly workshops, and monitor key requirements such as VOC and exhaust gas treatment in real time, but also improve the control accuracy from “hours” to “seconds”, reducing energy consumption and cloud load. At the same time, its edge computing function can further replace traditional PLCs and become the core infrastructure of lithium battery intelligent manufacturing.
Energy management system EMS+: Through comprehensive monitoring and analysis of key links such as energy transmission, distribution, conversion, and use, EMS+ can significantly shorten the fault handling time of the distribution system, shorten the time to determine the cause of the fault from the original 30 minutes to 5-10 minutes, and reduce the probability of system failure. In addition, relying on a refined energy management platform, the system can also promote the transparency of enterprise management and energy consumption data, assist in operational decision-making and reduce energy consumption.
ETAP Digital Twin Solution: As a model-based power system design and analysis platform, ETAP is suitable for AC and DC systems from low voltage to high voltage, providing a one-stop management platform from design, construction to operation and maintenance. By building a digital twin of the electrical system, the solution can achieve network analysis, equipment protection, power quality calculation, and real-time monitoring and simulation operation of microgrids.
Dust removal and water control equipment control solution: With intelligence and modularization as the core, the solution provides industry-customized applications including efficient computer room control solutions, environmental monitoring (EMS), efficient computer room optimization and energy-saving solutions, and air handling unit solutions. Through these applications, enterprises can effectively improve the operating efficiency of factory environmental control equipment and ensure the quality and safety of lithium battery production.
At the level of automated production lines, Schneider Electric, with its automation solutions based on the EtherCAT architecture, provides enterprises with a wealth of hardware products including Modicon M310 motion controllers, Lexium 18E/Lexium 18ME EtherCAT bus servos, ATV340 and ATV320 series inverters, etc. These products can be widely used in coating machines, roller presses, winders, stacking machines, formation warehouses, and PACK lines, helping companies to easily complete the automation transformation and upgrading of the entire lithium battery production line.
It is worth mentioning that at the exhibition, Schneider Electric also held a joint exhibition with the European Battery Association (Upcell Alliance). As a goal-oriented non-profit organization, the European Battery Association is committed to promoting the development and innovation of the global battery manufacturing industry. At present, the association has attracted 135 members from Europe and 7 from North America to join.
At present, the multiple waves of energy transformation, industrial upgrading, and consumption-driven are accelerating the digitalization and green and low-carbon dual transformation of the lithium battery industry. Cui Zhida, Vice President of Schneider Electric and Head of OEM Business in Industrial Automation China, said: “Schneider Electric will always be guided by consulting, relying on automation, digitalization and electrification solutions covering all levels from strategy to implementation, to help more companies truly solve the needs of “visible”, “implementable” and “operable” in the dual transformation process, build a value cycle from planning to implementation, and work together towards high-quality and sustainable development.”
