In the past five years, the Midea technology group has invested nearly EUR 8 billion in research and development, building on the company’s strength in technical product research and development, strong value chain and distribution channels, and its ability to integrate ecological resources. The company has also broadened its offerings to include residential energy storage and management technologies.
According to Dr. Howard Jiang, head of Midea RAC ESS R&D, residential cooling and heating energy consumption currently accounts for 70% to 80% of residential energy consumption. Combining residential energy storage with smart energy management can increase the amount of residential photovoltaic self-consumption to help to reduce residential electricity bills.
As a flexible, distributed solution, MHELIOS integrates seamlessly with smart grids and virtual power plants (VPPs), supporting grid stability and enabling users to earn incentives through demand response. Since MHELIOS is able to leverage dynamic electricity pricing and flexible load scheduling, high-energy tasks, such as EV charger and heat pump operation, are automatically shifted to off-peak periods. For example, EVs can be charged with 100% free solar energy in the middle of sunny summer days. Testing shows that in typical winter scenarios, the system increases solar thermal efficiency by 67% and reduces annual energy bills by 15-30%.
Midea developed its MHELIOS smart home energy management system ─ which uses an AI algorithm on a cloud platform to optimize residential PV energy storage and integrate home devices seamlessly ─ to help users manage their entire home energy consumption more intuitively and efficiently, allowing them to enjoy green energy with peace of mind. Information security technology ensures that user usage habits are not leaked and prevents hacker attacks.
MHELIOS offers the unified intelligent management of HVAC, electric vehicle chargers, and smart home appliances. In this way, it can achieve up to 100% clean energy utilization and self-sufficiency for homeowners in a typical situation. MHELIOS is able to achieve 100% renewable energy usage via a weather prediction function and by taking advantage of natural sunlight using an AI algorithm. The system’s Midea Energy Manager (MEM) is able to switch seamlessly between on-grid and off-grid operation within 20 ms, allowing users to have no sense of a power outage. It also supports 200% oversized photovoltaic and energy storage systems so homeowners can attain more solar energy from their system. This anticipates future household energy needs, reducing reliance on grid electricity and lowering household electricity costs. In addition, MHELIOS’s Midea Energy Storage Unit (MESU) can be charged at -20 C and has an IP66 waterproof rating, enabling smooth functioning in harsh environments.
Dooriya Wu, Midea RAC ESS regional sales director, says localized solutions are also essential in the European market. At present, Midea is working with local energy suppliers, such as Tibber and Frank Energy, to empower the local energy structure and take greater advantage of dynamic tariffs. In Germany, Midea works with Rabot Energy and Ostrom to improve the local energy supply chain for end users.
According to Midea, the open communication protocols of Matter and EEBUS will enable products of different brands to be compatible with each other in the future, plug and play, to build a home energy ecosystem. In general, Midea aims to lead the future home energy management industry to develop in a more flexible, smarter, and safer direction.
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