[Energy Storage: Google-funded virtual power plant launches in the San Francisco Bay Area]

[SMM Analysis] During the National Day holiday, energy storage projects in China and overseas continued to advance, and earlier orders still provide strong support for Q4 demand. After the holiday, market focus will further shift from orders and production schedules to delivery, grid connection, and operational fulfillment. The pace at which installations absorb earlier shipments deserves close attention.

[SMM Analysis] ESS battery cell prices edged down this week, tracking raw material fluctuations, but with supply-demand conditions remaining tight, room for a sharp price pullback is limited. China's ESS battery production rose 4.92% MoM in September, a slower pace than August, mainly due to the ramp-up progress of large-capacity cell production lines and supply disruptions for some upstream raw materials. Entering Q4, as large-cell production lines continue to ramp up, production efficiency improves, and raw material supply disruptions gradually ease, the industry's production schedule growth is expected to rebound. Current enterprise production plans already reflect a trend of gradually accelerating growth in October-November, and overall production activity for ESS battery cells remains at a relatively high level.

LG Energy Solution signed a master supply agreement with Canadian BESS integrator Eneon to supply its North America-made, LFP-based JF2 DC Link ESS solution. The containerized system has a capacity of up to 5.1 MWh. The contract value was not officially disclosed, although some reports described it as worth hundreds of billions of won. LG Energy Solution said it plans to expand ESS production capacity to more than 60 GWh globally and more than 50 GWh in North America by year-end.