5g + peak shaving will lead to a substantial increase in the demand for lithium iron phosphate energy storage batteries

As of 2018, the three major operators shared 4.78 million 4G base stations, including 2.41 million China Mobile, 1.38 million China Telecom and 990000 China Unicom. Since the 5g communication spectrum is distributed in the high frequency band, the signal attenuation is faster and the coverage capacity is weakened. Therefore, compared with 4G, the number of 5g base stations will increase when the communication signal covers the same area.

By the end of 2019, the self built 5g base stations of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom were 50000, 40000 and 40000 respectively, and China Telecom and China Unicom jointly built 20000 5g base stations. According to forward-looking statistics, the three operators have 150000 5g base stations in stock by the end of 2019.

The financial reports recently released by the three major operators show that 5g construction has made a good start. China Mobile has actively promoted the construction of 5g. By the end of February, its 5g base stations had exceeded 80000. According to this development rate, it is expected that the construction will enter a peak period in the next few years. It is assumed that 700000, 90000, 1 million and 1.1 million 5g base stations will be built respectively from 2020 to 2023. According to the calculation of Tianfeng securities, the single station power consumption of traditional 4G base station is 780-930w, while that of 5g base station is about 2700W. Based on the emergency duration of 4h, the standby power supply of a single 5g macro base station needs 10.8kwh. Compared with 4G, the power of 5g single station is increased by about 2 times, the number of base stations is expected to increase significantly, and the corresponding energy storage demand is also reduced and increased. According to the calculation, the energy storage demand of standby power brought by 5g base station is expected to be 7.6, 9.7, 10.8 and 11.9gwh respectively from 2020 to 2023. If the application scenario of 5g + peak shaving is realized, it is expected that the demand for lithium iron phosphate energy storage battery will increase significantly.