On October 15, at the opening ceremony of the 2026 World Energy Storage Conference, Zeng Yuqun, Chairman of CATL, remarked that energy storage’s role within the power system has fundamentally shifted. It has evolved from being a supplementary facility for new energy sources to an indispensable new type of infrastructure essential for the power system. He highlighted that over the past decade or so, the global energy transition has made remarkable strides, with the installed capacity of wind power and photovoltaic systems continually expanding. However, the stability of power generation has faced challenges. Concurrently, the electrification process in the industrial and transportation sectors has accelerated, alongside rapid growth in emerging fields such as computational power AIDC. This has placed higher demands on the reliability and flexibility of the power system. Zeng Yuqun stressed that the energy storage industry should not solely focus on enhancing equipment parameters but also needs to cultivate systemic capabilities and long-term reliability that align with the power grid’s requirements.