The global power sector is entering a new phase in which renewables sit at the centre of long-term grid design, capacity planning and investment. Yet the rapid build-out of variable generation is often outpacing upgrades in grid capability, creating a strategic challenge for energy leaders as more systems rely on inverter-based resources.
Grid-forming technology helps close this gap by enabling assets to create and maintain stability, particularly in weaker grids, remote renewable hubs and systems with declining conventional generation.
Stability as a commercial enabler
According to GlobalData, global solar PV capacity is set to rise from 476GW in 2024 to 554.7GW by 2030, with the solar inverter market growing from US$26.6 billion to $35 billion over the same period[i]. As inverter-based renewables scale, technologies that can actively support voltage, frequency and system recovery will be central to grid resilience.
Huawei’s new grid-forming systems are helping to make storage an active part of grid stability, with assets that can support voltage and inertia rather than just follow them. This shift from passive to active behaviour is at the heart of its approach to provide stable support for the high-quality development of new power systems.
The technology provides six core capabilities for improving the reliability and investability of high-renewable systems:
• Short-circuit current support
• Inertia support
• Broadband oscillation suppression
• Primary frequency regulation
• Black start capability
• On-grid / off-grid switching capability
In weak-grid conditions, this value becomes even clearer. Huawei’s system can limit the rate of change of frequency to within 0.5 Hz/s and shorten post-fault voltage recovery to the hundred-millisecond range. This type of performance is central to maintaining confidence in grids with high shares of power-electronics-based resources.
Deployment at scale is significant
Huawei’s intelligent string grid-forming ESS solutions are already operating in nearly 100 benchmark projects worldwide, across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, showing that this capability is now established in commercial use, not just in pilots.
In China, Huawei’s Smart Renewable Energy Generator Solution has passed full grid connection and performance tests at both CR Power’s 25 MW / 100 MWh Hami project and CGDG’s 50 MW / 100 MWh Golmud project, including voltage disturbances, phase angle jumps, oscillation and mode switching, with the Hami plant also completing the world’s first on-grid black start test for string-based grid-forming storage, cutting restart times from hours or days to minutes.
Meanwhile, a 6 MW / 24 MWh project with ZDI in Ngari Prefecture has demonstrated grid-forming performance under high-altitude, sub-zero temperatures and weak grid conditions, showing that storage can provide primary frequency regulation, inertia response, ride-through capability and short circuit support even in some of the most challenging operating environments.
The Red Sea Project in Saudi Arabia, a flagship of Saudi Vision 2030, is described as the world’s largest grid-forming microgrid and the first city powered entirely by renewable energy. With 1.3 GWh of storage, it has become a global benchmark, showing grid-forming as an infrastructure reality. Huawei supplied a full suite of equipment and services, including 400 MW of PV inverters, 1.3 GWh of storage and transformer stations. Using technologies such as gigawatt-level black start and off-grid continuous fault ride-through, the project achieved 100% PV plus storage power supply.
Commercial significance for utilities, developers, and investors
At the 2026 Global Low-Carbon Industry Forum, industry leaders highlighted that grid-forming and AI are increasingly complementary technologies. While grid-forming provides physical stability to renewable-heavy systems, AI enhances forecasting, dispatch optimisation and coordination across generation, storage and loads, helping power systems operate more efficiently and autonomously.
Grid stability is now a core commercial issue. Huawei’s intelligent string grid-forming ESS solutions help keep frequency and voltage stable at high renewable penetration, cutting curtailment risk, reducing reliance on conventional plants and turning a former technical limit into a way to unlock more clean capacity and improve asset performance. By combining grid-forming control with AI-based forecasting, coordinated dispatch and high-precision state-of-charge management, Huawei’s solutions support steadier output, higher availability and more efficient use of storage, lifting lifecycle returns by more than 10% and making cash flows easier to finance.
Huawei’s standardised grid-forming microgrids also extend these benefits beyond the main grid by integrating PV, storage, inverters and controls into pretested packages, limiting onsite work to basic civil and electrical tasks while cloud-edge systems monitor large fleets and resolve most issues remotely. For example, in remote parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, western China and island communities in the Philippines, they are already displacing diesel, cutting the levelised cost of electricity by 40 to 60% and providing reliable power for households, healthcare, education and small businesses.
This direction is increasingly gaining support across the industry. At GLIF 2026, organisations including the Global Solar Council, Energy Storage Europe, Fraunhofer IWES, Tsinghua University and Huawei Digital Power joined industry partners in launching a Global Joint Initiative on Grid Forming & AI to advance standards, validation and large-scale deployment.
Grid-forming makes grid stability a driver of commercial value, not just a technical goal. By improving reliability, it cuts curtailment and outage risk, speeds up renewable deployment and reduces dependence on conventional generation and synchronous support. In practice, it helps turn higher renewable shares into power systems that are both dependable and investable.
To find out more, visit www.digitalpower.huawei.com/en/news/activity/low-carbon-industry-forum
[i] GlobalData: Solar PV Modules and Inverters Market Size, Share and Trends Analysis by Technology, Installed Capacity, Generation, Key Players and Forecast, 2024–2030, September 2025.
