Trina Storage is positioning interoperability and pre-commissioning testing as core commercial requirements in Asia-Pacific’s utility-scale battery storage market, as developers navigate a shift in project scale and an increasingly diverse set of technical specifications across the region.
Warrick Stapleton, head of sales, BESS APAC at Trina Storage, the energy storage division of Trina Solar, one of the world’s leading solar module manufacturers, says the fundamental challenge facing the industry is no longer about proving technology at pilot scale; it is now about delivering confidence when projects have jumped from 10-30MWh to 500MWh or larger, often as a developer’s first major deployment.
“Whereas in the past, we might have been talking about a 10 to 30MWh project, the challenge is that we’re seeing developers might be on their first project, and we’re talking about a 500MWh, or in excess of 500MWh,” Stapleton says.
“The biggest thing that we see customers looking for is that confidence that the system integrators can bring together a package that’s using off-the-shelf equipment.”
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The company’s response differs from competitors’ by integrating with multiple inverter, energy management system (EMS), and power plant controller suppliers rather than prescribing a fixed technology stack.
“I’ve worked for different storage entities in the past, and they look at things very differently. It’s very refined or very straight one sort of view of what the world should look like, whereas for us, it’s an open ecosystem approach,” Stapleton explains.
This flexibility reflects changing procurement dynamics as developers seek to meet country-specific and even sub-regional technical requirements. Stapleton notes that what is considered standard practice in Australia can be “completely different” in markets such as the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea or Japan.
“The customer drives the need for flexibility, the different customer needs in different regions and different individual countries,” he says.
“What may be considered normal in Australia, you could flip it on its head through what we call the rest of Asia: the Philippines, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, for example. Big drivers will be cost, so a dollar per kilowatt-hour in each of those markets. But it also could be compatibility with a particular trading desk or an aggregator in different markets, or the market operator, or the network.”
Stapleton says Trina has developed the capability to integrate its products with various inverters, EMS, and power plant controllers through its decade of storage experience.
“Those products are coming typically from Germany, Spain, China, India, for example. It’s really quite a diverse set of suppliers,” he notes.
Trina Storage has commissioned, contracted or is constructing 14.7GWh of battery projects globally, with more than half configured as AC grid-connected systems. The company marked its first decade in energy storage in 2025.
Testing facility addresses integration confidence at scale
To address the confidence gap created by the scale-up to 500MWh+ projects, Trina Storage operates an integrated system test centre in Chuzhou, China, where it conducts pre-commissioning integration testing with third-party inverters, EMS platforms and power plant controllers before equipment reaches project sites.
“We take off-the-shelf inverters, pair them with EMS, power plant controller and our products. We also marry that up with an environmental test chamber, and that’s where we do that advanced testing, so that when we get to the site, we’re not learning on site,” Stapleton explains.
The facility supports compatibility testing with equipment from suppliers based in Germany, Spain, China and India, reflecting the diverse supply chains active across APAC markets.
Stapleton emphasises that the testing approach directly addresses the scale challenge developers now face.
“As I say, going back to your question, that’s what I see the biggest challenge facing developers is, as inverters are changing and the market situation changing, new developers, or even existing developers, are coming in that may have storage experience, but they’re looking for another way of going about the project, and it’s really, we’re not talking 30MWh projects anymore,” Stapleton says.
“It’s 500MWh or above, and we need that confidence that the project can go ahead.”
Grid-forming capability is becoming a growing requirement throughout the region, Stapleton notes, alongside increasing interest in hybrid configurations.
“On top of that, as well, the grid-forming requirement is growing throughout the entire region. We’re also seeing more hybrid approaches. So, for the majority of the hybrid, we’re talking to customers about PV hybrid, but there’s an increasing number of wind-hybrid systems where we’re also in discussion. And for both of those, we’re talking about DC- and AC-coupled hybrid systems.”
While the majority of APAC’s utility-scale battery market is moving toward larger platforms, with inverters approaching 5MW and Trina Storage’s battery containers scaling from 4MWh to 6.25MWh, infrastructure constraints in certain markets are driving demand for smaller systems.
“The lion’s share of projects are moving in that bigger direction, where we can reduce the balance of plant costs, so civil, electrical, smaller footprints and less electrical terminations, and the savings really compound for customers,” Stapleton says.
Japan presents a contrasting requirement due to its limited transport infrastructure.
“There are small parts of the market, and Japan’s a good case in point where we’re seeing that there are challenges with the transport infrastructure, both the roads and bridges. So, because of that, we’ve actually introduced a smaller product,” he notes.
Trina now offers a 1.56MWh option that can reach sites “without having to disassemble and then reassemble the product.”
The larger platforms deliver cost reductions through fewer electrical terminations, reduced civil works and smaller project footprints, factors that become increasingly significant at the 500MWh+ scale now dominating the market.
Australia as a testbed for emerging APAC markets
Stapleton identifies Australia, India, Japan, and the Philippines as key focus markets for Trina Storage in APAC, alongside China, the company’s home market. However, he emphasises that market maturity levels differ substantially across the region.
“Across the region, we’re seeing different levels of maturity. In certain markets, we’re seeing that the frequency and the ancillary market have really gone away. We’re moving more toward an energy arbitrage market and a longer-duration market. In contrast, in other parts of APAC, there’s still an active frequency and ancillary services market,” he says, drawing parallels to Australia’s market evolution several years ago.
“We’re seeing developers actively pursuing projects akin to what we saw in Australia a few years ago, for example.”
Australia remains a priority market for Trina Storage, with the company focusing on standalone and hybrid large-scale utility systems. Stapleton describes Australia as “one of the more advanced markets” due to its progress on grid-forming technology and hybrid project deployments.
“Because Australia is considered one of the more advanced markets, and because of the large land size and size of projects here, from a volume perspective and quantity of developers, it’s a very important market to us, and it’s also a strong testbed for the rest of the region,” he says.
“Because of the advanced nature of grid forming, and also a lot of advancements that developers have made about those hybrid projects, the projects, deployments, and experience from the Australian market will assist us with some of those emerging markets through the APAC region that are looking at similar technology”.
The regional variations extend even within individual countries. “It’s not even just country specific,” Stapleton notes, citing differences between Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM), which spans Australia’s eastern and southern states and territories, and the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) in Western Australia, and variations across Japan’s geography.
Our publisher, Solar Media, (part of the Informa Group), will host the Energy Storage Summit Asia 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand, on 1-3 July. You can find more information about the event on the official website.