Overview: A Transformer That Is No Longer Just a Transformer

At the “Intelligent Empowerment, Green Transformation” conference on new power systems and source-grid-load-storage-data coordination, held in Tianjin on October 24, 2026, China’s TBEA formally unveiled its Roy Sync series solid-state transformer (SST). The company simultaneously declared the series to be in mass production, with units already commissioned in the field — compressing the traditional release, ramp-up and deployment sequence into a single moment.

The headline specification is unusually aggressive for a first-generation commercial product: a 2.5 MW rated capacity machine that accepts 10 kV AC medium-voltage input directly and delivers an 800 V DC output directly, eliminating the line-frequency transformer and the separate multi-stage rectification stage that conventional architectures require.

Technical Architecture: What ‘Solid-State’ Actually Buys

Traditional transformers rely on electromagnetic induction through an iron core and copper windings to shift voltage levels. Their function is narrow. Solid-state transformers instead use power-electronic conversion to regulate electrical energy, integrating voltage conversion, frequency conversion, galvanic isolation, bidirectional power control and power-quality conditioning into one device capable of interfacing with hybrid AC/DC grids. TBEA frames the product not as a re-engineered transformer but as an intelligent regulation hub sitting between the grid and the load.

Four technology foundations underpin the published figures:

  • A CHB+DAB ISOP topology, combining cascaded H-bridge stages with dual active bridge isolation and input-series output-parallel arrangement.
  • Full silicon carbide (SiC) power devices.
  • High-frequency soft-switching techniques.
  • Modular power design with bidirectional power flow.

The resulting performance envelope: peak efficiency above 98.5 percent, input current harmonic distortion (THDi) below 3 percent, and output voltage regulation held within 1 percent. Power modules scale from 1 MW to 5 MW on demand, and the series ships in both indoor and outdoor form factors. For availability, TBEA specifies N+1 redundancy with millisecond-level automatic bypass when a power module faults, so supply is uninterrupted, alongside millisecond-level load response to absorb the violent swings characteristic of compute workloads.

Nine Years of Engineering Heritage

The Roy Sync launch is not a cold start. TBEA’s work in power electronic transformers (PET) dates to 2017, when it developed what it describes as the industry’s first 10 kV/1 MW multi-port power electronic transformer. Patent breakthroughs followed in 2018 and 2020, and the company is a principal drafter of three industry standards for solid-state transformers.

Earlier equipment, marketed under the name “energy router,” has accumulated long-running operational data across several projects: the Zhuhai Tangjiawan multi-terminal AC/DC hybrid flexible distribution network; the Dongguan Mayong Anhua data center AC/DC hybrid distribution demonstration; the Dongguan East industrial park AC/DC hybrid distribution demonstration; and the Jiangsu Electric Power Research Institute DC distribution project. These span different grid scenarios and load types, providing real operational data for engineering the commercial product.

“A solid-state transformer is not a different way of building a conventional transformer; it redefines the interface between the grid and the load,” said Chi Yongning, TBEA’s chief engineer for power electronics. With new energy, storage, charging piles and data centers connecting in volume, he argued, distribution networks need more than voltage conversion — they need a controllable, bidirectional, power-quality-managing energy hub.

Certification, Manufacturing and First Deployments

The launch model has completed type testing and obtained functional, performance and safety test reports from Xi’an-based Dongdian Testing Technology and from TÜV Rheinland — third-party validation that TBEA presents as the basis for scaled delivery.

Production runs at TBEA’s Tianjin manufacturing base with annual capacity of 200 units. On the deployment side, the outdoor variant has secured orders and been commissioned at the Zhiyun Green Energy logistics supercharging station project in Guangyuan, Sichuan. The first customer cluster is heavy-truck ultra-fast charging — a scenario demanding high power density, fast response and reliability, and one that maps neatly onto the SST’s capability boundaries.

Market Context: An Industrialization Year

Solid-state transformers have moved into the core equipment category. Citing Huajin Securities research, TBEA points to a projected domestic AIDC solid-state transformer market of roughly 13.27 billion yuan by 2030, with the ultra-fast charging market approaching 190 billion yuan by 2032. The convergence of those demand streams, the company argues, makes this an industrialization year for the technology.

Why AI Data Centers Are the Main Battlefield

The energy transition and the explosive growth of computing are reshaping the spatial relationship between power and compute. Where power once followed compute, data center siting now follows power resources — locating where electricity is stable, green and cheap. That shift propagates directly into supply architecture. As AI compute center rack power density keeps climbing, conventional low-voltage DC supply architectures are approaching their limits in efficiency, footprint and scalability, and 800 V DC has become the industry’s agreed evolution path. The critical node in that architectural switch is the transformer, the entry point for power.

The Economics: Three Ledgers

TBEA reduces the customer case to three accounts. First, electricity: internal estimates for a 1 MW rack suggest roughly 280,000 kWh saved per year. Second, copper: copper usage falls by about 45 percent, a material cost reduction with copper prices elevated. Third, space: footprint is about 60 percent smaller than conventional supply schemes, freeing area in land-constrained compute parks.

One Platform, Five Scenarios, and the Road to 35 kV

TBEA says a single technical platform covers five application scenarios: AI data centers, heavy-truck ultra-fast charging and ship shore power, new energy stations, source-grid-load-storage integration, and steel metallurgy. The breadth derives from the SST’s general capabilities rather than bespoke development per scenario. Vertically, the roadmap moves toward 35 kV and higher voltage classes to raise unit capacity and voltage compatibility; horizontally, it extends to supercharging, data centers, microgrids, interwoven distribution networks, and the electrification of seaports and airports.

Zhang Hongzhong, a TBEA director, tied the product to national strategy: the “six networks” framework advanced this year, and the deep coordination of new-type power grids with computing and logistics networks, has turned the solid-state transformer from a frontier technology into a rigid requirement. On the data center front, he said the technology foundation is in place, industry certification is accelerating in step with standards releases, and selection discussions with several leading customers are underway as the company pushes for the main battlefield.