On November 25, the General Office of the National Energy Administration issued a notice on publicly soliciting opinions on the *Basic Rules for Electricity Spot Market (Draft for Comments)* and the *Measures for the Supervision of Electricity Spot Market (Draft for Comments)*. The documents stipulate market participants, market composition and prices, spot market operation, metering and credit management, etc., paving the way for the operation of the national electricity spot market!  

Key Tasks for the Near-Term Construction of the Electricity Spot Market:  

(1) Under the framework of "unified market, coordinated operation", construct inter-provincial and provincial/regional spot markets, and establish and improve day-ahead, intraday, and real-time markets.  

(2) Strengthen the connection between the medium and long-term market and the spot market.  

(3) Ensure the connection between auxiliary service markets such as frequency regulation and reserve and the spot market, strengthen the integration of the spot market and the peak-shaving auxiliary service market, promote joint clearing with auxiliary services, and accelerate the reasonable transmission of auxiliary service costs to the user side.  

(4) Steadily and orderly promote new energy participation in the electricity market, and properly connect with existing new energy guarantee policies.  

(5) Promote emerging market entities such as energy storage, distributed generation, load aggregators, virtual power plants, and new energy microgrids to participate in transactions.  

(6) Users directly participating in the market, electricity sales companies, and users purchasing electricity through agents shall participate in spot market settlement. Among them, users purchasing electricity through agents shall participate in spot transactions on an equal footing with other users and fairly assume responsibilities and obligations. Promote the separate accounting of deviation electricity quantities of agent-purchased users, residents, and agricultural users, and settle them at spot prices.  

(7) All regions shall, in accordance with national requirements and in light of the development of the electricity market and actual needs, explore the establishment of a market-oriented capacity compensation mechanism.  

(8) The inter-provincial market shall gradually introduce other market entities and open up transactions to various power generation enterprises, users, electricity sales companies, etc. Strengthen the dynamic connection between the inter-provincial market and the provincial/regional market in terms of economic responsibilities, price formation mechanisms, etc.  

Key Tasks for the Medium and Long-Term Construction of the Electricity Spot Market:  

(1) Further improve the spot market mechanism. Expand the scope of participation of emerging market entities in transactions and shorten the transaction cycle of intraday/real-time spot markets.  

(2) Improve the medium and long-term market. Promote the full liberalization of priority power generation and consumption plans, and achieve a smooth transition through mechanisms such as government-authorized contracts; further improve the connection between the medium and long-term market and the spot market; explore transactions such as transmission rights, electricity futures, and derivatives.  

(3) Improve the electricity auxiliary service market. In light of the operation needs of local power systems, establish and improve market-oriented procurement mechanisms for reactive power services and black start, explore new types of auxiliary service transaction varieties such as ramping, and promote the sharing and mutual assistance of auxiliary service resources on a larger scale.  

(4) Promote the gradual integration of provincial/regional markets, expand the scope of provincial/regional markets, and transition to a unified national electricity market system.  

The electricity spot market shall first carry out simulated trial operation and settlement trial operation, and enter official operation after meeting the conditions.  

Annexes:  

1. Basic Rules for Electricity Spot Market (Draft for Comments)  

2. Measures for the Supervision of Electricity Spot Market (Draft for Comments)