Guiding Opinions of the National Energy Administration on Supporting the Innovative Development of New Business Entities in the Power Sector

Guo Neng Fa Fa Gai 〔2024〕 No. 93

Energy Bureaus of all provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government), Development and Reform Commissions of relevant provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government) and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Economic and Information Commissions (Commissions of Industry and Information Technology, Departments of Industry and Information Technology) of Tianjin, Liaoning, Shanghai, Chongqing, Sichuan and Gansu, all dispatched agencies of the National Energy Administration, State Grid Corporation of China, China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd., China Huaneng Group Co., Ltd., China Datang Corporation Limited, China Huadian Corporation Limited, National Energy Investment Group Co., Ltd., State Power Investment Corporation Limited, China Three Gorges Corporation, China Development Investment Group Co., Ltd., China National Nuclear Corporation, China General Nuclear Power Group Co., Ltd., China Resources (Holdings) Co., Ltd., Inner Mongolia Electric Power (Group) Co., Ltd., Beijing Electric Power Trading Center, Guangzhou Electric Power Trading Center:

In order to thoroughly implement the relevant arrangements of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee on energy reform, give full play to the role of new business entities in improving the regulation capacity of the power system, promoting the consumption of renewable energy, ensuring the safe supply of electricity, encourage the innovative development of new models and new formats, cultivate new productive forces in the energy field, and accelerate the construction of a new power system, the following opinions are put forward in accordance with the "Energy Law" and other relevant laws and regulations.

I. Concept and scope of new business entities. New business entities refer to various resources in the distribution link that have the ability to regulate electricity power and quantity and possess new technical characteristics and new operation modes, which are divided into single technology-based new business entities and resource aggregation-based new business entities. Among them, single technology-based new business entities mainly include distributed power sources such as distributed photovoltaic, distributed wind power, and energy storage, as well as adjustable loads; resource aggregation-based new business entities mainly include virtual power plants (load aggregators) and smart microgrids. A virtual power plant is a power operation organization mode that uses advanced technologies such as digitalization and intellectualization to aggregate distributed power sources and adjustable loads, and participates in system operation and market transactions in a coordinated manner. A smart microgrid is a small power generation, distribution and consumption system that takes new energy as the main power source, has certain intelligent regulation and self-balancing capabilities, and can operate independently or be connected to the main power grid. Source-grid-load-storage integration projects in the distribution link with corresponding characteristics can be regarded as smart microgrids.

II. Support the innovative development of new business entities. New business entities should continuously improve their technical management level and regulation capacity to better meet the needs of the new power system. Encourage virtual power plants to aggregate resources such as distributed photovoltaic, distributed wind power, new energy storage, and adjustable loads to provide flexible regulation capacity for the power system. Support qualified industrial enterprises, industrial parks, etc. to carry out the construction of smart microgrids to improve the local consumption level of new energy. Explore the establishment of a mechanism to increase green power supply for enterprises through direct connection of new energy. In principle, new business entities may be exempted from applying for a power business license, unless otherwise specified. Power grid enterprises should provide services such as grid connection (networking) or platform access for new business entities, clarify information such as service processes and accessible capacity, and improve service efficiency.

III. Improve the dispatching and operation management of new business entities. New business entities shall implement the relevant policy requirements for safety production and grid-related safety management, and meet the relevant national and industrial technical standards. All localities should accelerate the realization of new business entities being observable, measurable, adjustable, and controllable. Encourage new business entities with a regulation capacity of 5 megawatts and above that meet the requirements of corresponding technical indicators to provide electrical energy and auxiliary services. All localities may further reduce the regulation capacity requirements in light of the regulation needs of the power system and the operation capacity of the power market. Power grid enterprises should assist new business entities in accessing the new power load management system or power dispatching automation system according to the needs of the services provided, so as to meet the relevant requirements for information network security protection. New business entities shall clarify the rights and responsibilities in terms of assets, regulation, safety, etc. with power grid enterprises through agreements. When emergencies such as natural disasters and equipment failures affect the safe and stable operation of the power system, new business entities and aggregated resources shall accept the unified command of the power dispatching agency.

IV. Encourage new business entities to participate in the power market on an equal footing. New business entities enjoy equal market status with other business entities when participating in the market, and shall fairly bear relevant expenses such as deviation settlement and unbalanced fund sharing in accordance with relevant regulations, and pay transmission and distribution prices, system operation fees, government funds and surcharges, etc. Encourage resource aggregation-based new business entities to integrate resources with small regulation capacity to participate in the power market as a whole and realize coordinated dispatching. Resource aggregation-based new business entities shall negotiate with aggregated resources to determine rights and obligations, sign agency service contracts, and file them with the power trading institution. In principle, aggregated resources can only be represented by one resource aggregation-based new business entity within the same contract period.

V. Optimize the market registration of new business entities. Local power trading institutions shall set up registration categories for new business entities and shall not add additional registration thresholds. Qualified new business entities entering or exiting the power market shall go through the formalities in accordance with the relevant rules for power market registration. Among them, both resource aggregation-based new business entities and aggregated resources shall go through the registration formalities, and resource aggregation-based new business entities are encouraged to handle the registration formalities centrally.

VI. Improve the power market trading mechanism adapted to new business entities. Enhance the flexibility of medium and long-term power transactions, introduce time-phased standardized trading products, accelerate the realization of time-phased transaction settlement, and guide new business entities to flexibly participate in medium and long-term power transactions at various time scales according to their own power and electricity balance needs. Accelerate the construction of the electricity spot market, promote new business entities to participate in the electricity spot market in flexible ways such as reporting both quantity and price or reporting quantity without price, explore the extension of electricity spot market clearing nodes to lower voltage levels, and provide more accurate price signals for new business entities to respond to market demands. Improve the auxiliary service market, promote new business entities to participate in the auxiliary service market fairly, and study the timely introduction of new types of auxiliary services such as standby and ramping. Improve the timeliness and accuracy of information disclosure, and promote the public disclosure of power market price signals in an appropriate manner.

VII. Do a good job in metering and settlement. New business entities shall settle according to the types of electrical energy and auxiliary service transactions they participate in, based on electrical energy metering devices, and the power trading institution shall issue the settlement basis for new entities. The settlement data of resource aggregation-based new business entities in the wholesale market is formed by summing up the metering data of aggregated resources. Resource aggregation-based new business entities shall be temporarily cleared and settled to households by power grid enterprises.

VIII. Strengthen organizational guarantees. The National Energy Administration, together with relevant departments, shall promptly improve the market mechanism adapted to the development of new business entities, clarify regulatory requirements, and accelerate the formulation and revision of relevant standards for new business entities. The dispatched agencies of the National Energy Administration and the relevant departments of local governments shall, in accordance with their division of responsibilities, do a good job in the supervision and management of new business entities, formulate and introduce technical requirements and transaction rules adapted to the development of new business entities in a timely manner in light of actual conditions, continuously standardize the power market transaction behaviors of new business entities, and prevent market manipulation. Power grid enterprises and power market operating institutions shall continuously improve their technical support capabilities and service levels for new business entities to participate in power transactions and system operations.


National Energy Administration

November 28, 2024

Source: National Energy Administration