National Development and Reform Commission, National Energy Administration
Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Virtual Power Plants
Fa Gai Neng Yuan 〔2025〕 No. 357
Development and Reform Commissions and Energy Bureaus of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Management; Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology; Liaoning Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology; Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization; Chongqing Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization; Gansu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology; all dispatched agencies of the National Energy Administration; State Grid Corporation of China; China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd.; and relevant central enterprises:
With the accelerated advancement of the construction of a new power system and the electricity market, the conditions for the development of virtual power plants have become increasingly mature, their role has become increasingly prominent, and the demand for them has grown. To accelerate the development of virtual power plants, the following opinions are put forward.
I. General Requirements
Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second and Third Plenary Sessions of the 20th Central Committee, thoroughly implement the new strategy for energy security of "four revolutions and one cooperation", and accelerate the improvement of the development scale and level of virtual power plants to give full play to their regulatory role. We will adhere to unified understanding and clarify the definition and functional positioning of virtual power plants. We will adhere to openness and inclusiveness and improve policies and market systems that support the development of virtual power plants. We will adhere to safety and reliability and incorporate virtual power plants into the power safety management system while clarifying safety management requirements. We will adhere to multi-stakeholder participation and encourage private enterprises and other social capital to participate in the investment, construction, and operation of virtual power plants based on their own advantages.
By 2027, the construction, operation, and management mechanisms of virtual power plants will be mature and standardized, the mechanisms for participating in the electricity market will be sound and improved, and the regulatory capacity of national virtual power plants will reach 20 million kilowatts or more. By 2030, the application scenarios of virtual power plants will be further expanded, various business models will develop innovatively, and the regulatory capacity of national virtual power plants will reach 50 million kilowatts or more.
II. Standardizing the Definition and Positioning of Virtual Power Plants
(1) Definition of virtual power plants. A virtual power plant is a power operation organization model that, based on the power system architecture, uses modern information and communication, system integration and control technologies to aggregate various distributed resources such as distributed power sources, adjustable loads, and energy storage, and participates in power system optimization and electricity market transactions as a new type of business entity in a coordinated manner.
(2) Functional positioning of virtual power plants. Virtual power plants play an important role in enhancing power supply guarantee capabilities, promoting the consumption of new energy, and improving the electricity market system. In terms of system operation, they can provide various regulatory services such as peak shaving, frequency modulation, and standby. In terms of demand-side management, they can organize load resources to carry out demand response. In terms of market transactions, they can aggregate scattered resources to participate in market transactions.
III. Actively Promoting the Development of Virtual Power Plants in Light of Local Conditions
(3) Accelerating the cultivation of virtual power plant entities. Provincial competent authorities shall formulate virtual power plant development plans in accordance with local realities, make arrangements for development scale, business types, operation models, technical requirements, etc., cultivate virtual power plant entities with different characteristics in response to provincial and prefecture-level power regulation needs, improve the virtual power plant development system, and accelerate the large-scale development of virtual power plants around scenarios such as aggregating scattered power resources, enhancing flexible regulatory capabilities, reducing power supply gaps, and promoting new energy consumption. Energy enterprises, upstream and downstream enterprises in the energy industry chain, and other types of enterprises are encouraged to actively invest in virtual power plants, and private enterprises are strongly supported to participate in the investment, development, and operation management of virtual power plants to jointly promote technological and model innovation.
(4) Continuously enriching virtual power plant business models. Provincial competent authorities and relevant units shall promote virtual power plants to rely on their core functions, participate fairly in various electricity markets or demand responses, and obtain corresponding benefits. Virtual power plants are encouraged to carry out business innovation, provide comprehensive energy services such as energy-saving services, energy data analysis, energy solution design, and carbon trading-related services, and expand revenue channels.
IV. Continuously Improving the Construction, Operation, and Management Level of Virtual Power Plants
(5) Establishing and improving the construction, operation, and management mechanisms of virtual power plants. Provincial competent authorities shall organize the formulation of local virtual power plant construction, operation, and management measures, unify the standards for virtual power plant construction, operation, and management within the province, clarify processes such as project construction, access management, system debugging, capability testing, and online operation, and improve the implementation and operation efficiency of virtual power plant projects. Dynamically monitor and evaluate the operation effects and development trends of virtual power plants, and continuously improve the virtual power plant management system.
(6) Improving the access and calling mechanism of virtual power plants. Virtual power plants shall access corresponding systems according to the technical requirements of the business they participate in, the progress of electricity market construction, and operation management needs. Virtual power plants participating in demand response shall access the new power load management system (hereinafter referred to as the load system); virtual power plants participating in the electricity spot market and auxiliary service market shall access the power dispatch automation system (hereinafter referred to as the dispatch system), or participate in some transaction varieties through accessing the load system. Power dispatch agencies or power load management centers shall optimize working mechanisms according to the development needs of virtual power plants, provide system access services, conduct assessments of virtual power plant regulatory capabilities, ensure that the access requirements for participating in the electricity market or demand response are met, and implement the calling of virtual power plants or resource organization in an efficient and orderly manner.
(7) Enhancing the resource aggregation level of virtual power plants. Virtual power plant operators shall establish relevant technical support systems with information interaction functions such as monitoring, forecasting, and instruction decomposition and execution, respond to instructions from the dispatch system or load system in accordance with relevant rules, and optimize the regulation of aggregated resources. Aggregated resources of virtual power plants participating in the spot market should, in principle, be located at the same market clearing node. Where grid conditions and market rules permit, resources can also be aggregated across nodes. A single resource cannot be aggregated by two or more virtual power plants at the same time.
V. Improving Mechanisms for Virtual Power Plants to Participate in the Electricity Market, etc.
(8) Clarifying access conditions for participating in the electricity market. After meeting the requirements of the "Basic Rules for Electricity Market Registration" and the access requirements of the corresponding market, virtual power plants can participate in the medium and long-term electricity market, spot market, and auxiliary service market as independent entities. Various scattered resources shall not participate in electricity market transactions repeatedly during the period when they are aggregated by virtual power plants. Provincial competent authorities and dispatched agencies of the National Energy Administration shall, in accordance with their responsibilities, clarify and organize the release of rules and details for virtual power plants to participate in various electricity markets. In the early stage of virtual power plants' participation in the electricity market, access requirements can be appropriately relaxed based on actual conditions and gradually optimized according to operation conditions.
(9) Improving mechanisms for participating in the electricity energy market. Accelerate the participation of virtual power plants as resource-aggregating new business entities in the medium and long-term electricity market and spot market transactions as a whole, and clarify the corresponding principles for calculating electricity quantity and fees. Virtual power plants engaging in electricity purchase and sale business in the medium and long-term electricity market and spot market shall have the qualification of electricity sales companies. Improve the price formation mechanism of the medium and long-term market and appropriately widen the price limit range of the spot market. In regions with conditions, actively explore the participation of virtual power plants in cross-provincial electricity transactions.
(10) Improving mechanisms for participating in the auxiliary service market. Accelerate the opening of the auxiliary service market to virtual power plants and improve transaction varieties and technical requirements according to the characteristics of virtual power plants. Improve the transaction and price mechanisms of the auxiliary service market, set fair upper limits for declared prices of various auxiliary service varieties, and shall not set different upper limits for different entities. Establish and improve an assessment mechanism adapted to the development stage of virtual power plants to ensure the reliability of their regulatory capabilities.
(11) Optimizing the demand response mechanism. Improve the market-oriented demand response mechanism for virtual power plants to participate in, expand the scale of aggregating scattered demand-side resources, and enhance the response level of demand-side resources. In accordance with the principle of "who serves, who benefits; who benefits, who bears", reasonably determine the demand response compensation standards. The upper limit of demand response prices shall be studied and determined by provincial price authorities, and the demand response sharing mechanism shall be improved simultaneously.
VI. Improving the Safe Operation Level of Virtual Power Plants
(12) Enhancing the safety level of virtual power plants participating in power system operation. Virtual power plants included in the scope of grid-related safety management shall accept unified dispatching by power dispatch agencies and implement grid-related safety management rules and regulations. The interaction between virtual power plants and dispatch systems, load systems, etc., shall meet the network security protection requirements of the corresponding systems, and strengthen software and hardware configuration and safety monitoring to ensure safety and reliability. Incorporate virtual power plants into power safety emergency simulation drills, formulate power grid emergency plans and disposal procedures, clarify the responsibilities and divisions of labor between virtual power plants and various departments of power grid enterprises, and continuously improve emergency response and rapid recovery capabilities. Virtual power plants shall submit aggregated resource lists and change applications to the power load management center or power dispatch agency regularly according to the accessed systems. In case of emergencies in the power grid, aggregated resources of virtual power plants shall execute regulatory instructions as required.
(13) Enhancing the self-safety level of virtual power plants. Virtual power plant operators shall strengthen their own safety management, implement technical supervision requirements, and clarify the safety responsibilities of virtual power plants and various scattered resources in relevant agreements. Accelerate the construction of network security protection systems, strictly abide by policies, laws, regulations, and standards such as the "Regulations on the Security Protection of Power Monitoring Systems", and implement network security protection requirements. Strengthen data security management, use password products that meet requirements, and ensure data source encryption and tamper resistance. Strengthen abnormal monitoring, promptly detect data security risks, and quickly eliminate them.
VII. Promoting Technological Innovation and Standardization System Construction of Virtual Power Plants
(14) Strengthening the research and application of key technologies for virtual power plants. Carry out research on key technologies in the fields of resource aggregation, regulatory capability, intelligent control, transaction auxiliary decision-making, safety and stability, and evaluation and testing of virtual power plants, promote the research and application of intelligent metering and communication technologies, support the realization of extensive perception, accurate response, and high-speed interconnection of scattered resources, and continuously improve the regulatory performance and operation control level of virtual power plants.
(15) Establishing and improving a full-cycle standard system for virtual power plants. Accelerate the project approval, formulation, and release of technical standards for virtual power plants in areas such as aggregation response, grid-connected control, intelligent metering, data interaction, and safety protection. For areas urgently needed by the industry but not yet covered by standards, policy documents such as technical guidelines shall be used for preliminary regulation. Revise inappropriate clauses in issued standards in light of actual development to enhance the applicability of standards.
VIII. Strengthening Organization and Implementation
(16) Implementing responsibilities of all parties. Provincial competent authorities shall take the lead in establishing and improving the working mechanism for virtual power plant development, coordinate to solve problems in the promotion process, and support relevant entities in establishing virtual power plant development exchange platforms; work with relevant departments to formulate policy documents such as virtual power plant development plans and construction, operation, and management specifications; and work with dispatched agencies of the National Energy Administration to formulate supporting documents for virtual power plants' participation in electricity market transactions according to division of labor. Provincial price authorities shall take the lead in improving relevant price policies. Power grid enterprises and electricity market operating institutions shall continuously improve their service levels for virtual power plants to participate in system operation and the electricity market, and virtual power plant operators shall efficiently organize scattered resources to participate in power system interaction. Power grid enterprises and virtual power plant operators shall bear corresponding responsibilities for safe power supply according to their respective duties. Dispatched agencies of the National Energy Administration shall strengthen supervision, promptly identify problems, and promote solutions in accordance with their responsibilities.
(17) Improving support policies. Actively implement policies such as "two new initiatives" (large-scale equipment renewal and consumer product trade-in), and provide financial support for eligible virtual power plant projects. Encourage financial institutions to provide support for virtual power plants in the form of low-interest loans, credit guarantees, green bonds, etc.
(18) Strengthening evaluation and promotion. The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration shall, in light of the construction and operation of virtual power plants, summarize advanced projects and experiences in a timely manner, do a good job in promotion, and promptly improve relevant policies such as assessment. Provincial competent authorities shall strengthen the publicity, training, and interpretation of policies supporting virtual power plants, standards and specifications, and market-oriented operation mechanisms, cultivate advanced virtual power plant operators, and create a sound development atmosphere.
Annex: Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Virtual Power Plants
National Development and Reform Commission
National Energy Administration
March 25, 2025
