The Chinese government plans to set up new electricity transmission prices by the end of October 2017 in order to accelerate the liberalization of the power market and promote the trading of power across different Chinese regions. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) intends to announce the new transportation prices on the major West to East power grid in October 2017 and will update the prices every three years.
This is the last move of a policy which was launched back in 2015, when power trading schemes were launched in eight regions along with the reduction of power distribution prices. As of today, power grid operators charge transmission fees to transport electricity between regions or within a given region. Several Western regions utilities operating in Xinjiang and Ningxia can now sell electricity on the East coast but have complained that the transmission fees are too high and that they cannot compete with local utilities.