China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) will formally launch inter-provincial spot power trading in the country by the end of 2023, and pilot more regional electricity grids as it aims to build a national spot market in China by 2030. After initial trials, the inter-provincial power trading market will open for continuous settlement operations by the end of the year.
The Fujian Province is finalising plans for its market structure and will start a spot trading pilot before the end of 2023. Other regions including the Liaoning, Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hebei, Jiangxi, and Shaanxi provinces will try to pilot spot trading by the end of the year. The Zhejiang province and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regional power market are expected to begin trials before June 2024. The Sichuan province is also working on a model for its spot market to integrate high levels of hydropower generation during the rainy season, but no deadline has been announced so far.
By 2030, China aims to fully merge its six regional power networks into a unified electricity market to allow spot trading between the provinces and a quicker response to supply and demand changes. According to Energy Foundation China, inter-provincial trades made up less than 1% of market-traded electricity in 2022. A majority of those transactions were based on longer-term contracts, rather than supply and demand factors.
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