The Chinese National Energy Administration (NEA) will launch the first domestic real-time spot electricity trading markets in eight Chinese regions - namely Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Shanxi, Shandong, Fujian, Sichuan , Guangdong and Gansu - in a move to speed up the liberalization of power prices currently set by the government. This announcement comes after these regions launched power markets in 2017 for both monthly and quarterly prices. The timeline was not given but the scheme is likely to be introduced by the end of 2018.
The new trading platforms will set new prices for the cash market along with those for a day ahead, which will in turn allow power generation and distribution companies to trade electricity in real time. According to the NEA, the total combined power generation of these eight regions reached 2,600 TWh in 2017, i.e. 42% of the country's total.
Key players in the market are expected to be the Chinese major utilities such as China Huadian Corp, China Datang Group, China State Grid Corp and China Three Gorges Corporation.
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