China Further Standardizes Management of Electricity Markets Amid Trading Boom

29 Aug 2023

What’s new: China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has issued guidelines to further standardize how the management committees of local electricity markets work amid a boom in trading.

The guidelines, published on Friday, clarified the responsibilities of management committees, including studying the articles of association for electricity trading exchanges, researching trading rules and assisting the NEA and other related agencies to establish mechanisms for self-discipline and supervision.

A management committee should be made up of representatives from power grid operators, electricity generators, sellers, buyers, traders and transmission and distribution platforms, and other related third-party entities, the guidelines said.

The guidelines also urged the management committees to nail down their deliberation process, stating that a decision requires an absolute two-thirds vote for passage.

The background: The guidelines come amid a boom in the domestic electricity trading market. In the first half of 2023, electricity traded on China’s electricity exchanges totaled 2.65 trillion kilowatt-hours, up 6.7% year-on-year, accounting for 61.5% of the country’s total electricity consumption, according to NEA data.

So far, a total of 33 management committees of local electricity markets have been established, according to the NEA.

In January 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, and the NEA issued guidelines, according to which the country will basically establish a unified electricity market by 2030.