Overview
On September 1, the National Energy Administration held a work deployment meeting on new power grid construction, laying out major tasks. During the “15th Five-Year” period, national electricity demand is projected to grow about 5% annually, with rising renewable shares and steadily increasing demand from high-end industries for green, high-quality power—raising the bar for the new grid.
Four priorities were set: reinforce infrastructure by building a “main-distribution-microgrid” coordinated architecture; leverage innovation via AI+, flexible grid-forming, intelligent dispatching, and long-duration storage; strengthen diversified support through grid services friendly to new business forms such as efficient renewable integration, high-quality supply, and compute-power coordination; and hold the safety line by enhancing disaster-prevention emergency capability and resilience.
Background & Interpretation
1. Industry Context & Policy Landscape
Rising renewable penetration plus distributed generation, EVs, and data centers are reshaping distribution networks. The “active distribution network”—complex and variable—is now the norm. The grid is evolving from a single transmission corridor into a multilayer infrastructure coordinating bulk grids, distribution, and smart microgrids.
2. Core Drivers & Underlying Mechanisms
The proposed “main-distribution-microgrid” architecture aims to link bulk grids, distribution platforms, and flexible microgrids. Technologies like AI+, flexible grid-forming, and intelligent dispatching address stability issues from high renewables—inertia loss, wide-band oscillations, voltage fluctuations—while long-duration storage fills long-timescale regulation gaps.
3. Value Chain & Competitive Impact
New grid construction will drive demand for UHV and cross-provincial corridors, distribution upgrades, smart microgrids, grid-forming storage, intelligent dispatching, and power-electronics equipment. Suppliers with “grid-friendly” design, system simulation, and grid-forming capability gain an edge; grid firms must advance major projects leanly to spur investment and ensure supply.
Implications & Outlook
Near term, approvals and construction of transmission corridors, distribution, and microgrid projects will accelerate, with local authorities compiling task lists. Medium to long term, as renewables fully enter markets and computing demand surges, compute-power coordination and high-quality supply become new service growth poles, with resilience and disaster response elevated in priority.
Key variables: pace of main-distribution-microgrid pilots, commercialization of grid-forming storage and flexible DC, and maturity of grid emergency systems under extreme weather.
Takeaways for Industry Participants
- Equipment suppliers: build around grid friendliness and grid-forming; strengthen system simulation and grid-connection testing.
- Grid firms: expedite major-project approvals and construction; balance main-distribution-microgrid investment tempo.
- Users and parks: use policy windows for smart microgrids and high-quality supply to plan distributed and storage assets.
This column compiles industry information and shares technical perspectives; it does not constitute investment advice.