Overview
On September 30, the National Energy Administration (NEA) published a draft revision of the “Power Grid-Connection Operation Management Regulations” for public comment, aiming to refine grid-operation requirements for new-type storage, green-direct-power links and source-grid-load-storage integration, while strengthening the link between grid-related performance, dispatch responsibility and market mechanisms.
At the local level, supporting rules are accelerating: Hebei’s development commission issued guidance on shared engineering and cost allocation for wind, solar and independent storage projects—costs split by AC-side capacity share and operation costs by actual annual generation; Shanxi’s six departments introduced measures pushing new-type storage into peak-shaving with optimized compensation; Tianjin published Q4 distributed-source hosting-capacity assessments, with some districts turning yellow or red.
Background & Interpretation
1. Industry Background and Policy Context
The 2021 version of the rules had a five-year term, and 2026 is a key衔接 point. Meanwhile the Basic Rules for Power Market Operation, ancillary-service rules and capacity-price mechanisms have been rolled out, demanding alignment. Rising renewable share, growing storage and more demand-side resources challenge the traditional “centralized direct dispatch” model.
2. Core Drivers and Underlying Mechanism
The revision’s core is bringing new entities into a “observable, measurable, adjustable, controllable” system: storage shifts from scale expansion to refined operation, assessed by dispatchable power, duration and response; distributed generation, user-side storage, charging networks and virtual plants achieve “aggregated coordination” via aggregators. Grid-connected entities must move from “passive following” to “active support,” providing frequency and voltage support.
3. Market Structure and Industry Impact
Cost allocation and hosting-capacity assessment reshape project economics: Hebei’s mandated shared-cost allocation lowers later projects’ grid-entry barriers but raises existing operators’ O&M costs; Tianjin’s grading guides orderly distributed development. For storage operators, virtual plants and grid-equipment vendors, finer rules bring compliance cost but also open market space in ancillary services and peak-shaving compensation.
Implications & Outlook
Near term, the draft and local rules improve grid-connection transparency and predictability; medium term, as market-based dispatch of storage and demand-side resources matures, system regulation capability will strengthen markedly. Key variables: final-rule issuance timing, ancillary/capacity-price衔接 details, and dynamic hosting-capacity assessments and grid-cost pass-through.
Takeaways for Industry Participants
- Storage and renewable developers should embed grid-connection cost and hosting constraints into investment models, planning shared-access and allocation schemes early.
- Virtual plants and aggregators must accelerate distributed-resource integration to meet “aggregated coordination” dispatch requirements.
- Grid-equipment vendors can watch demand for active-support grid devices and grid-performance testing equipment.
This column compiles industry information and shares technical perspectives; it does not constitute investment advice.