Stories of High-Quality Development | Cross-grid electricity transmission

How can more enterprises gain access to green electricity?

At Covestro's Shanghai integrated site, the share of green electricity used has exceeded 30 percent, becoming a key factor for its products to obtain environmental certifications and gain access to overseas markets. In March this year, dozens of Shanghai-based companies, including Covestro, began using green electricity transmitted from Yunnan and Guangxi, more than 2,000 kilometers away. This marked the first time in China that green electricity was express-delivered across different power grid operating areas.

Shanghai has a strong demand for green electricity, yet 90 percent of its supply comes from other provinces. This creates a mismatch, with shortages in some regions and surplus capacity in others. This cross-grid green power transaction has opened up a new pathway. It also represents, on a national scale, a vivid example of electricity trading across different grid operating areas.

In the past, coordination between the two major power grids was mainly carried out on a line-by-line or case-by-case basis, requiring a new set of rules for each province involved. This is because, after more than 20 years of development, State Grid and China Southern Power Grid have each established relatively complete power markets within their respective operating regions. Although the hard infrastructure connecting the two grids has long been in place, the soft mechanisms for cross-grid trading still need to catch up.

On July 11, a plan for a regularized power trading mechanism across power grid operating regions was officially approved, making cross-regional power transmission a regular arrangement.

On a large screen at the Beijing Power Exchange Center, information on cross-provincial and cross-regional power transactions, along with load forecasts for each province, is updated in real time. This functions like a nationwide online power marketplace. Wherever there is a power shortfall and wherever there is surplus capacity to cover it, everything is clearly visible at a glance.

With the regularized power trading mechanism in place, during the past summer, more than 2 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were continuously transmitted from Yunnan, Guangxi, and other regions to Shanghai, as well as to Zhejiang, Anhui, and other regions facing shortages. This is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of more than 800,000 households.

Removing barriers and obstacles ultimately hinges on reform. Going forward, the power market will continue to optimize trading mechanisms. Efforts will be made to plan with a holistic perspective and steadily advance through multi-party collaboration so as to take a coordinated, nationwide approach to the power system as a whole.