On November 24, 2021, General Secretary Xi Jinping presided over the meeting of the Central Reform Committee. The meeting laid out the blueprint for the national power market, stressing the need to “establish a national integrated power market” and setting the direction for China’s power market reform. The meeting also issued the “Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Building of a National Integrated Power Market (hereinafter referred to as the Guiding Opinions)”.
The Energy Internet Think Tank Research Center of Tsinghua University has been instrumental in providing expert guidance for the research of the Guiding Opinions. Recently, the National Energy Administration sent a letter to Tsinghua University to express its appreciation for the support of Tsinghua University and relevant experts. The letter stated that the Energy Internet Think Tank Research Center “has put forward a plan for establishing a national integrated power market, laying a solid foundation for the formulation of the Guiding Opinions”. “Qixin Chen has participated in the research and drafting of the Guiding Opinions in a deep and extensive way, as the main author and consultant”.
Figure 1: General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizing the need to “establish a national integrated power market”
China has made remarkable progress and achievements in its power market establishment since the initiation of a new round of power system reform in 2015. In 2020, China's market-oriented power trading reached 3166.3 billion kilowatt hours, accounting for 42.2% of the total electricity consumption in society. China currently has the world’s largest market-oriented power trading volume. The Energy Internet Think Tank Research Center of Tsinghua University (hereinafter referred to as the "Think Tank Center") has been long engaged in the power market reform, deeply participated in the development of major national strategies, policy consultation, and document revision, and carried out a series of major research projects commissioned by relevant national agencies. It provides theoretical support and technical analysis tools for the reform of the national power system and strategic energy transformation.
Jointly drafted by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration, the Guiding Opinions emphasizes the need to "establish a national integrated power market", "follow the operational laws of the power market and market economy, refine the overall design of the power market, share and optimize electricity resources across China, and accelerate the construction of a power market that is integrated and open, competitive and regulated, safe and efficient, and well-governed ".
Figure 2: Policy recommendations in the research result on "The Power Markets and Power Systems in China Europe: Better Integration of Clean Energy Resources"
The Think Tank Center is based on the “three faculties” framework consisting of the Department of Electrical Engineering, the Energy Internet Research Institute, and the Tsinghua Sichuan Energy Internet Research Institute. It is a branch of the national think tank "Institute for Governance Studies of Tsinghua University". The Center has been long engaged in the power market reform, deeply participating in the development of major national strategies, policy consultation, and document revision. When preparing the Guiding Opinions, researchers from the Think Tank Center, including Qixin Chen, Nan Jiang, Hongye Guo, and Haiwang Zhong, carried out the research task related to the "National Integrated Power Market" commissioned by the National Energy Administration. They conducted in-depth research and domestic and foreign comparisons, providing an important theoretical basis for the design of the system and mechanism of China's power market. Since 2019, Associate Professor Qixin Chen from the Think Tank Center has carried out a major energy research project titled "Design of China's Inter-Province Power Trading Mechanism" that is commissioned by the National Energy Administration. He proposed for the first time concepts such as "Establishing a Multilevel Integrated Power Market in China" and "Creating an Efficient and Coordinated Mechanism for China's Provincial/Regional and Inter-Province Power Trading". In 2020, he continued to carry out a major energy research project "Study on Power Market Mechanism Aligned with Energy Transformation" commissioned by the National Energy Administration, conducted in-depth research on the power market mechanism of renewable energies and designed a specific roadmap and method for "participation of renewable energy in market transactions".
Since the initiation of a new round of power reform in 2015, the Think Tank Center has participated in the revision of 8 nationwide and ministry-level policy documents related to the power market, carried out 18 related projects commissioned by ministries and commissions, published more than 70 papers, and trained 4 PhD graduates and 4 Master graduates. The Think Tank Center has also won four province/ ministry-level awards, including the First Prize for Science and Technology Progress supported by the Ministry of Education, the First Prize for Outstanding Research Achievements sponsored by the National Energy Administration, and the First Prize for China Electric Power Science and Technology.
