CHINA: An Introduction to Projects & Infrastructure (PRC Firms)

中国新能源电力市场的最新法律发展  

Latest Legal Developments in China’s New Energy Power Market 

随着中国"十四五"规划发布，推动新能源全产业链发展、加快能源领域转型升级成为实现"碳达峰"、"碳中和"的必经之路。在过去几年，中国可再生能源实现了跨越式发展。截止到2022年底，全国风电光伏发电装机突破了7亿千瓦，风电、光伏发电装机均处于世界第一。2022年风电光伏新增装机占全国新增装机的78%，新增风电光伏发电量占全国当年新增发电量的55%以上。在新增装机和发电量增长的同时，可再生能源的消纳利用率仍然保持较高水平，2022年前三季度，光伏、风电、全国主要流域水能利用率均达到95%以上。

With the release of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, promoting the development of new energy across the whole industry chain and accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the energy sector have become inevitable to achieve the goals of “carbon emission peak” and “carbon neutrality”. China has achieved leapfrog development in renewable energy in recent years. By the end of 2022, China’s newly installed power generation capacity of wind power and solar power reached 700 GW, accounting for 78.8% of the country’s newly installed power generation capacity, and the installed power generation capacity for wind power and that for solar power both stand No. 1 in the world. In 2022, more than 55% of the yearly increased power generation in China came from the wind power and solar power capacity. While the new installed capacity and power generation have largely increased, the consumption and utilization rate of renewable energy still maintains a high level. In the first three quarters of 2022, the utilization rates of solar photovoltaic power, wind power and hydropower in the major river basins in the country have all reached at least 95%.

整体而言，中国新能源行业仍处在高速增长阶段。中国对新能源行业的指导方针已过渡到"加快构建新型电力系统、完善新能源项目管理、全方位支持新能源行业发展"的阶段。在此背景下，一系列新的法规与政策出台，覆盖新能源电力行业项目开发模式、合规建设、并网消纳与电价补贴、绿电绿证交易和碳排放权等各个方面，为新能源电力行业的高速发展保驾护航。我们在本文中对中国新能源电力市场的最新法律发展进行简要介绍和分析。

On the whole, China’s new energy industry is still in the stage of rapid growth. The guidelines for the new energy industry in China have moved to the stage of "accelerating the establishment of the new electricity system, improving the management of new energy projects and comprehensively supporting the development of the new energy industry." In this context, a series of new regulations and policies aimed at safeguarding the high-speed development of the new energy power industry have been promulgated, covering various aspects of the industry such as project development mode, construction compliance, power grid connection and power consumption, tariff subsidy, trading of green electricity and green right certificates and carbon emission permits, etc. In this article, we will briefly introduce and analyze the latest developments of China’s new energy power market from the legal perspective.

新政策出台与加强行业监管并进。国家能源局在2022年12月出台针对集中式光伏电站的开发建设管理办法，对于集中式光伏电站的行业管理、年度开发建设方案、项目建设、电网接入管理等内容进行规定，推动光伏地面电站规范运行。就分布式光伏，2021年国家能源局提出在具有比较丰富屋顶资源的县市区规模化开发屋顶分布式光伏，此后，河北、浙江等多个地方已就屋顶分布式光伏项目的建设管理进一步出台相关规定。值得一提的是，国家及地方对光伏用地政策均进行了进一步规范，包括农用地、林地、河道、湖泊等，在此背景下，水上光伏具备潜在投资开发机遇。2022年浙江等省份已出台推进海域使用权立体分层设权政策，为海上光伏项目立体开发提供路径试点。

The promulgation of new policies and strengthening of industry regulations have gone hand in hand. In December 2022, the National Energy Administration of China ("NEA") issued the administrative measures for the development and construction of centralized ground photovoltaic power station to promote the investment and operation of such stations. The measures cover the industry management, the annual development and construction plans, project construction, power grid access management and other related issues of centralized ground photovoltaic power stations. In terms of distributed photovoltaic power stations, in 2021 the NEA had proposed to carry out large-scale development and construction of distributed roof top photovoltaic power stations in counties and small cities with relatively rich roof resources. Subsequently, many regions such as Hebei Province and Zhejiang Province have further issued implementation regulations on the construction and management of distributed photovoltaic power stations built on roof tops. It is worth to mention that both the state and the local governments have further standardized the policies on the land use for photovoltaic projects, which relates to agricultural land, forest land, rivers and lakes. In this context, there are potential investment and development opportunities for water photovoltaic power projects. In 2022, Zhejiang Province and other provinces have issued policies to promote the use rights of sea areas by layers, providing a pilot path for the multilayered development of offshore photovoltaic projects.

行业监管方面，自2022年3月起中国多部委联合在全国范围内开展了可再生能源发电补贴项目的自查及核查工作。核查重点包括项目合规性、规模、电量、电价、补贴资金和环保六个方面，不合规项目受到了不同程度的处罚，部分公司甚至因核查不通过被要求退回千万以上补贴资金。

In terms of industry regulation, since March 2022, several ministries have jointly carried out the self-check and inspection program for renewable power projects that are eligible for tariff subsidies across the country. The inspection focus on six aspects, including project compliance, scale, power generation quantity, tariff, subsidy and environmental protection. The projects with compliance defects have been punished based on severity of their noncompliance, and some companies were even required by the competent authorities to return the subsidy amounting to over RMB ten million yuan due to their noncompliance found in the inspection.

项目大型化及基地化的趋势明显。大型风电光伏基地项目是在十四五规划提出基地建设的布局后，用以保障能源供应安全、承载实现双碳目标的一批重要的风电及光伏项目的统称。由于该类项目往往由国家层面牵头推动，其在政府审批、电网公司并网环节会更加便利，国家政策也将对此类项目给予土地、环保、金融、并网等方面的政策支持。需要注意的是，对于项目立项、建设和并网具体法定手续环节，此类项目和一般光伏风电项目并无实质区别，此类项目的建设时间上甚至有更加严格的"关���"要求。

There is a significant trend of promoting large-scale projects and base projects in renewable power sector. The term of "Large Wind Power/Solar Photovoltaic Power Base Projects" refers to a group of important wind power and solar photovoltaic power projects to ensure the national security of energy supply and to achieve the goals of carbon emission peaking and carbon neutrality after the 14th Five-Year Plan provides the outline of wind power and solar power bases. As such projects are usually initiated and promoted at the national level, it will be easier for the sponsors to obtain regulatory approvals and permits and to make power grid interconnection with the power grid company. In addition, generally such projects may receive preferential treatments from the state in terms of land, environmental protection formalities, financing and power grid interconnection. It should be noted that, in terms of the specific mandatory procedures of the project approval, construction and power grid interconnection, such projects are not substantially different from other wind power and solar photovoltaic power projects. The timing requirement of the completion of the construction of such projects may be much more higher than normal projects.

作为新能源电力项目核心因素的电价逐步从标杆转为平价、竞价。2021年中国新能源项目正式进入平价上网阶段，新备案或核准的集中式光伏、工商业分布式光伏和陆上风电项目国家不再补贴，原则上按当地燃煤发电基准价实行平价上网。部分省市对于分布式光伏依然有地方补贴政策；新核准（备案）海上风电项目上网电价由省级价格主管部门制定或通过竞争性配置方式形成。2021年前备案核准项目仍继续按之前的电价政策享受国家补贴，但补贴电量受并网后20年或规定的全生命周期合理利用小时数的限制。

The tariff, as the core factor of new energy power projects, is gradually changed from area’s benchmark tariff to tariff of grid parity projects, and even the tariff generated from competition process. In 2021, China’s new energy projects has officially entered into the phase of grid parity projects. The state will no longer provide subsidies for newly filed or approved centralised solar photovoltaic power projects, distributed solar photovoltaic power projects and onshore wind power projects, and the tariff of such projects shall generally be equal to the local base price of coal-fired power projects. Some provinces and municipalities still provide local subsidies to distributed solar photovoltaic power stations. The tariff for newly approved or filed offshore wind power projects will be determined by the competent price authorities at the provincial level or determined through competitive allocation procedures as applicable. Projects filed or approved prior to 2021 will continue to enjoy the national subsidies in accordance with the previous tariff policy. However, the power generation quantity that is eligible to enjoy national subsidiary is limited to 20 years commencing from the project interconnection of the power grid, or to the number of the whole-life-cycle reasonable utilization hours of such project as regulated under relevant regulations.

电力市场改革促进绿电交易规模显著提高。随着电力市场化改革以及全国统一电力市场建设的进一步推进，更多的省份要求新能源项目进入电力市场交易，相关交易电量的电价不再固定，将随市场行情波动。各地各类新能源项目全面参与市场化交易的政策趋势越来越明显。与此同时，实践中，长期PPA在中短期内落地困难很大。因此，在电价、电量不确定性的前提下，电站运营期风险增高。2021年起推行的绿色电力交易实行"证电合一"的交易模式，对于不再享受国家补贴的电量，项目公司可通过绿电交易获得电价收益外环境权益部分的收益。同时，绿色电力交易的规则规定以年度交易为主、月度交易为补充，鼓励年度以上长期交易，这也使得新能源电站获得长期PPA的可能性增加。在之前国家绿电交易规定的基础上，2022年国网及南网绿电交易规则相继落地，推动绿电交易成为电力市场的热点之一。

The reform of the electricity market has led to a significant increase in the scale of green electricity transactions. With the further promotion of the market-oriented reform of the electricity market and the construction of the national unified electricity market, more and more provinces require the electricity generated by new energy power projects to be traded in the electricity market, and the tariff of such traded electricity is no longer fixed but fluctuate with the market. The policy trend for various types of new energy projects to fully participate in market-oriented transactions is increasingly obvious in all regions of the country. At the same time, in practice, it is difficult to implement long-term PPA in the near future. Therefore, given the uncertainty of tariff and electricity quantity, the risks of power projects during the operation period definitely increase. Since 2021, China has implemented the model of "integration of trading of permit and electricity" for green electricity trading. For the power that no longer enjoys national subsidies, the project companies may get additional profit from environmental attributes other than the electricity through green electricity trading. At the same time, the rules of green electricity transaction stipulate that the annual transactions are the main transactions model, supplemented by monthly transactions, and long-term transactions with the term beyond one year are encouraged. This also increases the possibility of new energy power plants to obtain long-term PPA. On the basis of the previous green electricity transaction rules at the national level, the green electricity transaction rules respectively promulgated by the State Grid Company and by the Southern Grid Company have been implemented one after another in 2022, promoting green electricity transaction to become one of the hot spots in the electricity market.

储能配置要求进一步强化。目前，中国主要通过施行发电侧强制配储的政策推动储能行业的发展，从而尝试解决新能源大规模并网给电力消纳及电网安全带来的影响。自2021年起国家即出台政策鼓励可再生能源发电企业通过自建或购买的方式配置储能或调峰能力，多个省份在该政策基础上进一步推出强制政策，即明确集中式风电、光伏发电项目必须同步配套建成投产储能设施。2022年以来，该等强制配储政策具有覆盖省份的数量变多、配储比例及小时数均有所增加。此外，2022年山东、河北等多个省份所出台的政策中对于分布式光伏项目也提出了强制配储要求。就独立储能商业模式，新型储能可作为独立储能参与电力市场。若干省份已陆续出台政策鼓励投资建设独立储能电站并颁布了对储能参与调峰辅助的补偿政策。

The requirements on energy storage have been further strengthened. At present, China mainly promotes the development of the energy storage industry by implementing the policy of compulsory storage on the power generation side, in order to solve the risks on power consumption and power grid security caused by large-scale grid interconnection of new energy projects. From 2021, China has introduced policies to encourage renewable energy power generation enterprises to build energy storage or peak regulating capability by means of self-construction or purchase. Based on such policies, a number of provinces have further introduced mandatory policies, i.e., specifying that the centralised wind power and solar photovoltaic power projects must simultaneously build and put into operation supporting energy storage facilities. Since 2022, there has been a trend that the number of provinces covered by such compulsory storage allocation policies has increased, and the proportion and hours of mandatory storage have increased as well. In addition, the policies released in 2022 by Shandong Province, Hebei Province and several other provinces also raised the requirements on mandatory storage of distributed solar photovoltaic power projects. In terms of the business model for independent energy storage, energy storage entities may participate in the electricity market as independent business. Several provinces in China have successively issued policies to encourage investment and construction of independent energy storage stations and issued compensation policies for such projects participating in auxiliary peak regulation.

展望 Outlook

中国新能源行业已经步入高速发展阶段，根据"十四五"规划的要求，在产业规模不断扩大的背景下未来五年将聚焦提升新能源发电量增量、消纳能力和非电利用规模，建成清洁低碳、安全高效的能源体系则是远景目标。从具体路径而言，通过优化可再生能源发展方式，加快推进风电光伏基地化开发和分布式开发，促进能源存储消纳，坚持创新驱动，健全能源体制机制，坚持国际开放融资，完善政策保障措施等综合手段，促进我国可再生能源在高速发展的脚步中逐步迈向高质量发展的新阶段。

China’s new energy industry has entered the stage of rapid development. According to the requirements of the 14th Five-Year Plan, against the background of continuous expansion of the industrial scale, in the next five years, the government will focus on increasing the electricity generation of new energy, consumption capacity and non-electricity utilisation. Building a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system will be a long-term goal of China. In terms of specific approaches, the country will optimise the ways of renewable energy development, accelerate the development of wind power/solar power base and distributed projects, and promote energy storage and consumption accordingly. The country will also encourage innovation, improve the energy system and mechanism, adhere to open international financing, provide the policy support and safeguard and other comprehensive means to enable China’s renewable energy to achieve a high quality development from a high-speed development.