BEIJING – China has issued guidelines for medium- and long-term green power trading, calling for a market-based approach, a notice on the state planner’s website said on Friday.
The rule lays out a price mechanism under which green power prices will be determined by the electricity price plus the price of green certificates, according to the notice jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the National Energy Administration (NEA).
Green certificates, issued by NEA, are tradable assets that represent 1,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of renewable energy consumption each.
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Transactions should not be subject to any price limit except as specified by the state, and green power trading should not be used as a way to “disguise” price reductions, it said.
Green power trading is a market-based approach to promote green electricity consumption that could help China shift away from a reliance on subsidies.
The rule also aims to standardise green power trading across regions.
International recognition?
The trading has been piloted in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Inner Mongolia since 2021, but with varying rules and pricing mechanisms, according to an online Q&A from the energy regulator.
The transactions grew 283% on average from 2021 to 2023, when 69.7 billion kilowatt-hours of green power were traded, according to the Q&A. That represents about 1% of China’s electricity consumption last year.
With the new rule, NDRC and NEA are also seeking to make it easier for export-oriented businesses to participate.
However, researchers have cautioned it is uncertain to what extent China’s green certificates would be recognised internationally.
Wind and solar, including distributed resources, hydro and geothermal power are all covered by the guidelines, the notice said.
China is seeking to reform its power sector to create a unified national spot market by 2030, but transactions are still largely carried out on the basis of medium- and long-term contracts.
