China On Target to Launch National Power Market by End of Year
(Bloomberg) -- China is on target to launch a unified national power trading market by the end of this year, according to its main electricity grid operator.
State Grid Corp. of China’s President Pang Xiaogang is confident the platform will be ready by then, he said Tuesday during a panel at the World Economic Forum conference in Tianjin, known as Summer Davos.
The utility, whose network covers more than 80% of the country, is currently working to design the market, Pang said. Once active, it would facilitate electricity being traded in near real-time and across provinces, and should favor the take-up of increasingly inexpensive renewable power.
China first set a 2025 target for building the initial stages of a national power market in 2022, after price distortions caused by growing coal costs led to widespread outages. The process has been accelerated this year, with all wind and solar projects being forced to sell electricity in open markets from June 1.
China’s wind and solar installations soared in May ahead of the deadline. The two energy sources have accounted for about 25% of total power generation over the first five months of the year, with utilization rates at about 93%, Pang said.
Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power Co. sees China’s clean energy expansion as an incentive to set up shop in the country. The company hopes to export the desalinization technology it’s perfecting at home, the utility’s Chairman Mohammad Abunayyan said during the panel. ACWA has been able to reduce the cost of producing fresh water from the sea by 85% over the past decade, he said.
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