The Action Plan for High-Quality Distribution Grid Development (2024–2027) issued by China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) complements the broader strategy outlined in the Action Plan for Accelerating the New Type Power System (2024–2027). This plan specifically focuses on upgrading China’s distribution grid to meet the challenges posed by the energy transition and the nation’s carbon neutrality goals. It aims to ensure the grid’s capacity to handle the increasing demand from emerging market participants such as distributed renewable energy sources and electric vehicles (EVs).
The action plan sets out to enhance the power supply capacity, disaster resilience, and capacity of the distribution grid. It aims to address the weaknesses in the existing grid infrastructure, which must accommodate rapid technological advancements and the growing integration of new energy sources. The overarching goal is to establish a flexible, intelligent, and clean distribution system.
The plan lays out four major focus areas for improving distribution grid performance:
- Upgrade in weak power supply areas: The plan mandates targeted investment in aging or underdeveloped areas to enhance power supply reliability.
- Disaster resilience improvement: The plan stresses the importance of preparing the grid for extreme weather events such as floods, ice storms, and typhoons.
- Integration of new market participants: With a significant rise in distributed renewable energy (DRE) projects and EV charging demands, the distribution grid must be capable of accommodating these new participants.
- Exploration of distributed smart grid projects: The plan encourages innovation by advocating the development of distributed smart grid systems in key areas.
The plan also calls for the connection and alignment with the grid planning for the 15th Five Year Plan. It requires to establish and modify the standards for distribution grid. Meanwhile, NEA will conduct regular assessments between 2025 and 2027 to ensure regional grid improvements.
