The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration recently jointly issued the ''Notice on Improving the Power Generation Side Capacity Electricity Price Mechanism'' (hereinafter referred to as the ''Notice''), which is the first time to clearly establish a grid-side independent new energy storage capacity electricity price mechanism at the national level. Its future development delineates clear revenue rules and clarifies the market-oriented development path. This policy not only fills the gap in the national new energy storage capacity tariff system, but also activates the investment vitality of the industry through stable income expectations, and builds a solid mechanism for the new energy storage to give full play to the core role of peak supply and new energy consumption in the power system, and becomes the key policy support for the development of the new energy storage industry.

Since the "double carbon" target was put forward, China's new energy storage has achieved leapfrog development. By the end of 2025, the installed capacity of new energy storage has reached 0.136 billion kW/0.351 billion kWh, an increase of more than 40 times compared with the end of the 13th five-year Plan. The average storage time is 2.58 hours, an increase of 0.30 hours compared to the end of 2024. At the same time, the level of new energy storage calls has been further improved. According to preliminary statistics, the equivalent utilization hours of new energy storage in 2025 will reach 1195 hours, up nearly 300 hours from 2024.

Bian Guangqi, deputy director of the Energy Conservation and Science and Technology Equipment Department of the National Energy Administration, said that the flexible adjustment capability of the new energy storage has become increasingly prominent, and its role in promoting the development and consumption of new energy, improving the safe and stable operation of the power system and ensuring equal water supply has gradually increased.

With the deepening of the green and low-carbon transformation of energy, the proportion of volatile renewable energy such as wind power and photovoltaic in the new energy structure continues to grow, and the contradiction of insufficient flexible resources in the new power system has become increasingly prominent, which brings challenges to the balance and stability of supply and demand in the power system. At present, the penetration rate of new energy power generation in Qinghai, Gansu and other regions has exceeded 30%. The contradiction between midday power grid consumption and late peak power supply is prominent, and the problem of system balance adjustment is prominent.

Liu Yongdong, deputy secretary-general of the China Electric Power Enterprise Federation, said that the "15th Five-Year Plan" and the medium and long-term are the critical periods for the construction of new power systems. The installed capacity of new energy power generation will continue to maintain a rapid growth trend, and it is expected that the average annual increase will be more than 0.2 billion kilowatts. The new energy storage needs multi-time scale and diversified development, fully connect the power market, and ensure the safe and stable operation of the new power system.

however, with the cancellation of the mandatory allocation and storage policy for incremental new energy, the previous transitional capacity rental income model cannot be continued. relying only on the electric energy and auxiliary service markets, the income of independent energy storage projects cannot cover the investment and operating costs. the industry urgently needs to clarify the relevant policies for capacity income to provide stable expectations for project investment and construction. Liu Yongdong said that in this context, the "Notice" from the national level to unify the grid side of the independent new energy storage capacity tariff rules, the essence is through the system design to make the new energy storage capacity value, peak contribution and income level accurately match, crack the mechanism of industry development obstacles.

In Liu Yongdong's view, the "Notice" has a far-reaching impact on the development of new energy storage, which is conducive to promoting the formation of a revenue structure of "reliable capacity compensation to stabilize the basic, electric energy market and auxiliary services to increase benefits". Through the establishment of stable revenue expectations, the economy of energy storage projects will be improved, thus accelerating the large-scale market development of the industry. The core of this mechanism is to recognize and compensate the "capacity support" value provided by energy storage for the power system, not just the traditional value of electric energy transactions.

Unlike other conventional power sources, the energy storage power station itself does not increase the power supply, and its function is mainly to provide regulation services for the power system. Therefore, the construction scale should be adapted to the regulation demand of the power system, and it is necessary to guard against "supercooling" and to avoid the imbalance between supply and demand caused by "overheating" of investment.

Experts said that for the new energy storage industry, the policy landing is not the end, but a new starting point for market-oriented development. In the future, the industry will accelerate the upgrading around the direction of long-term, high-efficiency and intelligent. Under the guarantee of capacity electricity price and the incentive of market mechanism, the new energy storage will achieve large-scale and high-quality development, and become the core force and basic guarantee for China to realize energy transformation and build a new power system. (Economic Daily reporter Wang Yichen)