In recent years, based on the new energy security strategy and the "double carbon" goal, China has built a systematic policy system covering the new power system and the power market. At the end of 2025, the "guidance on promoting the high-quality development of power grid" (hereinafter referred to as "guidance") was issued to further integrate the policy guidance and clarify the development path of power grid, the functional positioning of the power grid will be upgraded to a "new power system hub platform" to accelerate the power grid into a new stage of collaborative transformation and high-quality development.
Policy Background
At present, the reform process of China's energy and power system has been significantly accelerated. The National Development and Reform Commission and the Energy Administration have intensively issued a series of policy documents, such as the action plan for accelerating the construction of a new power system and the construction of a unified national power market, to accelerate the construction of a new power system and continuously improve the market mechanism. The "Guiding Opinions" organically connect the new power system and the power market, and together constitute a comprehensive policy system that adapts to the green and low-carbon transformation of energy and supports the large-scale and high-proportion development of new energy. Reviewing the policy background of the series, the general characteristics of its evolution law are summarized as follows.
the power system is transforming from traditional monopoly and rigid supply to diversified coordination and flexible balance
first, technological development leads the change of energy supply and demand mode. Under the traditional source-driven mode, the power grid, as a single hub, undertakes the function of energy allocation. With the transformation of users from "consumers" to "consumers and consumers", new formats with resource aggregation characteristics such as smart microgrid gradually improve their self-balancing and self-adjusting capabilities, effectively reduce the investment demand for peak load of the power grid, and promote the collaborative interaction of all links of source network, load and storage, power system from "rigid supply" to "flexible balance" transformation. Second, the vitality of the market subject is stimulated. Through the relaxation of access, exemption to apply for power business licenses and other initiatives, to promote the rise of virtual power plant aggregators, green power direct connection and other new business entities, to promote the power system from a "single subject-led" to "multi-subject co-governance" transformation. Third, the efficiency of energy allocation is improved. The three-dimensional net frame composed of the ultra-high pressure "main artery" and the "capillary" of the main body of the new business can effectively alleviate the energy imbalance between the east and the west, while ensuring the nearby consumption of new energy, and improving the efficiency of energy allocation through the organic combination of "centralized delivery and local consumption.
The functional orientation of the power grid is upgraded from "transmission and distribution operation service" to "new power system hub platform"
Under the traditional transmission and distribution mode, the power grid mainly provides transmission and distribution operation services for power users. With the introduction of national policies to promote the development of new formats such as direct connection of green power and integration of source, network, load and storage, power grid enterprises are required to provide access services fairly and without discrimination to entities meeting grid connection conditions, strengthen dispatching operation management, continuously improve the technical support capacity and service level for various entities participating in power trading and system operation, and promote the transformation and upgrading of power grid in terms of physical form, dispatching operation, market construction and governance mode, the core support role of the power grid is becoming more and more prominent. The "Guiding Opinions" clearly give the power grid a brand-new connotation and upgrade its positioning to a "new power system hub platform", marking that the role of the power grid is no longer limited to the power transmission carrier, but is upgraded to an open load of various new elements and new resources., New business formats, promote the free flow of clean energy in a wide area, and realize the core hub platform for efficient and optimal allocation of resources.
Development status and challenges of traditional power grid channels
Development status
At present, China's power grid channels have realized the "three-axis" development pattern, undertaking the functions of long-distance transmission of coal power, hydropower and new energy across provinces, mutual aid of regional power grids, and interconnection of north and south power grids, it plays a very important role in the optimal allocation of power resources at the power supply end and the power load end.
One is to form a "three-channel" transmission pattern in the north, middle and south. The northern channel mainly transmits electricity from the northwest to the north and east of China; the central channel transmits electricity from the southwest and central and western regions of China to the middle and east of China; and the southern channel transmits electricity from the southwest to Guangdong. By the end of 2025, a total of 80 power grid channel projects have been completed nationwide, forming a cross-provincial and cross-regional allocation pattern of power resources.
The second is to build a grid channel with large transmission capacity in the world. By the end of 2025, the transmission capacity of China's power grid channels has exceeded 0.45 billion kilowatts, including 0.17 billion kilowatts in the north channel, 0.23 billion kilowatts in the middle channel and 0.06 billion kilowatts in the south channel, forming a pattern of complementary and coordinated development of regional advantages.
The third is to form a "multi-type power supply" pattern for external coal power, hydropower, and new energy. In the early stage of the development of the power grid channel, it mainly sent out coal power in the west, hydropower in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, hydropower in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River and hydropower in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi. With the construction of large-capacity new energy base, the power system gradually to the "scenery water and fire storage" integrated base transformation, renewable energy power accounted for more than half of the new grid channel transmission capacity, forming a variety of power complementary development pattern.
Fourth, the power supply transmission function of the power grid channel has expanded the functions of regional mutual aid and north-south interconnection. In the initial stage, the power grid channel is mostly a point-to-point mode from power supply to load center, and gradually expands to regional interconnection, such as northwest-North China interconnection and Sichuan-Chongqing-Central China interconnection. Under the idea of building a strong main grid, in recent years, further north-south power grid interconnection projects, such as the Fujian-Guangdong interconnection, have been carried out to promote regional liaison and mutual aid capabilities.
Challenges
Power grid channels have achieved remarkable results in ensuring power supply, promoting the implementation of the "double carbon" policy, driving industrial upgrading and promoting economic development, but at the same time, power grid channels in some areas are also facing challenges.
First, the contradiction between local power consumption and power transmission has gradually become prominent. With the gradual transformation from "dual control" of energy consumption to "dual control" of carbon emissions, high energy-consuming industries are accelerating the transfer to the western region where non-fossil energy is relatively rich. Northwest, southwest region and other traditional sending end provinces load power demand is growing rapidly, the supply and demand situation gradually from power surplus, basic balance, tight balance to power shortage, power transmission capacity and willingness to continue to weaken, the contradiction between the sending end of local electricity and power transmission gradually highlighted.
Second, the resources of the new grid corridor are scarce and the implementation is more difficult. my country is accelerating the development of large-scale wind power and photovoltaic bases focusing on deserts, Gobi and desert areas. The power grid channels in Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan provinces through which power is transmitted are relatively dense, and available corridor resources have gradually become scarce. At the same time, the cross-provincial and cross-regional channels have a large geographical span, the cross-river channels in Central and East China are tight, involving many interests, the number of sensitive points such as basic farmland and ecological red lines is large, the coordination between provinces and different administrative departments is difficult, the construction and implementation cycle is relatively long, the corridor resources are seriously short, and the difficulty of adding new power grid channels has increased significantly.
Third, the capacity of the channel supporting cross-zone delivery in some areas is insufficient. The transmission capacity of existing power grid channels in some regions is far from meeting the demand for transmission. Take the northwest region as an example, its new energy installed capacity has exceeded 0.3 billion kilowatts by 2025, but there are 14 UHV DC transmission channels built in the region, with a total transmission capacity of 86.71 million kilowatts. The existing transmission capacity can only cover 28% of the total installed capacity of new energy, resulting in phenomena such as "electricity and other channels" and "abandoning wind and light.
Fourth, security governance and scheduling control capabilities need to be improved. With the gradual increase of the proportion of new energy, the high proportion of power electronic equipment reduces the inertia of the system, which leads to the weakening of the capacity of the grid channel to withstand the disturbance, which is easy to cause the transient instability of the power system. The intermittent and random nature of new energy output, superimposed on the peak and valley impact of loads such as electric vehicles, leads to frequent and large fluctuations in voltage, and the response speed and accuracy requirements of FM resources are also greatly improved. The traditional centralized scheduling architecture is difficult to co-ordinate distributed massive nodes and cope with second-level fluctuations, and the complexity of coordinated control increases exponentially.
development prospect of power grid channel based on new power system hub platform
transformation from "scale expansion oriented" to "platform function oriented"
power grid channel value evaluation needs to change from a single transmission capacity scale to reflect "improving resource allocation efficiency, enhance system resilience, alleviate the abandonment of wind and light, support market operation" platform functions. The traditional evaluation system with transmission scale as the core needs to make up for the response to the contradiction between regional supply and demand and the scarcity of corridors; the planning and investment and financing evaluation of power grid channels need to be embedded in the sensitivity analysis of the expected growth of local electricity consumption at the transmission end and the dynamic adjustment rules of cross-regional transmission priority, so as to avoid the institutional mismatch of "cable without electricity" when the transmission end changes from surplus to shortage; the revenue distribution mechanism needs to include capacity guarantee, emergency support and public service value into the return system to stimulate the willingness to maintain cross-regional transmission capacity in the long term.
from "one-way layout" to "two-way feedback"
under the background of the coexistence of cross-regional delivery and the rapid growth of delivery ends, backbone network planning needs to incorporate the "bottom-up" development intention of distribution network and microgrid into the initial constraint conditions to form a dynamic planning closed loop of "up-down connection and two-way feedback. Especially in the new energy base to send out the necessary provincial (such as: Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, etc.) corridor scarcity situation, the backbone network needs to reserve "local protection/delivery switching" capacity and cross-domain capacity trading rules, to avoid the planning lag caused by cross-regional transmission bottlenecks. Functionally, the power grid channel should not only carry long-distance centralized delivery, but also provide access and capacity windows for direct connection to the park, microgrid and green power, forming a pattern of "combination of far and near, centralized and decentralized parallel.
change from "rigid operation" to "flexible network construction"
in the face of problems such as "electricity and other channels" and "abandoning wind and light", the controllability and adjustability of the channel itself need to be improved: the first is to speed up the application of grid converter, flexible DC, AC/DC hybrid and multi-terminal DC technologies to improve the controllability of power flow and fault isolation capability. The second is to design large-capacity energy storage, adjustable load (including electric vehicle charging and discharging regulation) and power grid channel capacity in coordination to form an integrated operation mode of "power supply-power grid channel-energy storage" to alleviate the contradiction between outgoing peak value and intermittent output from the source; the third is to use the segmented operation and autonomous control strategy to reduce the impact of single point failure on the cross-regional channel and improve the reliability and availability of the cross-regional channel.
shift from "dispatch-oriented" to "coordination between dispatch and market"
improve the tradability of power grid channels in market configuration (such as cross-regional capacity sharing and paid reserve), and systematically incorporate fast response resources (such as virtual power plants, energy storage, etc.) into the operation rules of power grid channels, thus, price signals are used to optimize cross-regional flows, increase utilization and reduce institutional "price barriers". At the same time, in view of the new energy output and load fluctuations, the second-level response and accuracy of scheduling control put forward higher requirements, the power grid channel needs to build a "four can" (considerable, measurable, adjustable, controllable) capacity framework, the distributed power supply through a unified platform to access real-time scheduling and market matching system.
The transformation from "enterprise bottom" to "platform co-governance"
The construction and operation of power grid channels involve multi-party interests across provinces and departments-under the circumstances of scarce corridors, tight cross-river channels and the existence of a large number of sensitive points (basic farmland, ecological red lines, etc.), the model of a single enterprise assuming governance and coordination risks is no longer suitable. It is necessary to establish a "platform co-governance" mechanism led by national/regional hub platforms and with the participation of transmission enterprises, power generators, power users, local governments and third-party service agencies: clarify the safety responsibility boundaries and income distribution rules of all parties, move forward the focus of risk governance and strengthen cross-domain coordination capabilities through standardized "safety contracts", contractual right-of-way arrangements and multi-subject emergency drills.
Change from "experience-driven" to "digital intelligence-driven"
Facing the challenges of scarcity of power grid channel resources and sharp increase of scheduling complexity, it is necessary to take digital intelligence decision-making as the core tool of planning, operation and risk management. Promote digital twin and joint scenario simulation covering the transmission, transformation and distribution grid channels, support cross-provincial and cross-regional corridor site selection optimization, transmission capacity timing assessment and multi-situation emergency drills, develop special intelligent models that can solve the problems of second-level fluctuations and high-dimensional trends, and support real-time allocation of grid channel resources and market matching. The engineering practice is solidified into standards and diagnostic tools through data and modeling, forming a closed loop of technology-standards-engineering, and accelerating the safe and controllable large-scale application of new technologies.
from "single physical corridor" to "land-sea coordination and multi-factor coordination"
facing the large-scale development of offshore wind power and far-reaching sea resources, the construction of power grid channels needs to break through the idea of land priority, strengthen the planning of land-sea integrated transmission corridors, and coordinate the layout of submarine cables and offshore converter stations. At the same time, we will explore the coordinated construction of transmission corridors, communications, transportation and other infrastructure to reduce land conflicts and environmental impacts. Implement multi-functional development of existing corridors to improve comprehensive utilization efficiency and social benefits.
Overall, under the functional positioning of the new power system hub platform, the power grid channel is no longer only the physical carrier of energy flow, but the basic platform carrying the multiple missions of resource optimization allocation, market operation, safety governance and technological innovation. Reconstructing the development logic around this position is the key to achieving a high-quality transition of the power grid.