The Notice on Deepening the Marketization Reform of New Energy Grid Prices and Promoting High Quality Development of New Energy (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration at the beginning of this year proposes that the grid connected electricity of new energy projects should, in principle, enter the electricity market. Among them, the existing projects and incremental projects are divided into nodes based on June 1st of this year. Recently, Shanghai Securities News reporters learned from multiple new energy power plant operators and trading companies that the business volume of consulting electricity trading services has significantly increased compared to before the announcement was released. New energy companies are actively reducing the risk of yield fluctuations by improving their operational capabilities. All parties actively view the comprehensive entry of new energy into the market. According to data recently released by the China Electricity Council (referred to as "CEC"), as of the end of March this year, the total installed capacity of power generation in China was 3.43 billion kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 14.6%; The installed capacity of thermal power is 1.45 billion kilowatts, including 1.2 billion kilowatts of coal power; The total installed capacity of grid connected wind and solar power generation is 1.48 billion kilowatts, which historically exceeds the installed capacity of thermal power. Experts from the China Electricity Council believe that in the future, with the sustained and rapid growth of wind and solar power, the installed capacity of wind and solar power will exceed that of thermal power and become the norm. Lin Boqiang, Dean of the China Energy Policy Research Institute at Xiamen University, believes that the current rapid development trend of new energy has led to a significant increase in its volume, and the traditional full acquisition and subsidy model is no longer sustainable. Against the backdrop of cost reduction and certain market competitiveness, the entry of new energy into the electricity market trading has become an inevitable trend. According to the notice, policies will be implemented based on the classification of existing and incremental projects, with June 1st as the milestone. After that, incremental projects will be the first to fully enter the market for on grid electricity, and the on grid electricity price will be determined by market competition. Simply installing photovoltaic power generation equipment is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of enterprises, and more means are needed to help customers reduce electricity bills. ”Lin Yang, director of Zhongxin Energy Innovation Research Center, a comprehensive energy service enterprise, told reporters that the purpose of policy documents such as notices is to promote enterprises to install new energy generation equipment in places with demand. Ms. Gao, the person in charge of the relevant business of a state-owned new energy asset operation enterprise in Qingdao, told reporters that based on the interpretation of the notice, it has basically no impact on the expected investment return rate of the enterprise, but in the future, more caution should be exercised when selecting the location of power plants when investing. The supply and demand of electricity will become the most crucial issue. Once there is a power restriction in the local area, the operating companies will not be able to alleviate such significant investment risks by improving their operations. ”Ms. Gao stated that the notice has put forward higher requirements for new energy enterprises to strengthen their strategic layout and refine their operations. Recently, Shandong and Guangdong have successively released draft implementation rules for soliciting opinions. The latest research report from Everbright Securities believes that the Shandong version of the detailed rules is relatively friendly in setting the mechanism electricity price for existing projects, and there is a certain possibility of optimizing the mechanism electricity quantity. The wind power price for incremental projects is still acceptable; The Guangdong version of the detailed rules has stabilized the expectation of new energy installations and is relatively friendly to the development of offshore wind power. In the future, more places will gradually release detailed rules, and the market will continue to pay attention to the impact of the notices. The expansion of the electricity service market has resulted in over half of the total electricity entering the market for trading nationwide. In 2024, the total electricity consumption in society will be 9.85 trillion kilowatt hours, of which market-oriented trading accounts for 63%. According to policy requirements, the proportion of market-oriented electricity trading will further increase, and in the future, it will be necessary to enter the market entirely and have prices formed by the market. From the perspective of potential electricity trading scale, according to the prediction of China Electricity Council, by 2030, the total electricity consumption in China will reach over 13 trillion kilowatt hours. Referring to the domestic and international market situation, it is expected that the generated electricity trading service market scale will be close to 200 billion yuan. Electricity market service providers are expected to become important beneficiaries of notification. Shang Jingnan, the general manager of Beijing Qinghe Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Qinghe Technology"), told reporters that since the notice was issued, the business volume of consulting electricity trading services from the company has increased by about 400% year-on-year, the number of completed orders has increased by 200%, and the order volume has doubled. According to data from Aiqicha, in 2024, the market share of Qinghe Technology's electricity trading agency and trading assistance system business reached as high as 26.3%. Shang Jingnan stated that before the announcement was released, the proportion of transactions entering the market varied among provinces, especially for provinces with low or trial operation ratios. New energy enterprises were not sensitive to trading rules and their research on rules was not thorough. After the policy is released, new energy enterprises need to face market competition directly, and the risk of electricity price fluctuations increases. This forces enterprises to improve operational efficiency, and the demand for long-term electricity price forecasting, provincial electricity price data mastery, and policy analysis becomes more urgent. At the same time, there is a clear trend of increasing explicit customers in the electricity trading and custody business. This is precisely the advantage of electricity market service providers. Taking Qinghe Technology as an example, after accepting custody of a new energy project in 2024, the average settlement price of its spot trial operation in November far exceeded the market settlement price, and the average electricity price of the project exceeded the provincial average electricity price of 59 yuan/megawatt hour. During the 2024 spot trial operation period of another new energy project it serves, the average annual settlement price for total electricity exceeded the provincial average electricity price of 21 yuan/megawatt hour, resulting in an average total increase of approximately 11 million yuan in project revenue. Places with demand are places with load, which will bring more market opportunities. ”Lin Yang stated that with the implementation of relevant regulations, the core asset of the electricity spot market is flexible and adjustable load. As a comprehensive energy service enterprise, Zhongxin Energy will help users reduce comprehensive energy costs through flexible load adjustment. At present, grid side energy storage mainly generates revenue through spot markets and ancillary service markets, and some provinces have provided capacity compensation for energy storage. Energy storage on the power side mainly profits from participating in the electricity market as a whole with supporting power sources. User side energy storage is mainly used for peak valley arbitrage through the time of use electricity pricing mechanism. In addition, it can also participate in demand response by coordinating with supporting loads, and obtain profits by participating in the electricity market through virtual power plant aggregation. At present, the electricity spot market has entered the formal operation stage in five regions including Shanxi, Shandong, Gansu, Guangdong, and Mengxi, and the inter provincial electricity spot market has also been officially launched. Recently, several provinces' electricity spot markets will enter formal operation, and several regions will start continuous settlement trial operation of spot markets before the end of this year. Experts from Zhongguancun Energy Storage Industry Technology Alliance told reporters that the market-oriented participation scope of new energy storage is rapidly expanding. A person from a listed company engaged in new energy storage business in Henan Province stated that the company is currently waiting for the implementation of local regulations that are linked to the notification. However, it can be confirmed that the comprehensive entry of new energy into the market policy will have a positive impact on the development of the energy storage industry. In order to cope with the impact and challenges brought by the notification, new energy enterprises are increasing their operational and trading capabilities to improve their profitability. (New Society)