National Development and Reform Commission and National Energy Administration's Guiding Opinions on the High-Quality Development of Distribution Networks under the New Situation

Development and Reform Commissions and Energy Bureaus of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; the Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Management; all dispatched institutions of the National Energy Administration; and relevant power enterprises:

　　Distribution networks, as important public infrastructure, play a significant role in ensuring power supply, supporting economic and social development, and improving people's livelihoods. With the advancement of the construction of a new power system, distribution networks are gradually transforming from a simple power network that accepts and distributes electricity to users into a power network that integrates and interacts with sources, grids, loads, and storage, and flexibly couples with the upper-level grid. Their functions in promoting on-site consumption of distributed power generation and accommodating new loads are becoming increasingly prominent. To promote the high-quality development of distribution networks under the new situation, and to help build a new power system that is clean, low-carbon, safe, sufficient, economically efficient, coordinated in supply and demand, and flexible and intelligent, the following opinions are put forward.

　　I. Overall Requirements

　　(I) Guiding Ideology

　　Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and deeply implementing the new energy security strategy of "four revolutions and one cooperation," we will closely follow the goals of power supply security and transformation under the new situation, orderly expand investment in distribution networks, improve investment efficiency, jointly promote the construction and transformation of distribution networks, systematically promote the scientific integration and development of distribution networks with sources, loads, and storage, comprehensively improve the power supply guarantee capacity and comprehensive carrying capacity of urban and rural distribution networks, and use the high-quality development of distribution networks to support the construction of a new energy system and a new power system, serve economic and social development, promote the achievement of "dual carbon" goals, and accelerate the process of Chinese-style modernization.

　　(II) Basic Principles

　　Adhere to safe power supply and enhance security capabilities.Taking the guarantee of safe and reliable power supply as the primary task, we will plan and construct distribution networks with appropriate advance, continuously optimize the network structure, maintain reasonable power supply margins, and narrow the gap in power supply between urban and rural areas. Appropriately raise the defense standards, and jointly improve the emergency guarantee level for important users, consolidating the foundation of intrinsic safety.

　　Adhere to green development and support low-carbon transformation.Accelerate the construction, transformation, and intelligent upgrading of distribution networks, and strengthen the coordinated development of sources, grids, loads, and storage. Effectively meet the needs of distributed renewable energy development, fully support the construction of electric vehicle charging infrastructure systems, actively promote the diversified development of new energy storage, and comprehensively promote the green and low-carbon transformation of energy.

　　Adhere to coordinated connection and strengthen planning guidance.Firmly establish a systems thinking approach, and strengthen the connection and interaction between distribution network planning and national development strategies, urban and rural development plans, and industrial development plans during the preparation and implementation processes. Deepen multi-departmental coordination and cooperation to achieve the scientific and orderly allocation of source, grid, load, and storage resources.

　　Adhere to scientific management and promote quality improvement and efficiency enhancement.Establish and improve a scientific development mechanism for distribution networks and strengthen full-process management. Innovate distribution network operation and management models, improve standardization levels, promote advanced scientific and technological research and development and application, deepen power system and mechanism reforms, and further improve the quality and efficiency of distribution networks.

　　(III) Development Goals

　　Focusing on the overall goal of building a new energy system and a new power system, we will build a new distribution system that is safe, efficient, clean, low-carbon, flexible, and intelligently integrated. On the basis of enhancing power supply capacity, we will promote the transformation of distribution networks in form from a traditional "source-less" unidirectional radiating network to a "source-based" bidirectional interactive system, and in function from a single power supply and distribution service entity to an efficient resource allocation platform for sources, grids, loads, and storage.

　　By 2025, the distribution network structure will be stronger and clearer, and the power supply and distribution capacity will be reasonably sufficient; the load-bearing capacity and flexibility of the distribution network will be significantly improved, with the capacity to accommodate approximately 500 million kilowatts of distributed renewable energy and approximately 12 million charging piles; active distribution networks and large power grids will be compatible and complementary; the digital transformation of distribution networks will be fully promoted; open and shared systems will gradually be formed, supporting diversified innovation and development; the intelligent control and operation system will be accelerated; and in areas with the necessary conditions, new technologies such as vehicle-grid coordination interaction and grid-forming renewable energy and grid-forming energy storage will be promoted.

　　By 2030, the flexible, intelligent, and digital transformation of distribution networks will be basically completed, realizing multi-level coordination between main, distribution, and microgrids, the aggregation and interaction of massive resources, and plug-and-play for multiple users. This will effectively promote the integrated development of distributed intelligent power grids and large power grids, better meet the development needs of distributed power generation, new energy storage, and various new business models, provide strong support for the establishment of a charging infrastructure system that is widely covered, appropriately scaled, reasonably structured, and functionally complete, and promote the achievement of non-fossil energy consumption targets through high-level electrification.

　　II. Addressing Shortcomings in the Power Grid and Strengthening the Foundation for Power Supply Security

　　(I) Comprehensively Enhancing Power Supply Guarantee Capacity.Appropriate advance planning of substations and distribution points, optimizing the layout of power grid facilities, and creating a strong and flexible power grid framework. Accelerate the upgrading and transformation of power distribution facilities in old urban communities and urban villages, strictly implement the requirements for "one meter per household" for urban residents' electricity use, charging infrastructure in newly built residential areas, flood prevention and drainage, and orderly promote the dual power supply transformation of primary loads in high-rise communities. Accelerate the implementation of rural power grid consolidation and upgrading projects, improve the rural power grid framework, strengthen the connection between county power grids and the main grid, steadily promote the extension and coverage of large power grids, build renewable energy local area networks in a way that suits local conditions, and continuously increase the investment in rural power grid construction in remote areas, poverty-stricken areas, and revolutionary old areas. Scientifically strengthen weak links, systematically identify and form a list of county distribution networks with single power supply directions, and carry out targeted improvements to power supply reliability. Regularly monitor and investigate problems such as heavy loading of main (distribution) transformers, heavy overloading of lines, and voltage exceeding limits, propose targeted solutions, and eliminate power supply bottlenecks. In areas with conditions, combined with technical and economic comparisons, new technologies such as hybrid AC/DC distribution networks and flexible interconnection will be applied, and the exploration of high-reliability connection methods for distribution networks will be carried out.

　　(II) Improving Equipment Energy Efficiency and Intelligence Level.Accelerate the updating and transformation of old and high-energy-consuming equipment and facilities. After transformation, the energy efficiency and energy saving level must be achieved, and efforts should be made to achieve advanced energy efficiency levels. By 2025, power grid enterprises will completely eliminate S7 (including S8) type distribution transformers and distribution transformers with an operating life of more than 25 years and energy efficiency that does not meet the entry standards. The proportion of in-service transformers with energy efficiency and energy saving levels or above across society will increase by more than 10 percentage points compared to 2021. Continue to promote the standardization of equipment, comprehensively apply typical designs and standard materials, and actively promote high-reliability, integrated, low-energy-consuming, environmentally friendly, and primary-secondary integrated equipment. Further expand the application scope of network communication, big data, and automatic control technologies, continuously improve the effective coverage rate of distribution automation, and gradually improve load control capabilities. Reasonably configure monitoring terminals, unmanned inspection terminals, live-line working robots, and other facilities and equipment, and accelerate the application of technologies such as intelligent monitoring and analysis of equipment status and intelligent sensing of power grid disasters. Innovatively apply digital technologies to strengthen the coordinated control of sources, grids, loads, and storage at the distribution network level. Tap the value of power data and promote the deep integration of power grid digital technology and the real economy. Establish and improve data security management systems and adopt corresponding technical measures to ensure data security.

　　(III) Strengthening Emergency Response Capacity Building.Reasonably improve the construction standards of relevant lines and substations for core areas and important users, promote the construction of local emergency backup power sources, coordinate and allocate the use of mobile emergency power sources, important users should configure their own emergency power sources as required, and improve the power supply guarantee capability of key areas, key parts, and important users under extreme conditions. Improve the comprehensive disaster prevention capacity of the power grid, strengthen the research on the laws of meteorological changes such as rain, snow, and ice, accelerate the revision and improvement of regional distribution maps of typhoons, freezing rain and icing, and strong winds, differentially improve local planning and design and disaster prevention and control standards, enhance the ability to prevent and respond to natural disasters, and promote the migration to the ground or implementation of flood prevention transformation of existing underground power distribution facilities that do not meet the requirements, and prevent forest and grassland fires and personal electric shock accidents.

　　III. Enhance Carrying Capacity and Support Transformation and Development

　　(I) Meet the demand for grid connection of large-scale distributed renewable energy.Combining the development goals of distributed renewable energy, strengthen the construction of the distribution network in a targeted manner, improve the means of stable operation of the power grid, and ensure power quality. Coordinate the distribution network capacity, load growth, and regulation resources, systematically conduct an impact analysis of renewable energy grid connection, evaluate the carrying capacity of the distribution network, establish a mechanism for publishing and warning the scale of renewable energy that can be carried, and guide the scientific layout, orderly development, proximity access, and on-site consumption of distributed renewable energy.

　　(II) Meet the electricity demand of large-scale electric vehicles and other new types of loads.Conduct an analysis of the charging load density of electric vehicles in different scenarios, establish an information release mechanism for the capacity of electric vehicle charging facilities that can be connected to the distribution network, and guide the reasonable hierarchical access of charging facilities to the low- and medium-voltage distribution network. Strengthen the analysis of two-way interaction and condition matching, scientifically connect the layout of charging facility points and the construction and transformation projects of the distribution network, and help build a charging infrastructure network for electric vehicles with a city-wide layout, a line-shaped layout along public roads, and a point-shaped layout in rural areas. Combining load characteristic analysis, orderly arrange the upgrading and transformation of the distribution network to meet the electricity demand of energy substitution facilities such as electric heating, electric boilers, and port shore power.

　　(III) Promote the diversified development of new energy storage.Based on the analysis of the power system's regulation capacity, scientifically arrange the development scale of new energy storage according to different application scenarios. Guide distributed renewable energy to reasonably configure new energy storage according to its own operational needs or through a sharing model, improve the reliable replacement capacity of renewable energy, and promote the consumption of renewable energy. Scientifically lay out new energy storage at key nodes and the end of the power grid to improve the power grid's flexible regulation capacity and stable operation level. Support the safe development of user-side energy storage, strengthen metering management, achieve full utilization, explore new application scenarios for energy storage integration around distributed renewable energy, charging facilities, and data centers, and support participation in grid interaction. Promote the application of long-duration electricity storage, hydrogen storage, and thermal (cold) storage technologies.

　　(IV) Promote the healthy development of new power system formats.Based on the access methods and consumption characteristics of distributed renewable energy, build a distributed intelligent power grid that meets the requirements of large-scale development and on-site consumption of distributed renewable energy, and achieve compatibility and integration with the large power grid. Promote the construction of microgrids, clarify physical boundaries, reasonably allocate the capacity of sources, loads, and storage, and strengthen the ability of independent peak regulation and self-balancing. Explore the potential for user-side regulation, encourage the innovative development of new formats such as virtual power plants, load aggregators, and vehicle-grid interaction, and improve the system's response speed and regulation capacity. The large power grid should create convenient conditions for distributed intelligent power grids and microgrids to access the public power grid, simplify the grid connection procedures, and both parties should clarify the interface in terms of assets and management, as well as the rights and obligations in terms of dispatching control, interactive operation, and regulation resource use.

　　IV. Strengthen Full-Process Management and Guarantee Development Quality

　　(I) Unified planning of power grids.Local energy authorities should strengthen the management of the power grid planning stage, organize grid companies to prepare plans and supervise their implementation. Power grid planning should fully implement the requirements of national strategic tasks such as regional coordinated development, new urbanization, and rural revitalization, coordinate with the development plans of renewable energy, electric vehicles, and energy storage, and strengthen the connection with overall urban and rural planning and national land spatial planning. Support the unified planning and construction of municipal corridors for public infrastructure such as water, electricity, and gas. Fully consider the stage and characteristics of local socio-economic development, adhere to differentiated power grid planning, and improve efficiency and effectiveness.

　　(II) Optimize project investment management.Grid companies should focus on the main business of the power grid and continue to increase investment in the distribution network. Encourage multiple entities to invest in the distribution network and innovate investment methods. The investment in grid connection projects for renewable energy stations and energy storage power stations directly connected to the distribution network should be borne by the grid companies in principle. For grid connection projects that are difficult for grid companies to construct or whose planning and construction schedules do not match, relevant entities can invest in construction independently, and after mutual agreement, the grid companies can repurchase them in accordance with laws and regulations at an appropriate time. Carry out solid work on the quota management and cost calculation of distribution network projects, promote standardized and modular projects, reduce investment costs, optimize investment structure, and improve investment efficiency. Improve the efficiency of approval or filing of distribution network projects, especially 10 kV and below distribution network projects.

　　(III) Synergistically promote project construction.Establish a work coordination mechanism with the participation of multiple departments, consolidate responsibilities at all levels, strengthen grassroots coordination efforts, efficiently promote work such as project site selection and line selection, land approval procedures, specifically address the construction and transformation of supporting power grids for major projects and key areas, and promote the rapid implementation of projects. Combining urban road, bridge, and comprehensive corridor municipal construction projects, synergistically implement the upgrading and transformation of the distribution network such as overhead line rectification and undergrounding. Strengthen the management of construction teams and construction processes, carry out full-process supervision and management of project construction, ensure the safety of project construction, and improve the quality of project construction.

　　(IV) Improve dispatching and operation mechanisms.Adhere to unified dispatching and hierarchical management, strictly enforce dispatching discipline, and ensure the safe operation of the power grid. Strengthen the construction of intelligent distribution network dispatching and information security protection systems, comprehensively improve the observable, measurable, adjustable, and controllable capabilities, and gradually build a new active distribution network dispatching model with coordinated main-sub-microgrids. Establish a source-network-load-storage coordinated control mechanism, continuously improve the renewable energy power control mechanism, optimize the protection and control strategies in areas with high penetration rates of distributed renewable energy, establish and improve the new energy storage control system and call mechanism, support various user-side regulation resources to participate in the market through virtual power plants and load aggregation, and improve the distribution network's regulation capacity, resource allocation capacity, and self-healing capacity. Improve the ability of real-time state perception and fault handling, strengthen hierarchical control, and strengthen the control capacity of distributed power sources.

　　(V) Improve operation and maintenance service levels.Strengthen equipment inspection and maintenance, and promptly eliminate equipment defects and hidden dangers. Carry out lean operation and maintenance and repair, optimize power outage planning, strengthen rapid fault repair and power restoration management, promote proactive fault repair technology for distribution networks and the "power restoration first, then repair" model, reduce power outage time, frequency, and impact range. Electricity users should strengthen the operation and maintenance of their own facilities, promptly eliminate hidden dangers, prevent accidents, and avoid affecting the public power grid. Revise and improve grid connection standards and strengthen the foundation for the safe and stable operation of the distribution network. Simplify grid connection procedures, accelerate grid connection project construction and commissioning, and improve service efficiency. Support the development of integrated energy services based on the distribution network.

　　V. Strengthen Reform and Innovation and Solve Development Problems

　　(I) Continuously promote technological innovation.Strengthen research on planning methods, operating mechanisms, and balancing methods for active distribution networks, as well as scheduling and control methods for new models such as microgrids and virtual power plants. Improve relevant standards and actively engage in international cooperation. Explore the optimal layout and efficient utilization of new energy storage, conduct research on efficient load-bearing technology for charging facilities, and promote the flexible access of new entities. Support pilot projects in regions with conditions to carry out technological and model innovation in distribution networks.

　　(II) Improve market trading mechanisms.Clarify the market access, clearing, and settlement standards for new entities and industries such as distributed renewable energy, new energy storage, electric vehicle charging facilities, microgrids, and virtual power plants. Research and design suitable trading products and rules, and encourage the equal participation of diversified resources in market trading. Improve multi-time scale and multi-level power markets to meet diversified needs. Innovate and expand new power system business models and trading mechanisms to create conditions for industrial and commercial power users to conduct direct transactions with distributed power sources, new energy storage, and other entities.

　　(III) Continuously optimize electricity pricing mechanisms.Further improve the time-of-use electricity pricing mechanism and establish a sound time-of-use electricity pricing mechanism for electric vehicle residential charging piles; in regions where the electricity spot market is continuously operating, promote the dynamic adjustment of peak and valley periods based on spot price signals to improve user electricity consumption characteristics. Study and improve the energy storage pricing mechanism. Based on the evaluation of pilot programs for the market-oriented trading of distributed generation, study and improve the transmission and distribution pricing mechanism that better promotes the on-site consumption of new energy.

　　(IV) Improve fiscal and financial policies.Give full play to the guiding and driving role of central government investment and deepen the rural power grid consolidation and upgrading project. Support qualified distribution network projects through local government special bonds. Establish and improve investment and maintenance cost diversion mechanisms for power supply in remote areas, encourage local governments to adopt fiscal subsidies, tax reductions, and other policies to guide more resources to weak links and key areas. Encourage financial institutions to improve their financial service capabilities and support the construction of distributed renewable energy, charging infrastructure, and new energy storage.

　　VI. Strengthen organizational support and promote work in a coordinated manner

　　(I) Establish and improve work mechanismsEstablish a collaborative work mechanism among local energy authorities, relevant authorities such as pricing, housing and urban-rural development, and land and resources, energy regulatory agencies, various power companies, new industry project units, and major power users. Develop and implement plans in a targeted manner to fully implement the various requirements for high-quality development of distribution networks.

　　(II) Consolidate the responsibilities of all parties.Local energy authorities should organize the preparation of distribution network plans, optimize project approval procedures, strengthen the construction, transformation, and operation and management of distribution networks, improve investment efficiency, and control grid construction costs; actively connect with relevant departments and grassroots governments, coordinate site and corridor resources, and ensure the smooth implementation of projects. Power companies and relevant new industry project units are the main implementers of distribution network construction and operation, and should actively enhance their service awareness, continuously improve service quality, and do a good job in project management, construction, operation and maintenance, grid connection services, and other work, and implement the main responsibility for safety. The National Energy Administration's dispatched institutions will strengthen supervision according to their respective responsibilities, promptly identify problems, and promote solutions.

　　(III) Continuously conduct supervision and evaluation.Local energy authorities and dispatched institutions of the National Energy Administration shall strengthen the tracking analysis and supervision and management of distribution network development according to their responsibilities, promptly evaluate the effectiveness and summarize improvements. The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration will organize assessments and summaries in a timely manner, and publicize and promote typical practices and successful experiences in key tasks such as the transformation of distribution networks in urban villages, the consolidation and upgrading of rural power grids, the grid connection and operation of distributed renewable energy, the grid connection interaction of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and the coordinated operation and control of power sources, grids, loads, and energy storage.

National Development and Reform Commission

National Energy Administration

February 6, 2024