The power grid "breaks the wall": The two major power grids conduct cross-regional spot trading for the first time, and the unified national power market kicks off.
On October 13th, an invisible "power highway" quietly connected South China and the Yangtze River Delta - State Grid and China Southern Power Grid completed cross - operating area power allocation in the form of spot trading for the first time. 1.8 million kilowatts of clean power from China Southern Power Grid was urgently sent to the Yangtze River Delta via the Yunxiao DC channel, and 42.3 million kilowatt - hours of electricity was precisely injected into the power grids of Zhejiang and Shanghai. This seemingly routine power transmission is actually a milestone in China's power market reform: it marks the full implementation of the connectivity mechanism of the national unified power market and officially presses the "acceleration button" for the efficient cross - regional flow of power resources.
01
From "Regional Wall" to "Highway": A Thirst - Quenching Cross - Regional Rescue
The breakthrough of this transaction starts from the long - standing pain point of "regional segmentation" in the power system. China's power grids have long been managed by administrative regions on a provincial basis. State Grid covers 26 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government), and China Southern Power Grid serves five provincial - level regions. This model once ensured regional power balance, but it has become increasingly "inadequate" under the large - scale access of new energy and the surging power demand: the load in eastern provinces has repeatedly reached new highs but lacks green power, while the south is rich in clean energy but occasionally has "stranded power", and the planned allocation is even more difficult to deal with sudden shortages.
Zhejiang in October was facing such a dilemma: the rare and continuous high temperature caused the province's maximum load to soar to 115.82 million kilowatts, a year - on - year increase of 24.7%. During the National Day holiday, the load increased by 35.8% year - on - year. To make matters worse, the external power channels into Zhejiang, such as the Ling - Shao DC, happened to be under annual maintenance, and the external power supply suddenly decreased. "At this time, the support from China Southern Power Grid is a 'timely rain'. Without this 1.8 million kilowatts of clean power, we might have to temporarily increase the operation of coal - fired power plants, which would not only increase costs but also affect the 'dual - carbon' goal." Shen Shaofei, the deputy head of the planning department of the State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power Dispatching and Control Center, said bluntly.
The innovation of this rescue lies in replacing the traditional planned allocation with "spot trading" and achieving "demand aggregation - market clearing - precise transmission" throughout the process: the East China Branch of State Grid first aggregated the power demand of Zhejiang and Shanghai to form a quantity - price curve and transmitted it to the southern spot trading platform; China Southern Power Grid completed the clearing according to the surplus situation of abundant hydropower in Yunnan and stable wind power in Guangdong, and finally achieved the precise matching of sending 1.8 million kilowatts to Zhejiang at 12:00 and 0.9 million kilowatts to Shanghai at 14:00 through the Yunxiao DC. As experts said, inter - provincial transactions in the past were like "arranged marriages", while spot trading today is more like "free love". The price signal allows supply and demand to match independently, achieving a win - win situation.
02
Breaking the Deadlock for a Decade: The "Trinity" of Policy, Hardware and Mechanism
The first cross - regional spot trading between the two major power grids is by no means accidental, but the result of the coordinated efforts of policy drive, hardware support and mechanism innovation.
Policy Anchoring: From Blueprint to Detailed Implementation
In January 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a National Unified Power Market System", clarifying the goals of initially establishing it by 2025 and basically establishing it by 2030, and breaking the path dependence on "provincial - level balance". Subsequently, a series of supporting policies followed closely: in 2023, the "Basic Rules for the Power Spot Market (Trial)" unified the trading rules and settlement mechanisms, and the technical specifications jointly formulated by the two major power grids better solved the "last - mile" problems such as system interface incompatibility. "Policy is the 'roadmap' that clarifies the reform direction, while technological and mechanism innovation is the 'construction team'." said a senior researcher in the power market.
Hardware Connectivity: The Yunxiao DC Unblocks the "Governing Vessels"
If policy is the "soft connectivity", the Yunxiao DC is the key "hard foundation". This channel, which was put into operation in 2022, connects Fujian and Guangdong, with a rated capacity of 3 million kilowatts. It not only realizes physical interconnection but also is equipped with an intelligent control system that can transmit real - time data such as electricity prices and loads, providing technical support for market - based trading. Previously, although the two major power grids were interconnected, most of them were "point - to - point" connections, making it difficult to form market - based trading conditions. In this transaction, China Southern Power Grid used the remaining capacity of the channel to transfer the power originally planned to be sent to Guangdong to Zhejiang and Shanghai, realizing the "secondary optimization" of resources.
Mechanism Innovation: The Leap from "Planned Price" to "Market Price"
The core of spot trading is "price discovery", just like a "power farmers' market", where the time - of - use electricity price truly reflects the supply - demand relationship. In this transaction, the spot electricity price in Zhejiang at 12:00 increased by 20% compared with the benchmark price to reach 0.8 yuan per kilowatt - hour, while in Guangdong, the electricity price was only 0.5 yuan per kilowatt - hour due to the large - scale wind power generation during the same period. The price difference drove the clean power to naturally flow to the high - demand areas. "In the past, it relied on administrative coordination. Now, the price is the 'baton', which not only improves efficiency but also reduces intervention." the researcher explained. More importantly, the two sides reached a consensus on key aspects such as trading timing and quotation methods, forming a replicable cross - regional trading template.
03
Beyond Ensuring Supply: The Long - Term Value of a Unified Market
In the short term, this transaction solved the urgent problems of Zhejiang and Shanghai; in the long term, it is reshaping the logic of the power system and injecting impetus into the energy transition.
In terms of escorting the "dual - carbon" goal, spot trading makes the system more flexible. In 2023, the proportion of wind and photovoltaic power generation capacity in China has exceeded 35%. The unified market activates resources such as energy storage and adjustable loads to participate in peak shaving through price signals. "In the past, it relied on coal - fired power for peak shaving. In the future, energy storage, charging piles and even industrial loads can participate, with lower costs." said an expert from the State Grid Energy Research Institute.
In terms of clean energy consumption, the market mechanism enables green power to be "fully utilized". China's clean energy and load centers are in a "reverse distribution". Spot trading uses the price lever to allow hydropower in the southwest and wind and solar power in the northwest to "travel long distances" to the demand side. 90% of the power sent by China Southern Power Grid in this transaction was hydropower and wind power, which is equivalent to reducing 160,000 tons of coal consumption in Zhejiang and reducing 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. From January to September 2023, the proportion of clean energy in the national cross - regional spot trading has reached 41%, an increase of 12 percentage points compared with the previous year.
For users, the unified market means the optimization of electricity costs. Industrial enterprises can use more electricity during off - peak hours to reduce costs, and residents will also benefit from more flexible time - of - use electricity prices. More profoundly, the market players will be more diversified: new players such as power - selling companies and virtual power plants will pour in, aggregating scattered resources to participate in trading like e - commerce platforms integrating small merchants, and promoting the market to shift from "production - driven" to "demand - driven".
Conclusion
The Ever - Ongoing Energy Revolution
From the "regional wall" to the "highway", from "planned allocation" to "market pricing", the first cross - regional spot trading between the two major power grids has turned the concept of a national unified power market into practice. This revolution not only solves the current problem of ensuring power supply but also lays a solid foundation for energy security and green transformation.
Although challenges such as balancing regional interests and preventing market risks still exist, as the industry consensus goes: "The unified power market is not a 'completed project' but an 'ongoing process'." Every breakthrough today paves the way for a more efficient, cleaner and safer power system and writes an energy footnote for Chinese - style modernization.
(Data sources: National Development and Reform Commission, National Energy Administration, State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power, China Southern Power Grid and relevant industry research reports.)
This article is from the WeChat public account "Foreseeing Energy", and the author is Zhao Yuan. It is published by 36Kr with permission.