By the end of 2025, the installed capacity of new energy storage put into operation nationwide reached 136 gigawatts, more than 40 times the level at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period. With the complete phase-out of mandatory energy storage allocation, the formal implementation of a national energy storage capacity pricing mechanism, and the 15th Five-Year Plan for renewable energy establishing a development mainline of “expanding capacity, improving quality, and reliable substitution,” the functional positioning and industrial value of new energy storage are undergoing reconstruction.
Under the new circumstances, new energy storage will not only undertake the important responsibility of peak-shaving power supply and providing reliable capacity, but also develop into a critical infrastructure for safe and reliable power supply.
Policy Evolution Builds a Complete Institutional Framework
Since the proposal of the “dual carbon” goals, China’s energy storage industry has gradually transitioned from early-stage industrial support and eased market access to the cancellation of administrative mandatory energy storage allocation and the establishment of a market-oriented capacity compensation mechanism. Currently, the independent market entity status of energy storage has been formally established, building a complete institutional system of “energy market + ancillary service market + capacity compensation mechanism.”
From the perspective of policy evolution, the development orientation has shifted from early emphasis on industrial scale expansion to a balance of scale and quality, paying greater attention to the actual support effect of energy storage on the safe and stable operation of the power system and peak power supply. This guides the industry’s development logic from “focusing on installed capacity scale” to “focusing on application capability.”
From 2024 to 2026, three consecutive government work reports have proposed “developing new energy storage,” pointing the direction for energy storage development from the top-level strategic level.
Notably, at the end of 2025, Gansu Province took the lead in introducing a generation-side reliable capacity compensation mechanism, incorporating grid-side independent energy storage into the reliable capacity compensation scope against the backdrop of cancelling peak-shaving compensation, providing a practical example for national-level institutional design.
Multiple Values of Energy Storage Become Prominent
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the rapid expansion of energy storage installations relied more on administrative drive through mandatory allocation, serving as a hard supporting facility for renewable energy grid connection rather than a resource truly needed by the system. Entering the 15th Five-Year Plan, the construction of a new power system has entered a critical period. The “15th Five-Year Plan for New Power System Construction” clearly requires reducing the proportion of traditional energy in a planned and step-by-step manner on the basis of safe and reliable renewable energy substitution.
The accelerated development of renewable energy brings severe challenges to the system’s absorption capacity—the reliable capacity gap has increasingly become an unavoidable practical issue. This gap first comes from the structural attenuation of power supply capability caused by power source structure iteration. Traditional coal-fired units are gradually transitioning from main power sources to regulatory and guaranteed power sources, while wind and solar renewable energy, although their installed capacity continues to climb, have limited contributions to their own reliable capacity, leading the system into a structural dilemma of “excess nominal capacity but insufficient peak power supply.”
Meanwhile, system power electronics are bringing new constraints. A large number of wind, solar, and storage facilities connect to the grid through power electronic converters, reducing the system’s synchronous inertia and increasing frequency and voltage stability risks.
At a new stage of development, to build a safe and reliable new power system, multi-directional coordination of “source, grid, load, and storage” is needed. The role and positioning of energy storage will be elevated to a new height, developing into a “critical infrastructure.” Its functional value is no longer limited to peak shaving, filling valley, and consuming renewable energy curtailment, but also undertakes multiple functions such as system safe and stable support, peak power supply, virtual inertia support, and voltage frequency regulation.
To support the development goal of adding 300 million kilowatts of renewable energy reliable peak-shaving capacity in the 15th Five-Year Plan, energy storage will become the core support. Among them, source-side supporting energy storage can effectively improve the confidence output of wind and solar stations, while grid-side independent energy storage directly supplements system reliable capacity.
From the perspective of development model dimensions, energy storage application scenarios continue to extend to industrial production, zero-carbon parks, computing power loads, distributed energy, and other fields, forming a pattern of multi-scenario coordinated development across power source, grid, and user sides. In terms of technology forms, short-duration electrochemical energy storage is being built on a large scale, focusing on meeting intra-day peak shaving and short-duration peak power supply needs, while long-duration energy storage technologies such as compressed air, flow batteries, gravity energy storage, and hydrogen energy storage are accelerating commercial iteration.
Providing “Reliable Capacity”
According to Document No. 114 of the State Council and the relevant expressions in the “15th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy,” reliable capacity is defined as the effective power supply capacity that a power source can continuously and stably output during extreme peak load periods of the system. The nameplate capacity of traditional units basically matches the actual basic reliable capacity, but wind and solar power, constrained by natural meteorological conditions, have effective power supply capabilities far below their nominal installed capacity.
The confidence output and reliable peak power generation capacity indicators proposed in the 15th Five-Year Plan aim to calculate the overall effective reliable capacity scale formed by combining renewable energy with energy storage. The core role of energy storage is to make up for the natural shortcomings of wind and solar power intermittency and volatility, transforming unstable power resources into reliable capacity resources that the power system can dispatch and backstop.
Currently, among the 31 provinces that have successively released their 15th Five-Year Plan power development plans, the 20 provinces that have explicitly set renewable energy installed capacity targets have a total additional installed capacity exceeding 900 million kilowatts, already approaching the 960 million kilowatts target of the national “15th Five-Year Plan for Renewable Energy.”
The effective power supply capacity of energy storage stations also has room for conversion. Its nominal maximum power is the peak output capacity of equipment, while the actual reliable capacity is constrained by multiple factors including discharge duration, available energy, dispatch strategy, equipment availability rate, and grid constraints.
To support growing flexibility and reliability requirements, energy storage should “strengthen itself and improve internal skills.” First, it must have sufficient continuous discharge duration. Evening load peaks can last 4 to 6 hours, and only 4-hour-and-above long-duration energy storage can adapt to sustained peak power supply needs. Second, it must ensure dispatchability during peak periods. Third, it must improve equipment operational reliability and availability rate. Fourth, it must also consider system ancillary support capabilities, needing to provide frequency regulation, voltage regulation, virtual inertia support, and other ancillary service capabilities in addition to peak power supply output.
The transition of energy storage toward reliable capacity still faces some practical challenges. First, a unified national mechanism for reliable capacity calculation, certification, assessment, and exit has not yet been implemented, with inconsistent execution standards across regions. Second, constrained by power market rules in some regions, energy storage revenue models remain relatively single. Third, energy storage safety management and equipment operation systems need improvement. The most urgent need at present is to introduce a scientific system for energy storage reliable capacity calculation, certification, and assessment standards.
Responsibility editor: Gao Huijun