The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) is a crucial period for reaching carbon peaking on schedule and accelerating the building of an energy-powerhouse nation. In a signed article, Zhang Zhigang, Chairman and Party Secretary of the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), said the utility will focus on refining the grid’s new architecture, breaking through new grid technologies and upgrading grid services, to accelerate a new power system that coordinates the main grid, distribution networks and microgrids and supports a clean, low-carbon, safe, economical, supply-demand-coordinated and flexible-intelligent system.
First, accelerate grid development. The grid is shifting profoundly from “large-grid one-way power supply” to “two-way interaction among the main grid, distribution and microgrids.” SGCC will keep increasing grid investment and advance coordinated development of grid tiers under unified planning. During the 15th Five-Year Plan it aims to put into operation more than 15 UHV DC lines (cumulative total above 35) and reach a cross-provincial transmission capacity of 500 GW. By 2030, within SGCC’s service area the average outage time per customer in cities and rural areas, as well as the reliability gaps between urban and rural areas and between eastern and western regions, will be cut by at least one third compared with the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan, and the grid will be able to host more than 900 GW of distributed renewable energy. It will also advance end-of-line supply-guarantee microgrids and village-town micro-energy networks tailored to local conditions, improving self-balancing, self-regulation and self-safety capabilities.
Second, secure power supply. SGCC will leverage the grid’s resource-allocation role, strengthen supply-demand balancing, and expand market-based trading on the national unified power market; enhance demand-side management and actively guide virtual power plants, charging-and-swapping operators and other key groups to join peak shaving; deepen its premium power-service system and run a power-quality improvement campaign.
Third, drive the energy transition. It will serve renewable integration, implement ten measures for high-quality renewable development, and back the construction of “shagehuang” (desert, Gobi and wasteland) and offshore-wind bases plus distributed PV; boost system flexibility via more pumped storage, scaled new-type storage, and coal-power flexibility retrofits.
Fourth, strengthen science and technology innovation. SGCC will reinforce its status as the main force in scientific and technological innovation, deepen basic research and key technological breakthroughs, accelerate supply-chain autonomy and local control, and expand AI applications.
Fifth, balance development and safety. It will raise large-grid safety governance, improve mechanisms against wide-area blackouts, and speed up grid-connection safety management for all grid-connected entities; enhance disaster resilience with targeted grid-improvement and disaster-prevention plans covering typhoons, snow and ice, and floods.
Source:China Energy News