Progress on the spot power market development in China

Since 2017, China has established 14 provincial spot power market pilots, of which five pilots in southern China (i.e., Guangdong), Shanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, and Gansu have achieved continuous settlement throughout the year. In August 2022, the South Region took the lead in launching a regional power market, that is, spot trading has been expanded from trading within Guangdong Province to inter-provincial trading in the five provinces covered by China Southern Power Grid. Currently, coal power generation enterprises and industrial and commercial users are mainly involved in spot power trading.

Due to the different power source and load characteristics, the spot power market presents different characteristics in various places. For example, Inner Mongolia has better wind and solar irradiance resources, thus the average price of the spot market in western Mongolia is relatively low, which can attract more production enterprises to settle down. Solar PV power generation accounts for a large proportion in Shandong, and its spot power market sees a period of negative electricity price during the day. The peak-and-valley price difference widens, fully reflecting that the supply and demand of the spot market determine the electricity price.