In 2017, China’s national government released the Guiding Opinions on Promoting Energy Storage Technology and Industry Development, the first national-level policy in support of energy storage. Following the release of the Guiding Opinions, China’s energy storage industry made critical headways in technologies and applications. In the past year, China ranked among the top three countries in the world in both new electrochemical energy storage capacity and accumulated energy storage capacity. As China’s energy storage industry enters the “post-Guiding Opinions” stage, suitable polices and a market mechanism become ever more necessary to contain moving forward.
To confront some of the key issues in the energy storage industry and better implement the strategies laid out in the Guiding Opinions, the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Science & Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Energy Administration jointly released the “2019-2020 Action Plan for the ‘Guiding Opinions on Promoting Energy Storage Technology and Industry Development’” (NDRC [2019] NO. 725), which emphasizes a number of actions, including technological R&D and intelligent manufacturing, the creation of policies supporting technological and industrial development, further development of pumped hydro storage, support for new application demonstrations, the development of energy storage applications for electric vehicle batteries, standardization of energy storage project construction, and others. The action plan hopes to ease some of the local-level construction approval processes for energy storage technologies, allowing projects to become compliant with local regulations. An additional action includes the provision of guidance and regulation for the development of grid-side storage, redesigning the current model which ties energy storage prices to T&D electricity costs. The plan’s support of increased demonstration projects encourages large-scale development that prioritizes safe and stable operations in the power system while also exploring new and innovative technologies. Finally, the plan encourages the improvement of the energy storage standards system, supporting standardization that can develop in pace with innovations in technology.
With the release of the action plan, specific work goals have been set for the Guiding Opinions. While the plan strives to realize all the goals for energy storage laid out in the 13th Five-year plan, an emphasis on safe and environmentally friendly systems remain two of the most prominent focuses for China’s energy storage industry development and technology applications.
The full version of the policy (in Chinese) can be viewed at: http://www.ndrc.gov.cn/zcfb/zcfbtz/201907/t20190701_940747.html
Author: CNESA Research Translation: George Dudley