Image Source : China Visual

BEIJING, January 20 (TMTPOST) —— A total of 5.25 trillion kWh of electricity was traded in all power trading centers in 2022, which represented a year-over-year increase of 39 percent and accounted for 60.8 percent of the total electricity consumption, according to data released by the China Electricity Council (CEC) on Thursday.

The proportion of traded electricity in total electricity consumption in 2022 was 15.4 percentage points higher than that in 2021, showing the rapid pace of China's market-oriented power supply reform.

With the advance of market-oriented electricity price reform, industrial and commercial users are coming into the market and purchasing electricity at the market price. 2022 also witnessed a jump in the share of transaction volume in the electricity market of different regions. Taking Guangdong as an example, the power market in 2022 totaled 550 billion kWh, a year-on-year increase of 104%. The power market size in Shandong in 2022 doubled year-on-year to 380 billion kWh.

In the third quarter of 2021, the continuous tight supply and robust demand of coal and electricity in China forced the market-oriented reform of electricity. On October 12, 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission of China announced the electricity price reform aimed to prompt all industrial and commercial users to enter the market. For those users who have not directly purchased electricity from the electricity market for the time being, power grid enterprises will purchase electricity as agents.

Starting from 2022, industrial and commercial users will no longer purchase electricity at the catalog price.

Electricity trading is divided into medium and long-term trading, spot trading, etc. Medium and long-term trading includes medium and long-term direct trading, green electricity trading, power generation rights trading, etc.

According to the data of the CEC, the medium- and long-term electricity directly traded in the national power market in 2022 was 4.14 trillion kWh, a year-on-year increase of 36.2%, accounting for 79% of all the electricity traded, the highest proportion ever. Medium- and long-term transactions will continue to be the absolute mainstay of electricity market transactions in China.