China Advances National Unified Power Market Construction to Boost Energy Transition and "Dual Carbon" Goals

Recently, the General Office of the State Council has issued the Implementation Opinions on Improving the National Unified Power Market System, pointing out the direction for further advancing the construction of a national unified power market and marking a new stage in this drive. This initiative is of great significance for building a new power system, promoting energy transition and serving the "dual carbon" goals.

Since the launch of the new round of power system reform, China’s power marketization reform has accelerated, with the market giving full play to its decisive role in ensuring power supply and optimizing resource allocation, providing solid energy support for high-quality economic and social development.

The organization mode of power production has shifted from planned to market-oriented. Guided by the reform idea of "regulating the middle and liberalizing both ends", power generation and consumption plans have been gradually liberalized, with prices of competitive links on both sides formed entirely by the market. Over 1 million market entities and more than 5,000 power sales companies have been registered, forming a basic pattern of "multiple buyers and sellers". The national cross-provincial and inter-regional power transmission capacity exceeds 370 million kilowatts, and the transaction volume in 2025 reached 1.59 trillion kilowatt-hours, accounting for about a quarter of the total transaction volume.

The market’s resource allocation capacity has been significantly enhanced. A preliminary "1+6" basic rule system covering all varieties and links of the power market has been established. Medium and long-term and spot markets have achieved full coverage at both inter-provincial and provincial levels, with improved green power and green certificate mechanisms. In 2025, the market-oriented transaction volume reached 6.6 trillion kilowatt-hours, accounting for 64% of the total social power consumption.

The power market has effectively supported energy green transition, with the proportion of new energy market-oriented power exceeding 60%. Innovative transaction models have been designed to promote new energy development and consumption, with the cumulative transaction of 657.5 billion kilowatt-hours of green power and 1.483 billion green certificates nationwide.

As the "dual carbon" goals and new power system construction advance, the power market faces new challenges, requiring further removal of market barriers and better use of the market price mechanism to stimulate new quality productive forces in the energy sector.

The Implementation Opinions proposes the "four comprehensives" development path for the power market — full market scope, full transaction varieties, full main body participation and full process governance. It focuses on promoting the coordinated integration of inter-provincial and provincial markets, improving the integrated operation system of transaction varieties, encouraging equal participation of all market entities, and strengthening full-process governance to enhance operational efficiency.

This initiative will further optimize the allocation of power resources on a larger scale, support the construction of a new power system, accelerate energy transition, and foster new quality productive forces in the energy sector, laying a solid foundation for China’s high-quality development.