On July 14, China's electricity load climbed to 1.551 billion kilowatts, a new all-time high. On the same day, provincial grids in Central China, Hebei South, Sichuan, Hubei, and Hunan also recorded historical peaks.
To cope with the surge driven by hot weather, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration utilized the national unified power market to strengthen inter-provincial and inter-regional power exchanges. Market-based trading of cross-grid transmission rights was implemented for the first time. Transmission channels such as Jiangcheng DC and Yunxiao DC operated at about 90% of their designed capacity. On July 14, the total transmission capacity of inter-provincial channels reached 130 million kilowatts, providing strong support for power supply in provinces like Zhejiang and Shanghai. Regional medium- and long-term rolling matching transactions in the Yangtze River Delta, Northwest China, and Central China were launched earlier than usual to enhance inter-provincial mutual support. The window for medium- and long-term cross-regional transactions has been shortened to five natural days before contract execution, with daily market sessions; the inter-provincial spot market operates continuously on the contract execution day and the preceding day.
The National Energy Administration stated that the overall power supply-demand situation is stable, with no demand response or orderly power consumption measures deployed anywhere. On the coal supply side, the Zhahanaoer open-pit coal mine in Inner Mongolia maintains a daily output of about 45,000 tonnes, with coal stockpiles of around 200,000 tonnes. As of June 12, coal shipments through Huanghua Port in Hebei had exceeded 100 million tonnes in 2023, up 5% year-on-year. CEC statistics show that as of June 30, power plants had coal stock days of 26.4, with overall inventories at historically high levels. Liu Zhiqiang, deputy director of CEC's Planning and Development Department, recommended strengthening safety and supply responsibilities in major coal-producing areas, ensuring contract fulfillment, raising inventory levels in key regions and power plants, and preventing coal-shortage shutdown risks.
New energy's capacity to meet peak demand has also grown. Liu Zhiqiang noted that by the end of May, China's new energy installed capacity reached 1.92 billion kilowatts, accounting for 48.1% of total generation capacity. The 3-million-kilowatt photovoltaic project in Tengger Desert, Ningxia, generates over 25 million kWh per day. The Tiantai pumped-storage plant in Zhejiang, now fully operational, can supply about 1.7 billion kWh of clean electricity annually, meeting the yearly needs of around 1.6 million people. Wang Yanzhao, deputy director of the New Energy Division at CEC's Planning and Development Department, suggested fully leveraging the large grid's resource allocation advantages, accelerating new grid construction, improving market rules for demand response, virtual power plants, and vehicle-to-grid integration, and deepening the integration of AI and digital technologies into the power system to provide technical safeguards for supply.