China's initiative to promote multi-user direct access to green power aims to boost local consumption and utilization of new energy resources, according to a guideline jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration (NEA).

Multi-user direct connection to green power is a model where electricity generated by wind, solar and other new energy sources bypasses direct integration into the public grid. Instead, such clean energy is delivered to multiple end users through dedicated transmission lines and power transformation facilities. Eligible consumers are limited to qualifying entities, excluding households and agricultural users.

Presently, China's total installed capacity of new energy has reached 1.9 billion kilowatts. Under the updated nationally determined contributions, the figure is poised to hit 3.6 billion kilowatts by 2035. With the surge in installed capacity of new energy, innovative consumption approaches are urgently required to broaden the scope of new energy development and application. The document clarifies who can take part in the green power direct connection mechanism. Newly-built power loads can adopt it, while existing loads can upgrade single-user projects to multi-user ones.

Users with a demand for green electricity (including enterprises subject to green electricity consumption targets, major energy-consuming and carbon-emitting enterprises, export-oriented enterprises with carbon reduction needs, and their upstream and downstream businesses) may leverage nearby renewable energy resources to explore the implementation of multi-user direct green power connections. Industrial parks, zero-carbon parks, and incremental distribution networks may connect all or part of their load to nearby renewable energy sources to form multi-user direct green power connection projects.

In respect of trading and pricing rules, the guideline stipulates that all qualified projects shall participate in the power market as a whole. They are allowed to optimize internal operational arrangements and adjust power generation and consumption curves. Meanwhile, the country will explore a time-of-use metering-based green power traceability system, which will be effectively linked with green power certificate management frameworks.

Local power balance and nearby utilization stand are essential solutions to address the difficulties in large-scale new energy consumption. The guideline sets clear requirements for local consumption: after grid-connected projects are commissioned, their annual on-grid power volume should not exceed 20 percent of their total available power output.

According to the NEA, the guideline directs project operators to reasonably declare grid connection capacity, so as to ease the occupancy of public grid resources. This move improves the economic returns of individual projects, and also elevates the investment efficiency of public power grid assets.

Notably, the policy offers strong support to two categories of new energy projects: those yet to start grid connection construction, and those failing to connect to the grid due to insufficient local consumption capacity. After completing required alteration procedures, these projects can shift to the multi-user green power direct connection model.

In addition, distributed photovoltaic power generation can be incorporated into the multi-user green power direct connection system, via centralized power convergence. Priority policy support will be granted to emerging and future industries such as computing power infrastructure, green hydrogen, ammonia and methanol industries, to embrace green power direct connection.

Fan Pengfei, dean of the Energy Policy and Market Research Institute at the China Electric Power Planning and Design Institute, said that industrial parks consume more than 66 percent of the country's total energy. The implementation of this policy will further expand the scope of new energy development and utilization, he added.