China’s power planning agency the National Energy Administration (NEA) has demanded regularly monthly updates on new renewable energy projects from utility companies in the country.
Starting from 15 August and repeating every month, all provincial-level energy authorities and major central power generation companies are required to present their renewable power projects from the last month.
Approved capacity, newly started capacity, cumulative capacity under construction, cumulative grid-connected capacity and expected grid-connected capacity at the end of the year are to be reported to the New Energy Department (NED) of the NEA.
Similarly, the State Grid Corporation of China will report the development and construction of renewable energy projects within the coverage of the new energy cloud platform to the NEA before the 15th of each month.
Provincial energy authorities are mandated to report the development and construction of renewable energy projects by using the information management system of the National Renewable Energy Information Management Centre (NREIMC).
Then, before the 20th of each month, the NREIMC will construct a monthly monitoring and evaluation report on the development of renewable energy across the country in the last month, submit it to the NED and copy it to the provincial energy authorities.
Earlier this year, the NEA said it will aim to deploy enough solar and wind power generation this year to make up 11% of the country’s total power mix.
The goal needs to be set against China’s electricity demand, which is expected to increase sharply in the next few years as the country’s recovery from COVID-19 continues, which has caused fears that fossil fuels may be used to fill the gap if renewable capacity is lacking. At the same time, China’s National Development and Reform Commission in April mooted the possibility of phasing out subsidies for new solar projects.