The two reports provide insights into the current and future development of China’s energy and power sector

On July 16th, the “China Energy Development Report 2024” and “China Power Development Report 2024” were released in Beijing. The report revealed that the electricity consumption of emerging industries in China has grown significantly, and the level of electrification in end-use consumption continues to rise, ranking among the top internationally.
With the continuous advancement of China’s electric power utilization technology, more end-use consumption is shifting towards electricity consumption. Statistical data shows that in 2023, the proportion of electricity in China’s end-use energy consumption reached 28%, an increase of 6.7 percentage points compared to a decade ago. The structure of electricity consumption is also continuously optimized. Currently, the electricity consumption of high-tech and equipment manufacturing industries has grown by 11.3% year-on-year, exceeding the overall growth level of the manufacturing industry.
Liu Shiyu, Deputy Director of the Electric Power Planning and Design Institute, stated: “The proportion of electricity in China’s end-use energy consumption far exceeds that of the United States and Western Europe. Continuing to promote the improvement of China’s end-use electrification level, replacing a large amount of electricity with coal and oil consumption, will not only create a cleaner and more convenient end-use consumption scenario, but also be an important measure to accelerate green and low-carbon transformation.” In the next step, China will continue to promote the substitution of electricity in industrial, construction, transportation, and agricultural sectors, and enhance the service guarantee capacity for electric vehicle charging. It is aimed to raise the level of end-use electrification to around 30% by 2025.

The released reports also indicate that the traditional coal power industry is accelerating its low-carbon transformation and promoting the green and low-carbon transition of energy.
The reports show that China has been implementing coal consumption and ultra-low emission transformations in the coal power industry, resulting in a significant reduction in pollutant emissions. In 2023, the standard coal consumption for coal-fired power generation of 6,000 kilowatts and above was 302 grams/kilowatt-hour, representing a cumulative decrease of nearly 20 grams/kilowatt-hour over the past decade. Over the next three years, the focus for new coal power projects will be on large-scale new energy bases, major load centers, and important nodes in the power grid. Resources will be coordinated, and the layout of coal power projects will be scientifically determined and optimized. Existing coal power units will undergo energy-saving and carbon reduction transformations, heating transformations, and flexibility transformations to achieve a transition towards clean, efficient, and flexible operations, maximizing flexibility, inertia support, and heating guarantee capacity with minimal volume.
The reports also highlight that the traditional coal power industry is accelerating its low-carbon transformation and promoting the green and low-carbon transition of energy. The country is driving the innovative development of a new generation of coal power, focusing on reducing the carbon emission intensity of coal power from the fuel end, operation end, and emission end. It is expected that the carbon emission intensity of coal power will reach the level of natural gas power generation. The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration recently issued the “Action Plan for Coal Power Low-Carbon Transformation Construction (2024-2027)”, which encourages the joint operation of coal power with renewable energy and prioritizes the implementation of coal power low-carbon transformation construction in regions with abundant renewable energy resources, good economic foundations, and suitable geological conditions. According to the plan, by 2025, the carbon emissions per unit of electricity for relevant projects are expected to decrease by around 20% compared to the average carbon emissions level of similar coal power units in 2023. By 2027, the carbon emissions per unit of electricity for relevant projects are expected to decrease by around 50% compared to the average carbon emissions level of similar coal power units in 2023.

By 2030, China’s new energy installed capacity is expected to double. The low-carbon transformation of coal power and the rapid growth of new energy installed capacity are driving this trend. Experts predict that by 2030, China’s new energy installed capacity is expected to double. China’s power structure continues to optimize, forming a diversified power supply system consisting of coal, gas, nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar power generation.The national renewable energy generation has exceeded 3 trillion kilowatt-hours, accounting for about one-third of the total electricity consumption, nearly doubling from 2013, with per capita renewable energy generation reaching 2000 kilowatt-hours. Last year, the new energy generation approached 1.2 billion kilowatts, making it the largest in the world. It is preliminarily estimated that by 2030, this figure may double and more.
As the scale of new energy installed capacity grows rapidly, the demand for new energy storage is also increasing gradually. In the future, China will continue to promote the application of new energy storage technologies, further strengthening the application of compressed air and flow battery energy storage technologies to better meet system regulation needs.

The National Energy Administration stated that in the next step, China will continue to adhere to a combination of centralized and distributed, as well as onshore and offshore development. It will further promote the large-scale development of renewable energy bases, achieve complementary coordination among various renewable energy sources, facilitate the integration of renewable energy electricity, and accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of energy and power.