China's National Development and Reform Commission recently revealed that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period (2026-2030), the planned investment for constructing a new-type power grid will exceed 5 trillion yuan. On August 3rd, the "15th Five-Year Plan for New-Type Power System Construction" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") was officially released, providing a detailed blueprint for how this funding will be allocated.
According to the Plan, China aims to preliminarily establish a new-type power grid that is safe, reliable, green, low-carbon, resilient, sturdy, intelligent, and flexible within five years. By 2030, the grid's role as a resource allocation platform and its service functions should be fully realized, enabling the high-level accommodation of over 2.8 billion kilowatts of new energy and supporting the construction of a charging infrastructure network capable of serving more than 110 million electric vehicles.
In reality, after years of development, China has already built the world's largest ultra-high voltage power grid, boasting the strongest transmission capacity, the highest operating voltage levels, and the largest scale of new energy integration. By the end of 2025, the transmission capacity of the "West-to-East Power Transmission" project had exceeded 340 million kilowatts, and the total length of distribution lines at 10 kV and above surpassed 9 million kilometers. China has also established the world's largest charging infrastructure system. However, this vast grid faces new and complex challenges.
A primary challenge is the rigid growth in electricity demand. Shu Yinbiao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chairman of the Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering, noted that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, as emerging industries like integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, and computing power continue to expand, and new business models such as zero-carbon industrial parks and direct green power supply develop rapidly, electricity demand is expected to maintain a relatively fast growth rate of around 5% annually. Furthermore, over the next decade, China's new energy power generation capacity is projected to grow rapidly by approximately 200 million kilowatts each year. However, new energy generation is "dependent on weather conditions," exhibiting randomness, volatility, and intermittency. The integration of a high proportion of new energy into the grid poses significant challenges to the safe and stable operation of the power system.
"The accelerating pace of development for various new types of grid-connected entities places higher demands on the grid's resource allocation capabilities, security support capabilities, and capacity to carry new elements," emphasized Li Hui, president of the State Grid Economic and Technological Research Institute. Consequently, the grid must transition from focusing on "whether it exists" to "whether it is good."
The answer provided by the Plan is to build a new-type power grid featuring the coordinated synergy of main grids, distribution networks, and microgrids. Specifically, through key tasks such as constructing cross-provincial and cross-regional transmission channels, improving the regional main grid structure, building resilient distribution systems, and constructing intelligent microgrids in multiple scenarios, the traditional one-way "generation-transmission-distribution-consumption" connection will be gradually upgraded into a network platform that integrates main grids, distribution networks, and microgrids, achieving multi-element, efficient interactions between sources, grids, loads, and storage.
At the main grid level, the Plan proposes optimizing the layout of power flow. It aims to gradually form an overall pattern where power from the "Gobi and desert" base clusters in the Northeast, Central North, and Northwest, and the integrated hydropower, wind, and solar base clusters in the Southwest, is transmitted to the Central-Eastern, Sichuan-Chongqing, and Southern load center regions. Offshore wind power bases and coastal nuclear power bases will be used for local consumption. The Plan specifies pilot projects for 100% new energy transmission lines from "Gobi and desert" bases, with the west-to-east power transmission capacity exceeding 420 million kilowatts by 2030.
China's energy resources and electricity load are inversely distributed, with abundant resources in the western regions and high demand in the eastern regions. Shu Yinbiao believes that accelerating the planning of cross-provincial and cross-regional transmission channel construction and promoting the efficient development and utilization of clean energy base resources can efficiently support the large-scale transmission and accommodation of new energy. This will effectively ensure the safe and reliable supply of electricity in the central and eastern regions, promote their green and low-carbon transformation, and generate significant economic and social development benefits.
At the distribution network level, the Plan proposes promoting the renovation, construction, and intelligent upgrade of distribution networks to comprehensively enhance their power supply security capabilities. It also aims to improve the comprehensive carrying capacity of distribution networks, enhancing their regulation capabilities to support the connection and safe, stable operation of 900 million kilowatts of distributed new energy.
Regarding microgrids, the Plan supports the construction of intelligent microgrids, ensuring good planning alignment and regulation coordination with the public grid. It also calls for the deployment of a number of intelligent microgrid projects that integrate sources, grids, loads, and storage, and the improvement of related technical standards and project access requirements.
"It is estimated that by 2030, the average power supply reliability rate for urban users nationwide will reach 99.99%, the comprehensive carrying capacity of distribution networks will double, and the coordinated operation and two-way support capabilities of main and distribution networks will be significantly enhanced," Shu Yinbiao predicted. He added that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, China will vigorously expand multi-scenario applications of intelligent microgrids, such as facilitating the nearby development and consumption of new energy, and improving the reliability of power supply in remote areas and at the end of the grid. For example, in areas with large industrial loads and favorable new energy resource conditions, the construction of industrial green microgrids supporting the local consumption of new energy will be promoted.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, China's power grid service and support levels continuously improved. The country built the world's largest charging network, with approximately 20 million charging facilities effectively supporting the charging needs of over 40 million new energy vehicles. Focusing on charging network construction, the Plan sets a new target: by 2030, the total number of charging infrastructure units will exceed 40 million, including about 300,000 high-power charging facilities, forming a charging service capacity to support over 110 million electric vehicles.
The latest data shows that by the end of June this year, the total number of electric vehicle charging infrastructure units in China had reached 23.057 million, a year-on-year increase of 43.2%. A relevant official from the National Energy Administration stated that the next step will be to continue promoting the construction of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure network, improving the quality of charging operation services and management capabilities, to better support the high-quality development of the new-type power grid.
The investment of over 5 trillion yuan to weave this "net" will benefit the entire industrial chain. The National Energy Administration reports that in the first half of this year, the construction of China's new-type power grid continued to accelerate. Key investment growth points included power grids, charging and battery swapping infrastructure, and new energy storage, which saw year-on-year increases of 13.5%, 21.8%, and 74.3%, respectively. It is predicted that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, grid investment will drive a total industrial scale of over 10 trillion yuan in upstream and downstream sectors.
In Shu Yinbiao's view, accelerating the construction of a new-type power grid with coordinated main grids, distribution networks, and microgrids will help cultivate advanced manufacturing clusters for power grid equipment and create international competitive advantages. "The construction of the new-type power grid will lay a solid foundation for accommodating the large-scale integration and consumption of new energy and empowering the innovative development of new quality productive forces, effectively driving high-quality economic and social development during the '15th Five-Year Plan' period," Shu Yinbiao concluded.
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