Marketization is the key motivation for the change of energy and power industry in recent years. Since the start of the new round of power system reform, my country's power market has gone through an ice-breaking journey from 0 to 1 in many aspects. Today, under the background of the construction of the new power system and the realization of the "double carbon" goal, the deepening road of the power market "from 1 to N" is obviously more complicated, and its top-level design and path selection will also face more complicated and intertwined practical considerations.

At the national strategic level, clear goals and tasks have been given for the electricity market to enter a new stage of development: in January 2022, the national development and reform Commission and the national energy administration "guidance on accelerating the construction of a unified national electricity market system" (development and reform system reform [2022] No. 118) proposed to speed up the construction of a multi-level unified electricity market system; In April 2022, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Unified National Market, proposing the construction of a unified national energy market.

No. 118 proposed the construction of a unified national electricity market system is divided into two stages. The first stage is "by 2025, the national unified power market system will be initially completed, the national market will operate in coordination with provincial (regional, municipal)/regional markets, the medium and long-term, in stock and auxiliary service markets will be integrated and operated, the market-oriented allocation of resources across provinces and regions and the scale of green power transactions will be significantly increased, and the market transaction and price mechanism conducive to the development of new energy and energy storage will be initially formed"; Stage 2 "by 2030, the national unified power market system has been basically completed to meet the requirements of the new power system. The national market and the provincial (regional, municipal)/regional market operate jointly. New energy fully participates in market transactions. Market entities compete on an equal footing and make independent choices. Power resources are nationwide. Get further optimized allocation."

The time node of the short-term target is just around the corner, and some visible results are gratifying: Shanxi and Guangdong electric power in stock markets have been put into formal operation successively, the southern regional in stock market has carried out full-scale settlement trial operation, the practical exploration of the electric power in stock market has blossomed in an all-round way, the number of market entities has increased rapidly, the trading power has continued to rise, the diversified market mechanisms such as green mechanism and capacity mechanism have been continuously improved, and the market openness and activity greatly increased.

However, many deep-seated problems still need to be solved: the market subjects on both sides of the power generation and consumption have not yet fully entered the market, and the "two-track system" is still distinctive, leading to distortions in price signals and resource allocation. Whether the above problems can be fully faced and solved is related to whether the power market can go deep from the outside to the inside, and whether the market can really play a role in optimizing the allocation of resources.

This issue of the cover planning to "national unified power market path solution" as the topic, the organization of a series of articles to carry out thinking and discussion. The focus of our discussion is three:

  First, the concept of a unified national electricity market has been proposed for more than two years.In the past two years, the industry has contended with views and explored the way in practice. However, there is no final conclusion on how to understand the connotation of the national unified power market and how to choose its development path. Taking this cover planning opportunity, this magazine organizes discussions on this issue, comprehensively presents multiple viewpoints, and strives to more fully demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages behind various route choices.

  Second, with the continuous expansion of the market system, the functional positioning of various markets needs to be further clarified, and then effectively design various market trading products and operating mechanisms.For example, the relationship between medium and long-term and in stock markets, auxiliary services and electric energy markets, wholesale markets and retail markets has not been straightened out, and market convergence needs to be strengthened. It is urgent to further sort out the market system from the top-level design and clarify the misunderstandings in understanding, so as to avoid deep-seated contradictions caused by the continuous development and growth of the market.

  Third, with the continuous advancement of reforms, my country's power planning environment has undergone fundamental changes, and the power planning attached to the resource plan allocation mechanism has been unable to adapt to the requirements of the development of new power systems.In the cover planning of the first issue of "New Strategy for the Start of Electric Power" in 2022, this magazine organized and discussed for the first time the shaking of the original planning foundation by the reform of the electric power system. Among them, Chai Wei's article "Promoting the" double carbon "goal needs to speed up the reform of the planning mechanism" profoundly pointed out that "planning, market support" will be very difficult to coordinate, the original planning method is facing new challenges. In recent years, coal power positioning profound changes, new energy growth and other development situation, the market subject investment risk and power system operation risk increased profoundly demonstrated the real urgency of power planning change. This issue of planning once again reiterated this point of view, and based on this put forward a more in-depth analysis of the problem and more comprehensive suggestions.

The construction of the market is a long way to go, and the time is not waiting for me. This newspaper wants to build a platform for the exchange of opinions for colleagues in the industry with the cover planning of this issue, and jointly explore the path of the construction of a unified national power market.