China proposes spot market rules allowing renewables and storage to bid jointly

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has proposed revised Basic Rules for Electricity Spot Markets that would explicitly let renewable energy projects and their on-site battery storage take part in spot trading as joint bidding entities, pv magazine reported.

The draft, released on October 19, aims to strengthen the framework for China’s emerging unified national electricity market. It would replace the interim rules introduced in 2023, take effect on January 1, 2027 and remain valid for five years. Public comments are open until November 18.

Core Market Provisions

Article 8 supports renewable plants and their co-located storage participating jointly in market bidding, clearing, dispatch, settlement and performance assessment. In practice, a solar or wind plant could combine its generation forecast with its battery charging and discharging schedule in one bid, instead of the plant and the battery acting as separate market participants.

According to pv magazine, that could let operators shift deliveries toward higher-priced periods where technically and commercially feasible, and use storage to cover gaps between forecast and actual generation, potentially reducing imbalance costs. For solar and wind developers, joint bidding could significantly increase the commercial value of on-site batteries.

The 2023 interim rules already recognised energy storage, distributed generation and virtual power plants as eligible participants. What is new is explicit support for a renewable plant and its storage operating together across the whole market process.

Structural Expansions and Scope

The draft broadens the definition of new market participants to explicitly include:

• New-type energy storage
• Virtual power plants
• Load aggregators
• Smart microgrids
• Green electricity direct-connection projects

It calls for these resources to participate more fully in market competition and respond to real-time prices.

The framework covers interprovincial, regional and provincial spot markets, with day-ahead, intraday and real-time trading. Real-time markets would set dispatch schedules for the next 5 to 15 minutes. Locational marginal pricing is set as the preferred clearing approach, meant to reflect both supply-demand conditions and transmission constraints, so prices can differ from one grid node to another.

The draft also calls for closer coordination between spot trading, medium- and long-term contracts and ancillary service markets, including the gradual introduction of joint clearing for frequency regulation, reserves and ramping. Settlement would use daily clearing and monthly billing, with a move toward price-difference settlement in regional and provincial markets. It also tightens requirements on market information disclosure, technical system verification and intervention during abnormal market conditions.

Regulatory Context and Precedents

Joint bidding is not new everywhere: some provinces, such as Shandong, already allow it, and the NDRC officially promoted this kind of mechanism in 2025. The draft would push it to the national level for the unified market.

The revisions follow China’s 2025 electricity pricing reform, which required renewable generation to enter the power market in principle, with prices set through market transactions. pv magazine said the new provisions would give co-located storage a clearer path to take part alongside renewable generation.

What to watch

Like many central-government rules, the draft does not specify bidding formats, metering arrangements, battery charging restrictions or settlement calculations for combined operations. Those would need to be set in regional and provincial implementation rules. The next dates are the close of public comments on November 18 and the proposed start on January 1, 2027.