Guided by the "dual carbon" goals, the energy revolution is advancing, and the new power system is laying the foundation for green transition. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to accelerate the construction of a new power system that is clean and low-carbon, safe and sufficient, economical and efficient, coordinated between supply and demand, and flexible and intelligent. This will better promote the revolution in energy production and consumption and ensure national energy security. Guided by this important policy, the energy and power industry has taken proactive actions, focused on key areas and priorities, and made every effort to accelerate the construction of the new power system.
From September 22 to 26, the China Electricity Council (CEC) grandly held the 2025 New Power System Development (Chongli) Forum in Chongli, Hebei. This is the third consecutive year that CEC has hosted the forum, aiming to build an industry exchange and cooperation platform, jointly explore the achievements in new power system construction, and chart the future blueprint for green energy transition.
At the crucial juncture of the fifth anniversary of the proposal of the "dual carbon" goals and the new power system construction entering a new phase, a series of important achievements were released at the forum. These achievements comprehensively demonstrate CEC's unwavering implementation of the national "dual carbon" strategy and innovative practices in promoting the transformation and development of the power industry. They also reflect the outstanding results achieved by enterprises in China's energy and power industry in serving the "dual carbon" goals and promoting green and low-carbon transition, providing strong support for accelerating the construction of the new power system and the green and low-carbon transformation of the energy structure.
Against the backdrop of the "dual carbon" goals, China has vigorously promoted the construction of the new power system, with a significant increase in the installed capacity of new energy and accelerated adjustment of the energy structure. Yang Kun, Secretary of the Party Committee and Executive Vice Chairman of the China Electricity Council, pointed out at the forum that in recent years, guided by the new energy security strategy of "four revolutions and one cooperation", the power industry has accelerated the construction of the new power system. The energy structure has been continuously optimized, and landmark projects and innovative achievements have emerged one after another, greatly promoting the clean and low-carbon transformation of the economy and society.
On the supply side, the proportion of green power in China has continued to rise, forming the world's largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system. As of the end of July this year, China's installed renewable energy capacity exceeded 2.1 billion kilowatts, accounting for about 60% of the total installed capacity. Among them, the cumulative installed capacity of wind and solar power reached 1.68 billion kilowatts, historically exceeding the installed thermal power capacity and achieving the committed wind and solar installation target six years ahead of schedule.
The green and low-carbon transformation of energy, with electrification based on clean power as the core, is a key link and inevitable requirement. The "China Electrification Annual Development Report 2025" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by CEC at the forum shows that in 2024, the national electrification rate was about 28.8%, an increase of 0.9 percentage points over the previous year. China's electrification rate has surpassed that of major developed economies in Europe and the United States. By 2030, the national electrification rate is expected to reach about 35%, exceeding the average level of OECD countries by 8-10 percentage points. Replacing coal and oil with electricity has not only optimized the terminal energy structure but also directly brought clean air and a livable environment.
The Report points out that the momentum of low-carbon electrification development continues to strengthen. It is expected that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the annual average new installed capacity of wind and solar power in the country will reach more than 200 million kilowatts. The improvement of green power production and supply capacity will play an important supporting role in raising the electrification level, and the contribution of low-carbon electrification development to the growth of the national electrification rate will exceed 80%.
While the electrification rate continues to grow, the scale of green power consumption in China has expanded rapidly, and enterprises' willingness to green consumption has been continuously enhanced. At the forum, CEC, together with Beijing Power Exchange Center, Guangzhou Power Exchange Center, Inner Mongolia Power Exchange Center, and Hydropower and Water Resources Planning and Design General Institute, jointly released the "2025 China Top 100 Green Power Consumption Enterprises List". China Energy Investment Corporation, State Power Investment Corporation, Zhejiang Energy Group, and Shenzhen Energy Group ranked the top four in the list respectively. Based on true and reliable green power consumption data, the list covers industries such as energy, petrochemicals, steel, manufacturing, technology, and services. Through the green practices of leading enterprises in various industries, it promotes the achievements of enterprise green development, stimulates the vitality of enterprise green consumption, encourages and promotes the whole society to practice green consumption, and has strong demonstration significance.
Pan Yuelong, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of CEC, pointed out when releasing the list that in 2024, the national total green power consumption reached 679.6 billion kilowatt-hours, a year-on-year increase of 542%; from January to July this year, the national total green power consumption completed 597.7 billion kilowatt-hours, a year-on-year increase of 43%, continuing to maintain a strong growth momentum. The release of the list has given full play to the benchmarking role with good demonstration effects, reflecting the important contributions made by enterprises as market entities to promoting social green power consumption.
Advocating green practices and promoting green consumption is a long-term task that requires the active participation and promotion of all parties. CEC will work with various releasing units to continuously improve the release standards and forms, refine the industrial list release method, enrich the China green power consumption release system, and strive to build an international brand identity with higher recognition for green consumption, providing solid support for China's energy green transition and development.
At present, China has built the world's largest and most secure and resilient power infrastructure system, effectively ensuring the safe and stable operation of power. As of the end of August, China's installed power generation capacity reached 3.69 billion kilowatts, with 44 UHV transmission channels completed. The cross-provincial and cross-regional power transmission capacity exceeded 400 million kilowatts, effectively coping with the historical maximum load when electricity consumption exceeded 1 trillion kilowatt-hours twice in July and August this year.
The power system is not only the cornerstone of ensuring energy supply but also the "main battlefield" of carbon emissions. Its green and low-carbon transition has become a key link in achieving the "dual carbon" goals. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly proposed to build a carbon emission statistical accounting system, a product carbon label certification system, and a product carbon footprint management system, making strategic arrangements for building a product carbon footprint management system at the central level.
CEC firmly implements the national "dual carbon" strategy and accelerates the construction of a carbon footprint management system in the power industry. Relying on its functions such as standardization management in the power industry and following domestic and foreign product carbon footprint rules, it speeds up the construction of a power low-carbon standard system and builds a carbon footprint factor database. At the forum, CEC released a number of key achievements related to carbon footprint management, including "Carbon Footprint Certification for Power Equipment Products", "Zero-Carbon Park Certification", "2024 China Power Carbon Footprint Factor Research", "Power Carbon Footprint Standards", and "Carbon Emission Indicators for Power Grid Engineering Construction". These achievements provide quantifiable basis for power industry enterprises to strengthen carbon footprint management and strong support for accelerating the construction of a power carbon footprint management system.
As one of the first 26 product carbon footprint label certification pilot institutions approved by the National Certification and Accreditation Administration, CEC officially announced the first batch of 51 carbon footprint certification certificates for power equipment products at the forum, covering transmission infrastructure equipment such as transmission towers, transformers, and conductors and ground wires. The release of these 51 carbon footprint certificates for power equipment marks an important start for the power equipment industry to strengthen low-carbon management and build a green benchmark system. It signifies substantial progress in the green and low-carbon management of China's power equipment, laying a solid foundation for the visualization, management, and optimization of carbon footprints across the entire industrial chain.
"Carbon footprint certification for power products is one of the main measures to promote the achievement of the 'dual carbon' goals. It decomposes the macro 'dual carbon' goals into specific, quantifiable, assessable, and implementable actions, providing highly valuable plans and successful practices for power enterprises to systematically and on a large scale realize the national 'dual carbon' strategy," said Pan Yuelong.
As concentrated areas of industrial agglomeration, energy consumption, and carbon emissions, parks have become key carriers for carbon reduction. The forum released the first batch of 2 regional-level "Zero-Carbon Park" certificates evaluated and recognized by CEC, namely Shaanxi Yulin Science and Innovation New City Zero-Carbon Park and Beijing Goldwind Smart Park. This marks that China's zero-carbon parks have entered a large-scale construction stage from concept exploration, providing replicable and promotable practical samples for the green transition of industrial parks across the country.
As an important means to enhance the flexibility and stability of the power system, vehicle-grid integration is an indispensable part of building a new power system. At the forum, CEC, together with multiple units, released two core technical white papers: "Evaluation Index Library for Vehicle-Grid Integration Implementation Effects" and "Technical Standard System for Vehicle-Grid Integration (2025 Edition)". The release of the index library has completely changed the previous situation where there was a lack of unified standards for evaluating vehicle-grid integration effects and difficult quantitative comparison. It provides an authoritative basis for the scientific evaluation and precise optimization of large-scale industrial application effects, effectively guiding resources to gather in high-efficiency areas.
Liu Yongdong, Deputy Secretary-General of CEC, pointed out that the establishment of the above-mentioned standard system has filled multiple standard gaps in the field of vehicle-grid integration, solving the industry pain points of "inconsistent interfaces, difficult data intercommunication, and lack of operational norms" between different subjects and links. Furthermore, from the top-level design perspective, it provides technical guidelines for new energy vehicles to participate in power system services such as peak shaving, valley filling, and backup. It effectively promotes the transformation of new energy vehicles from "transportation tools" to "mobile energy storage units", accelerates the formation of a coordinated development pattern of "source-grid-load-storage" in the new power system, and lays a solid standard foundation for the healthy, orderly, and high-quality development of the industry.
The forum also officially released the China Power Generation Natural Gas Price Index (CEGI) and the 2024 Power Construction Engineering Cost Index (ECCI) compiled by CEC. As China's first power generation natural gas price index, CEGI fills the gap in this field, marking the further improvement of China's power fuel price index system and helping to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the natural gas power generation industry. The power construction engineering cost index covers various power construction projects such as power source projects and power grid projects. It aims to innovate the release mechanism of pricing bases for power construction projects, respond to changes in market demand through diversified price information, provide support for relevant government departments to strengthen power planning investment management and industry supervision, and offer references for relevant enterprises in the industry to improve project investment decision-making and cost control capabilities, actively promoting the healthy and orderly development of the industry.
The construction of a new power system is a systematic project that requires coordinated advancement across all links of source-grid-load-storage and full cooperation from all aspects of the power industry. With the large-scale integration of wind and solar power into the power grid, unprecedented challenges have been brought to the balance and safety of the power grid. Faced with the extreme complexity of coordination among all links of source-grid-load-storage, traditional technologies are difficult to meet the requirements. Taking artificial intelligence as the core driving force has changed from an "optional item" to a "must-have item".
In September this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Energy with 'Artificial Intelligence +'", pointing out the need to expand the in-depth integration and application scenarios of artificial intelligence and the energy field, improve the technical level of innovative applications of artificial intelligence in the energy field, promote the coordinated development of intelligent computing power and electricity, and improve the innovation system for the intelligent development of energy, providing strong support for the construction of a new energy system.
The energy industry, in conjunction with cutting-edge technology companies, is accelerating the exploration of innovative practices in the integrated development of artificial intelligence and the energy field. At the forum, Huawei and Beijing Energy Group jointly released the industry's first gas turbine large model——Jingneng "Qingrui". As a key implementation of Huawei's "Artificial Intelligence + Industry" strategy in the power field, the release of this large model is an important practice of the power industry responding to national strategic deployments and promoting the in-depth integration of "artificial intelligence + energy". It not only helps the intelligent development of the gas power generation field enter a new stage but also provides a highly valuable innovative practice plan for building a new power system.
Huawei also jointly released the "White Paper on ICT Empowering the Digital and Intelligent Transformation of Power Generation Enterprises" with North China Electric Power University and other units, providing a clear "navigation map" for the large-scale replication of successful experiences across the industry. Facing the deep-seated challenges such as data silos, difficulties in multi-energy coordination, and inconsistent technical standards encountered by power generation enterprises in digital and intelligent transformation, the white paper systematically plans the key transformation paths for power generation enterprises from top-level design, cloud infrastructure, data governance to AI paradigm innovation.
"Currently, the level of digitalization and intelligence in the power industry continues to improve, and the flexibility and safety of the system have been greatly enhanced," said Yang Kun. "'Artificial Intelligence +' continues to empower the innovative development of the industry. The landing and application of industry large models such as 'Guangming', 'Da Watt', 'Qingyuan', and 'Huazhi·Zhixin' have effectively improved the intelligence level of the power system and the absorption capacity of renewable energy."
With the continuous advancement of the construction of the new power system, inspection and testing, as a key link to ensure the safe and stable operation of the power system, have become increasingly important. The "2025 China Power Engineering Construction Inspection and Testing Annual Development Report" released at the forum focuses on cutting-edge technologies and intelligent development trends of power engineering testing, highlighting the practical application of new energy intelligent testing technologies.
The report selects a number of cases of intelligent equipment and systems such as "intelligent inspection robot multi-functional platform for wind turbine tower inspection" and "EL detector + UAV thermal imaging technology system for photovoltaic inspection", as well as technical method cases such as "UAV monitoring and defense system for anti-terrorism reconnaissance" and "artificial intelligence applied to radiation detection film evaluation system". It comprehensively presents the innovative practices of intelligent inspection and testing technologies, providing strong support for the industry to adapt to the needs of the new power system and promote the intelligent upgrading of inspection and testing technologies.
Yang Kun stated that China is in a crucial period of building a new power system. As the "nerve endings" and "perception center" of the new power system, intelligent sensing and detection technologies play an irreplaceable fundamental, supporting, and leading role. It is hoped to accelerate the large-scale, standardized, and industrialized application of intelligent sensing and detection technologies in the new power system and continuously promote the high-quality development of intelligent sensing and detection technologies.
During the forum, several parallel forums, including the 2025 New Power System Digital and Intelligent Development Forum, Hydropower Digitalization Forum, 2025 Huawei Power Industry Summit, and New Power System Intelligent Sensing and Detection Technology and Equipment Development Forum, took "power system digitalization and intelligence" as the core topic. Experts attending the forum focused on cutting-edge technologies of power digitalization and intelligence, shared innovative practices, exchanged ideas, and jointly gathered ideological consensus and action forces for accelerating the in-depth integration of artificial intelligence and the power system.
As a joint organization of enterprises and institutions in the national power industry, CEC will continue to play the role of a bridge and link, actively build a high-level exchange and cooperation platform, build the brand of the New Power System Development (Chongli) Forum, gather wisdom from all parties, unite industry forces, and work together with all stakeholders to contribute to accelerating the construction of the new power system and promoting the high-quality development of energy and power.
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