In the height of summer, at the Baotang grid‑side standalone energy‑storage station in Foshan, rows of pale‑white energy‑storage containers are neatly arranged across a site roughly equivalent to 5.5 standard football fields. Like giant power banks, they continuously supply electricity to the city during peak power‑consumption hours.

The 15th Five‑Year Plan for the Development of the New‑type Power System (hereinafter referred to as the Plan), jointly issued recently by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, sets targets for the 15th Five‑Year Plan period: China will add around 160 GW of new‑type energy storage capacity, including approximately 80 GW of grid‑side standalone new‑type energy storage capable of peak‑load guarantee, with an equivalent peak‑support duration of 4 hours as a striving target. By 2030, the national installed capacity of new‑type energy storage will reach 300 GW, among which grid‑side standalone new‑type energy storage for peak‑load guarantee will hit 140 GW.

“During the 14th Five‑Year Plan period, China’s new‑type energy‑storage industry advanced from the initial stage of commercial application to large‑scale development, laying a solid foundation for tapping its diverse values and pursuing high‑quality industrial growth,” introduced Xu Jilin, Deputy Director‑General of the Energy Conservation and Science‑Technology & Equipment Department of the National Energy Administration, at a recent press briefing. Since 2026, China’s new‑type energy‑storage sector has maintained sound momentum. By the end of June, the commissioned installed capacity of new‑type energy storage nationwide reached 153 GW / 396 GWh, a year‑on‑year increase of 61%.

Liu Yongdong, Deputy Secretary‑General of the China Electricity Council (CEC) and Chairman of its Electric Mobility and Energy Storage Branch, holds that the development of the new‑type energy‑storage industry is shifting from policy‑driven to market‑driven. The sector calls for diversified revenue models built upon full‑capacity tariff compensation, energy trading proceeds and ancillary services. Meanwhile, development is moving beyond the “new energy plus energy storage” model toward integrated construction and coordinated dispatching. Application scenarios now cover grid‑side standalone energy storage, user‑side energy storage, distribution‑transformer‑area energy storage and other categories.

“The Plan explicitly calls for upgrading existing energy storage facilities bundled with new‑energy projects, planning new‑type energy‑storage projects at new‑energy transmission bases such as the sandy‑, gobi‑ and desert‑land bases, and accelerating the deployment of grid‑side standalone new‑type energy‑storage stations for peak‑load guarantee. These measures will facilitate large‑scale construction of new‑type energy‑storage stations and enhance the power system’s regulation capacity,” said Sun Chuanwang, Professor at the China Center for Energy Economics Research of Xiamen University. Boasting millisecond‑level response and flexible charge‑discharge performance, standalone new‑type energy‑storage stations can rapidly release power amid peak‑load surges to cope with sharp spikes in electricity demand. They can also deliver frequency regulation, voltage regulation and instantaneous power support to underpin stable operation of the power system.

Amid rapid industrial expansion, field investigations by journalists reveal that operational revenues of new‑type energy‑storage stations heavily hinge on peak‑valley price spreads in the energy market. Revenues are highly vulnerable to price volatility in the spot power market, lacking stable supporting mechanisms. In addition, the ancillary‑service market offers limited product categories for new‑type energy storage, and roll‑out of the capacity‑tariff mechanism still takes time. Furthermore, mature technical codes and standards are lacking for the construction, operation and maintenance of standalone new‑type energy‑storage stations. Some projects are poorly aligned with actual local grid regulation requirements, leading to problems such as “built‑but‑underutilized assets” and sustained financial losses.

Against this backdrop, it is imperative to build a unified national power‑market system so that new‑type energy storage can better participate in various power markets. The Plan stipulates that during the 15th Five‑Year Plan period, China shall “continue improving capacity‑tariff mechanisms for regulating resources including coal‑fired power, gas‑fired power, pumped‑hydro storage and new‑type energy storage, establish a reliable capacity compensation mechanism, and offer compensation for reliable power‑system capacity according to unified standards.”

“The industry shall scientifically set capacity‑compensation benchmarks in light of regional power loads and grid‑regulation requirements to reflect the market value of energy storage and secure basic returns. It should connect spot markets with medium‑ and long‑term markets to expand the scope of energy trading for standalone energy storage. Further access shall be granted to ancillary‑service categories such as frequency regulation, ramp‑rate support, reserve capacity and black‑start services to broaden energy‑storage participants’ opportunities and earnings,” noted Chen Haisheng, Director of the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chairman of the China Energy Storage Alliance. He also suggested optimizing grid dispatching rules to remove unreasonable restrictions on standalone energy storage and raise equivalent utilization hours of storage stations. New‑type energy storage should be encouraged to engage in emerging markets including virtual power plants, green‑power trading, carbon trading and demand‑response programs. A diversified revenue model of “capacity tariff + energy tariff + ancillary‑service proceeds + revenues from new‑business formats” should be established to guarantee reasonable investment returns for energy‑storage stations.

Sun Chuanwang proposed that new‑type energy storage should fully participate in energy markets and orderly take part in ancillary‑service markets for frequency regulation and reserve capacity. Efforts are needed to improve the pricing mechanism for energy‑storage charge and discharge, promote innovative models such as shared‑storage capacity leasing, and realize efficient integration of trading rules, pricing mechanisms and technical systems. Meanwhile, a revenue pattern for grid‑side standalone energy storage shall be formed, with capacity and energy earnings as the main pillars and ancillary‑service returns as supplements, so as to expand revenue channels for standalone energy storage across multi‑level markets and diverse trading varieties.

“It is advisable to develop a sound ‘policy‑plus‑market’ pricing mechanism for new‑type energy storage. In the initial phase, capacity tariffs shall be mainly allocated via competitive bidding. As the power‑market system matures, cost recovery shall chiefly rely on market participation in the mid‑to‑late stage,” said Chen Man, Vice‑President of the Energy Storage Research Institute of China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage Co., Ltd.

(Reporter: Du Yanfei)