Promoting the Preliminary Completion of a New Energy System during the "15th Five-Year Plan"
Ren Yuzhi, Director of the Development and Planning Department, National Energy Administration
Energy is a crucial material foundation for economic and social development. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China first proposed accelerating the planning and construction of a new energy system. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee further clarified the goal of "preliminarily completing a new energy system and building China into an energy powerhouse during the '15th Five-Year Plan' period." This represents a new strategic deployment and requirement made by the Party Central Committee, based on a profound grasp of global energy development trends and China's own energy development positioning. It provides fundamental guidance and an action plan for energy development. Over the past year, we have made every effort to conclude the "14th Five-Year Plan" for energy, plan the direction and path for energy development during the "15th Five-Year Plan," and coordinate the research and formulation of the "Plan for Building a New Energy System during the '15th Five-Year Plan' Period."
Successful Conclusion of the "14th Five-Year Plan" for Energy
Guided by the new energy security strategy of "Four Revolutions and One Cooperation," we have coordinated high-quality energy development with high-level security. We have ensured the timely completion of the 14 major indicators, 19 major strategic tasks, and 34 major projects outlined in the "14th Five-Year Plan" for energy, laying a solid foundation for building a new energy system.
Energy security capabilities have reached a new level. Total primary energy production exceeded 5 billion tons of standard coal, with the self-sufficiency rate stably maintained above 80%. Major arteries for transmitting electricity from west to east, natural gas from west to east, and coal from north to south have been continuously consolidated and expanded, strongly supporting a "sufficient and stable" energy supply. The green and low-carbon transition has achieved leapfrog development. We have built the world's largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system. Nearly half of the incremental energy demand during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period was met by non-fossil energy, with its share in total energy consumption exceeding 20%. Reform and innovation vitality has been continuously unleashed. Multiple "national strategic assets" such as the Baihetan Hydropower Station, the world's first high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, and the "Deep Sea No. 1" energy station have been completed and put into operation. New energy storage and hydrogen energy industries have achieved scaled development. The construction of a unified national electricity market has accelerated, with cumulative green certificate transactions exceeding 1.4 billion. New models like direct green power connections have flourished. International cooperation has continuously opened new prospects. Diversified energy imports have remained stable. We have carried out green energy project cooperation with over 100 countries and regions, significantly enhancing our influence and voice in global energy governance.
Looking back over the past five years, we have focused on improving an energy planning system that is accurately positioned, with clear boundaries, complementary functions, and unified coordination. We have promoted a "national chessboard" approach to energy planning, better leveraging its role in guiding, directing, and regulating energy development. We have promoted the enactment of the "Energy Law of the People's Republic of China," revised and issued the "Energy Planning Management Measures," improved planning implementation mechanisms, conducted dynamic monitoring and assessment of plan implementation, strengthened supervision over local implementation of national energy plans, and ensured that the blueprint is followed through to the end. These efforts will provide strong institutional guarantees and effective practical experience for further improving energy planning work.
New Situations and Requirements Facing Energy Development
Profound changes unseen in a century are accelerating globally. The global energy landscape is undergoing deep adjustments. A new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating breakthroughs. Green and low-carbon transition has become the prevailing trend in energy development. The internal and external environment for building China's new energy system is undergoing profound and complex changes.
Increasing uncertainties pose greater challenges to energy security. Internationally, the world is characterized by intertwined changes and turbulence, with energy becoming a focal point of strategic competition. The trend of camp-based global energy trade is becoming more apparent, and competition surrounding resource rights, channel rights, and market rights is intensifying. China's imports of certain energy resources face greater uncertainty. At the same time, the international oil and gas supply-demand situation is generally loose, with prices declining, which is conducive to China's better coordination of domestic and international markets and resources. Domestically, steady economic and social development brings rigid growth in energy demand. Peak electricity load characteristics are becoming more pronounced, and the peak-to-valley difference is widening. The scale of the energy system continues to expand, and its complexity increases sharply. Risks such as extreme weather, cyber-attacks, and cascading failures are increasing, making the dispatching, operation, control, and risk defense of the energy system increasingly difficult.
Achieving the carbon peak goal sets higher requirements for the energy transition. Energy is the main battlefield for achieving carbon peaking. Accelerating the transformation of energy production and consumption patterns during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period still faces a series of challenges. On one hand, the incremental energy demand will mainly be met by non-fossil energy, offering greater development space for wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear power. There is an urgent need to enhance the safe and reliable substitution capability of new energy and the system's accommodation capacity, and to strengthen factor guarantees for project construction. Simultaneously, traditional fossil energy faces dual pressures of ensuring security and transitioning to lower carbon. On the other hand, diverse market entities are rapidly emerging, and new business forms and models are flourishing. The functional positioning of traditional and new energy is changing, and interest relationships are undergoing deep adjustments. There is an urgent need to establish market mechanisms that fully reflect the differentiated values of various energy sources in terms of security support, system regulation, and green attributes.
Technological innovation injects stronger momentum into the development of new quality productive forces. Internationally, major countries are strengthening their strategic layout for energy technology. Energy technological innovation has entered a period of intensive activity. Major countries are increasing R&D and application of frontier technologies such as hydrogen energy, solid-state batteries, advanced nuclear power, and marine energy. Artificial intelligence has become a new variable reshaping the international energy landscape and is expected to drive systematic changes in energy production, transmission, and consumption. Domestically, China's energy technology has generally entered a critical stage of running abreast and leading in some areas. A large number of new technologies and industries are flourishing, with new energy and new energy storage technologies maintaining world-leading positions. However, challenges remain, such as insufficient original innovation capability, shortcomings in some key core technologies and equipment, and the need to strengthen industry-university-research-application collaborative innovation.
Steadily Advancing the Construction of a New Energy System during the "15th Five-Year Plan"
2026 marks the beginning of the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. We will release and implement the plan for the new energy system and a series of sub-sector energy plans. We will thoroughly implement the new energy security strategy, accelerate the construction of a new energy system, advance the building of China into an energy powerhouse, and provide strong energy support for making decisive progress in basically realizing socialist modernization.
Improve the layout of energy development. Coordinate energy and the economy, total volume and structure, national and regional aspects, and domestic and international considerations. Optimize the layout of energy resource bases and flow patterns, and strengthen coordination between local energy balance and cross-provincial/regional resource allocation. Enhance the energy self-sufficiency capability of the eastern region, striving to ensure that over 70% of the incremental energy consumption during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period is met by production within the region. Promote the better transformation of the western region's resource advantages into development advantages, and strengthen the coordinated layout of industrial transfer and clean energy. Coordinate and optimize the layout of major energy transmission channels, and build backbone circulation corridors for important energy products.
Strengthen guidance through targets and indicators. Targets and indicators are the "baton" for energy development. With the overall goal of preliminarily completing a new energy system during the "15th Five-Year Plan," we will focus on: 1) **More Sufficient Supply Security**: Further enhance comprehensive energy production capacity to effectively respond to normal supply-demand fluctuations and abnormal disruptions. 2) **More Optimal Energy Structure**: Make new energy the main component of installed power capacity, raise the share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption to 25%, and increase the share of electricity in final energy consumption by about 1 percentage point annually. 3) **Newer System Form**: Make the new energy infrastructure system, characterized by strong resilience, green and low-carbon attributes, integration, and smart efficiency, more complete. 4) **Stronger Reform and Innovation**: Deeply integrate energy technological innovation and industrial innovation, and accelerate the improvement of market and price mechanisms adapted to the new energy system.
Promote the implementation of key tasks. First, intensify efforts to build new energy infrastructure, expand the non-fossil energy supply system, and construct a new power system adapted to a high proportion of new energy. Second, build a strong and resilient energy supply chain, consolidate the foundation for strategic energy security, operational security, and emergency security, and strengthen energy security under open conditions. Third, accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of energy consumption, promote the peaking of coal and oil consumption, and strengthen clean substitution in end-use energy. Fourth, accelerate high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in energy technology, strengthen innovation in key technologies and equipment, and enhance the modernization level of the industrial chain. Fifth, strengthen institutional guarantees for high-quality energy development, accelerate the construction of a unified national energy market system, and improve the energy legal, standard, and regulatory systems.
Construct major engineering projects. Engineering projects are important tools for plan implementation; we must adhere to the principle that "projects follow the plan." On one hand, steadily advance the construction of strategic and iconic major projects. Safely and orderly promote the construction of hydropower projects like Yalong River downstream. Plan and construct wind and solar power bases in the "Three Norths" regions, integrated hydropower-wind-solar bases in the southwest, coastal nuclear power bases, and offshore wind power bases. Optimize the construction of major channels for electricity, oil, and gas. On the other hand, accelerate the construction of a number of "small but beautiful" projects. Implement the electric vehicle charging network enhancement project. Plan and construct several integrated wind-solar-hydrogen-ammonia-alcohol bases. Build a number of concentrated solar power projects. Complete a number of zero-carbon industrial parks. Promote the green transformation of heating systems.
