BEIJING, July 26 (Reuters) - China is introducing more flexible power transmission arrangements into its national grid system, helping to avoid a repeat of the outages that plagued parts of the country last year, according to central government officials.
In response to decreased output from hydropower plants, authorities have "rationally optimised" power transmission between provinces to send more power to the country's drought-stricken southwest, Guan Peng of the National Development and Reform Commission told a press conference on Wednesday.
This has included sending more power from China's sparsely populated northwest, Guan added.
China's grid system predominantly distributes power between provinces through fixed medium-to-long term contracts, which do not accommodate changes in regional demand and supply conditions.
More than 90% of market-based power trading in China is conducted through these mid-to-long term contracts, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.
After a drought last August, fixed, unidirectional power trading agreements led hydro-dependent southwestern Sichuan province to export power out of the province to fulfil these contracts, even as consumers in the province endured power cuts.
In addition to adding flexibility to grid transmission, authorities have increased water storage at hydro facilities in advance in order to guarantee their operation during periods when temperatures were high, Guan said.
The region has not seen widespread power outages this year, despite similarly hot and dry weather conditions.
Weather-dependent hydropower is expected to remain the primary power source in Sichuan and neighbouring Yunnan, with the Sichuan provincial government forecasting it to account for more than 77% of province's installed generation capacity in 2025.
China has also extensively developed its 'new type' energy storage capabilities this year, officials said. 'New type' energy storage in China is overwhelmingly comprised of lithium-ion battery storage, and contrasts with older pumped-hydro storage technologies.
The installed capacity of this 'new type' energy storage reached 12 gigawatts (GW) as of the end of May, said National Energy Administration official Liu Mingyang. This represents a roughly 37% increase on the 8.7GW in installed capacity reported at the end of last year.
