On March 17, Zhejiang’s provincial power exchange organized the third trading round of intra-provincial green electricity for 2022. With a total of over 1 TWh traded between power generators and power users/retailers, Zhejiang’s green electricity trading volume in the first three months is already twice that of last year’s total. The trading was exclusively organized for wind and solar power, through bilateral negotiation (Over-the-Counter trading) and listed transaction.
Although price details were not disclosed, according to some sources, transaction prices were higher than the regulated on-grid price of renewable energy. If we look at the Green Electricity Pilot Trading last year, Zhejiang’s average transaction price was 10 CNY / MWh higher than the local coal-fired base price.
Zhejiang’s green electricity trading should continue to grow steadily. Zhejiang Power Grid Co.,Ltd. aims to sell 10% of Zhejiang’s renewable power electricity through direct trading by the end of 2025.
The green power markets in Jiangsu and Guangdong are equally active this year. Jiangsu’s total transaction amount also exceeded 1 TWh according to the latest trading results of April. Guangdong’s total green electricity transaction by March this year was 0.7 TWh, the April results should be available soon. Since the national green electricity pilot was launched last September, the main participants in the provincial market have been Zhejiang-based grid-parity projects, which partly explains the modest transaction volumes. There are many other problems for regulators to untangle, such as unlocking inter-provincial green electricity direct trading to increase supply, clarifying the relationship and interconnection among various Chinese mechanisms including RPS, carbon emission allowance, Chinese RECs, etc.
