China’s Zhejiang Opens Electricity Spot Market to 2.54 GW of Grid-Side Batteries
China’s Zhejiang province has issued market rules letting 40 independent, grid-side battery storage projects totaling 2.54 GW and 5.1 GWh trade directly in its electricity spot market, according to a notice jointly released on September 23 by the Zhejiang office of the National Energy Administration, the provincial development and reform commission, and the provincial energy bureau. The move extends China’s broader push to price power assets through markets rather than fixed administrative rates, this time reaching into grid-side storage specifically.
Who qualifies, and for which markets
Of the 40 projects covered, 28 — totaling 2.13 GW and 4.27 GWh — are already in commercial operation and centrally dispatched, which makes them eligible to trade in both the day-ahead energy market and the frequency-regulation ancillary services market. A further six operating projects, amounting to 0.11 GW and 0.22 GWh, can enter only the energy market. Under the new rules, qualifying storage operators choose on a self-scheduled, day-by-day basis whether to bid into the energy market or the frequency-regulation market, and projects currently under retail electricity contracts can terminate those agreements before moving into market-based trading.
A step toward full market bidding
Zhejiang’s notice sets January 1, 2027 as the date the province plans to shift these storage assets to full price-and-quantity bidding, meaning operators would compete on both how much capacity they offer and at what price, rather than trading under the more limited rules taking effect now. That timeline lines up with the pace of China’s national “Document 136” reform, issued jointly by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration in February 2025, which is steering wind and solar generation away from fixed feed-in tariffs and toward market-determined pricing, with a settlement mechanism that tops up or claws back revenue against a reference price depending on where market prices land. Provinces have moved at different speeds in writing their own Document 136 rules, and Zhejiang’s storage-specific market notice shows that same market-based logic now being extended from generation assets to the batteries connected alongside them.
Why grid-side storage is the next piece of the reform
Independent grid-side storage — batteries that connect directly to the grid rather than sitting behind a specific generator or industrial customer — has expanded quickly across China as provinces look for ways to smooth out swings from wind and solar output. Letting these projects trade directly in spot and ancillary-services markets, instead of relying only on capacity payments or fixed dispatch arrangements, gives operators a more direct revenue link to when and how the grid actually needs flexibility. For developers with projects elsewhere in China’s storage buildout, including the battery supply deals feeding that expansion, Zhejiang’s rules offer an early look at how one of China’s larger provincial grids intends to fold storage into its market design before the broader shift to price-and-quantity bidding arrives in 2027.
Sources
- pv magazine Global, “Chinese province moves grid-side batteries into spot market,” September 26, 2026 — project count, capacity figures, market mechanics, regulatory notice date.
- Energy-Storage.news (ESS News), “Chinese province moves grid-side batteries into spot market,” September 24, 2026 — independent confirmation of the September 23 regulatory notice and its terms.
- Carbon Brief, “Analysis: Only half of Chinese provinces finalise key ‘Document 136’ renewable rules,” and pv magazine International, “China to switch from FITs to market-oriented renewables pricing” — background on the national Document 136 reform.
- The Daily Energy’s earlier coverage of battery supply agreements tied to China’s storage buildout — industry context.
Illustrative image. Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — source
