China Targets 70% Market-Based Power Trading by 2030

A State Council roadmap sets 2030–2035 milestones to expand spot power trading, scale interprovincial transactions, and strengthen price formation to ease transmission bottlenecks and accelerate renewable integration.

China has set a target for market-based electricity trading to account for about 70% of total power consumption by 2030, according to a State Council roadmap for building a unified national power market, alongside an accelerated rollout of spot market mechanisms and more integrated cross-regional trading.

Unified national power market: 2030 and 2035 milestones

The strategy outlines a phased buildout of a nationally unified electricity market, aiming for a largely established framework by 2030 and a more mature, fully integrated system by 2035, with unified rules, standards, and oversight designed to reduce regional market fragmentation.

At the core of the plan is increasing the share of electricity traded through market mechanisms to roughly 70% of total consumption by 2030. The intent is to expand transaction scale, improve market structure, and strengthen the market’s role in allocating resources across provinces and regions.

Spot markets by 2027: real-time pricing and system balancing

China plans to expand spot trading nationwide by 2027, lifting it from a small share of transactions today. Spot markets are positioned as the tool to improve real-time price discovery, reflect supply-demand conditions more accurately, and strengthen dispatch signals—especially valuable as variable renewables grow in the generation mix.

A central rationale is to overcome transmission constraints that limit renewable penetration. By expanding regional and interprovincial spot trading, the system can better move power from resource-rich regions to demand centers, easing congestion and improving overall efficiency.

Pricing reforms and buyer access: industrial users and spot procurement

The roadmap also aligns with relaxed controls over power pricing and broader access to market purchases for large industrial and commercial users, enabling them to procure electricity via spot markets from a wider range of sources, including renewables.

Official data cited in the reporting indicates power trade reached 6.6 trillion kWh in 2025, up 7% year-on-year, representing 64% of total electricity consumption—a high starting point that frames the 2030 target as an incremental but systemically meaningful step.