context: Energy transition is crucial for China's anti-pollution fight. However, as Zhang points out, obstacles remain. While the state is working hard to scale up renewable energy consumption, it also needs to address the risks posed by rising oil and gas dependency on foreign imports to domestic energy security. Meanwhile, fossil fuels will continue to dominate China's energy mix for a long time.
China still faces challenges in ensuring energy security, increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix, obtaining core technology, optimising energy market structures and continuing supply-side structural reforms, says Zhang Jianhua 章建华 National Energy Administration director, when discussing high-quality energy development with People's Daily. High-quality energy development should reconcile energy production growth with green development, as well as strike a balance between the government and markets, and between international and domestic energy development, adds Zhang.
He lists 2019 NEA's energy priorities
- scaling up market-based power trading
- standardising mid-and long-term power trading
- piloting power spot markets
- setting up power ancillary service markets
- enabling large-scale renewable participation in market-based power trading
- continuing incremental power distribution reform
- improving power transmission and distribution pricing mechanisms
- reforming oil and gas exploration regulatory mechanisms
- reforming oil and gas pipeline operation mechanisms
- partially resolved issues of renewable curtailment by 2020
- accelerating construction of peak power sources
- improving the flexibility of coal-fired power plants
- implementing renewable energy quota measures
- ensuring guaranteed purchase of renewable energy
- encouraging local consumption of renewable power
- strengthening crude oil legislation and supervision
- further improving the efficiency of the refining industry
- improving refining industry entry and exit mechanisms
- studying and drafting policies to eliminate backward refining capacity