Yesterday, the National Energy Administration and the National Development and Reform Commission issued a policy on non-subsidized projects, which aroused intense discussion. After all, everyone has been looking forward to it for so long, and the country has finally issued a photovoltaic policy.

After the policy was issued, everyone felt more desperate. Does this mean no subsidies? Today, the National Energy Administration also gave an official interpretation.

1. Projects that have been connected to the grid are not affected by the new policy

Someone consulted Fu Meier and said that yesterday's policy mentioned that the power company and the photovoltaic power generation unit signed a long-term fixed-price purchase and sale contract for no less than 20 years. Can we sign it with the power bureau now?

There is a policy stating that household photovoltaic projects are for 20 years (as shown below, from the policy "Notice on Playing the Role of Price Leverage to Promote the Healthy Development of the Photovoltaic Industry (Development and Reform Price [2013] No. 1638)"), but the power grid company renews it every 3 or 5 years, and some areas even renew it every 1 year.

2. Will there be subsidies for installing photovoltaics after that?

Official interpretation 1:

After the release of the "Notice", will all new wind power and photovoltaic power generation projects no longer enjoy national subsidies?

Promoting parity (low-price) grid-connected projects does not mean that subsidies will be immediately cancelled for all new wind power and photovoltaic power generation projects. At this stage, non-subsidized parity (low-price) grid-connected projects are mainly carried out in areas with superior resource conditions and guaranteed consumption markets. At the same time, in areas where non-subsidized parity grid-connected projects cannot be achieved at present, they will continue to be organized and constructed in accordance with the policies and management requirements of competitive allocation projects issued by the National Energy Administration, but these projects will also significantly reduce the electricity price level through competition to reduce the intensity of subsidies per kilowatt-hour. In addition, the "Notice" clearly states that the energy authorities of local governments at all levels may, together with other relevant departments, issue local subsidy policies for a certain period of time, and projects that only enjoy local subsidy policies are still considered parity grid-connected projects.

Moreover, yesterday's policy clearly stated that it was "to carry out parity grid-connected projects and low-price grid-connected pilot projects." Fu Meier speculated that it should be large-scale ground power station projects or large-scale distributed projects.

The companies in the notice, except for the power grid company, are all large energy groups, and they should be responsible for the design and construction of wind power and photovoltaic projects.

1) The policy mentions land issues

Land issues are generally related to large ground power stations, such as barren mountains and coal-sinking areas.

2) Full access to the grid, priority electricity sales, large quantities are required

If it is full access to the grid, and green certificate trading and electricity market trading are carried out, large quantities are required. If it is for household use, like the previous case, many households need to be bundled together.

Of course, it is not ruled out that major companies will launch new business models and do non-subsidized projects for households, such as renting to owners.

3. Can household photovoltaic power stations participate in electricity trading?

Official interpretation 2:

How to ensure full purchase of electricity from non-subsidized parity projects?

For centralized parity projects, it is clear that the power grid companies will guarantee the power consumption. In principle, the power sales of the power grid companies will guarantee the consumption of parity (low-price) grid-connected projects. Centralized parity (low-price) projects do not participate in electricity market trading, and the power grid companies’ self-operated power sales guarantee consumption.

Distributed direct trading is a special type of power trading. The project unit and the power user directly reach a power transaction, which is carried out under the condition that the distributed power source standards are strictly verified and the power is consumed nearby in the distribution network area where the grid connection point is located. The power access, transmission and consumption of distributed wind power and photovoltaic power generation are still guaranteed by the grid companies playing the role of the grid public platform.

As early as 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Notice on the Pilot of Market-based Trading of Distributed Power Generation" (Development and Reform Energy [2017] No. 1901), allowing distributed power to participate in power trading.

However, it is clear that projects participating in power trading must meet the following conditions:

1) The single unit capacity does not exceed 20MW, and the grid connection voltage level is 35KV and below;

2) The single unit capacity is between 20~50MW, the grid connection voltage level does not exceed 110KV, and the nearby consumption is achieved within the voltage level range.

4. Household subsidy policy, you need to wait patiently

The country will not give 19 photovoltaic construction indicators, so the household subsidy policy will be released later. Please wait patiently.

For enterprises that want to do non-subsidized projects, it should be noted that the policy released yesterday is valid until the end of 2020, that is, the window period is only two years. Only projects within these two years can enjoy the above series of support measures. Perhaps two years later, there will be a large number of wind power and photovoltaic projects with parity access to the grid, and the above special support will no longer be given at that time.