The Department of General Affairs of the National Energy Administration ("NEA") has recently released the Circular of the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration on Operating the Renewable Energy-generated Power Quota System (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") to seek another round of public opinions by November 21, 2018.
The Draft for Comment clarifies 13 matters, including the setting of renewable energy quotas for electric power consumption, the determination of quotas based on the provincial administrative region, responsibilities of each provincial-level government for fulfilling quotas, and fulfilling quotas obligations by power sale enterprises and power consumers coordinatively. According to the Draft for Comment, renewable energy-generated power quotas are provincial-administrative-region-based indicators measuring the proportion of renewable energy involved in the power consumed within the local provincial administrative region, and are classified into the quota on the total amount of power generated from renewable energy and the quota on the amount of power generated from renewable energy excluding hydropower. The minimum weight of renewable energy that shall be fulfilled by each provincial administrative region is an obligatory indicator, and an incentive indicator will be established to be 10 percent higher than the obligatory indicator.