Recently, five authorities, including the National Development and Reform Commission ("NDRC"), have issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Energy Storage Technologies and Industry (the "Opinions").
The Opinions state that relevant work will proceed through two phases in the forthcoming decade. In the first phase, energy storage will undergo a transition from the demonstration of research and development to the initial stage of commercialization; in the next phase, it will evolve from the preliminary commercialization towards the scaled development. Further, the Opinions ascertain five major tasks, including "driving ahead the demonstration of research and development of energy storage technologies and equipment", "promoting the application demonstration of boosting the use of renewable energy sources with the help of energy storage" and "advancing the application demonstration of enhancing the flexibility and stability of the electric system with the aid of energy storage". Moreover, the Opinions specify that power grid enterprises should treat the station consortium for energy storage and renewable energy sources as a special "power plant", and ink the grid-connection dispatching agreement and the power purchase agreement under the guidance of the government. All independent energy storage projects should be subject to the record-filing system, unless otherwise stipulated in the Catalog of Investment Projects Subject to the Approval of the Government.