Recently, the China Electric Vehicle 100 People’s Forum (2025) was grandly held in Beijing, focusing on the theme of "Strengthening Electrification, Advancing Intelligence, Achieving High-Quality Development." At the forum, Yao Qiang, Chief Expert of the China Electricity Council (CEC), delivered a speech titled Exploration of Concepts, Goals, and Pathways for the New Power System, sharing profound insights and valuable experiences.
Yao Qiang believes that the new power system is a key pillar for achieving the dual carbon goals. Carbon neutrality, as the core of the dual carbon goals, remains challenging globally, yet efforts to meet the Paris Agreement persist. Development remains imperative—this principle must be upheld by both the world and the Chinese nation. China’s leading advantages in new energy vehicles extend beyond vehicles themselves to upstream and downstream industrial chains. This leadership injects strong momentum into energy transition, serving as a critical driver for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the Party’s second centenary goal. Globally, new energy industrial chains and AI/digital industrial chains have become two pivotal competitive arenas, exerting transformative impacts on economic and social development.
Energy security is an unavoidable critical issue in energy development, encompassing strategic, conventional, and operational security. Historically, China’s energy strategic security faced challenges due to oil and gas shortages; today, operational security is also threatened by wars, natural disasters, and similar factors. Against this backdrop, building a new power system centered on renewables becomes imperative. However, despite rapid renewable energy growth, contradictions are emerging. While policies strongly encourage renewable energy deployment, real-world challenges grow sharper: centralized, distributed, and desert/Gobi/barren area renewable projects all face severe hurdles, and a logically coherent technical framework for the new power system remains unformed.
Yao Qiang highly praised China’s existing power system as the world’s largest, most complex, highly intelligent, and reliable human-engineered system. However, he noted its current incompatibility with renewable energy development—a contradiction urgently requiring resolution.
Distributed energy forms the foundation of the new energy system, with distributed smart power systems serving as its bedrock. Building distributed energy systems at the county level holds significant practical importance. In constructing such systems, emphasis must be placed on integrated source-network-load-storage multi-energy collaboration. Isolated grids should be avoided, as they are technically feasible but economically inefficient, conflicting with scalable development trends. Currently, megawatt-level charging stations impose immense strain on power systems—how to build compatible grid infrastructure remains a critical challenge for new energy vehicle development.
In practical exploration, Lankao’s energy revolution has achieved partial success, with wind and solar power generation covering total societal electricity consumption. Yet institutional, mechanisms, and technical issues persist, limiting replicability of its success. State Grid’s Hubei Guangshui pilot demonstrates that 100% renewable-powered core supply areas are technically feasible. Haining actively builds a new power system pioneer county, collaborating with Xi’an Jiaotong University to establish a research institute, aiming to translate new power system technologies into industrial applications.
The ultimate goal of building a new power system is integrated source-network-load-storage unity. Power grids should leverage distributed systems to break traditional source-network separation models, expand industrial scale, and unlock the vast potential of charging infrastructure. Simultaneously, mechanisms and technical systems must be reformed, utilizing AI large models to clarify system boundaries. The new power system shares control logic similarities with autonomous driving—both require real-time decision-making in uncertain environments. In building the new power system and integrating green energy with new energy vehicles, minimizing societal costs must remain a guiding principle.
Constructing a new power system is a complex and arduous task, demanding collaborative efforts from governments, enterprises, research institutions, and society. We must actively explore innovation to drive continuous progress in new power system development, laying a solid foundation for China’s sustainable energy future.