Accelerate the development of new quality productive forces, ensure energy security, and promote green transformation

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and is a crucial year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. Energy is an important material foundation and power source for economic and social development. This year's government work report has made new arrangements and put forward new requirements for the development of energy and electricity: "Strengthen the security guarantee of energy resources," "actively and steadily promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality," "deeply advance the energy revolution, control fossil energy consumption, and accelerate the construction of a new energy system"... Around these tasks and goals, representatives and committee members actively offer suggestions and discuss the high-quality development of the energy and electricity industry.

Strengthen the security guarantee of energy resources to serve high-quality development

In the first quarter of this year, enterprises accelerated resumption of work and production, major projects started one after another, and the holiday economy was booming... Various regions seized the opportunity at the beginning of the year, leveraging consumption and investment as key drivers for steady economic growth, striving for a "good start."

This year's government work report proposes focusing on expanding domestic demand and promoting a virtuous economic cycle. It integrates the strategy of expanding domestic demand with deepening supply-side structural reforms, better coordinating consumption and investment to enhance their pull on economic growth.

Consolidate and strengthen the positive trend of economic recovery, continuously promote qualitative effective improvement and reasonable quantitative growth of the economy. Representatives and committee members have put forward suggestions on energy supply security and energy infrastructure construction.

Energy projects are characterized by large investment scale, long industrial chains, and many workers, which can effectively drive the development of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain. Accelerating the construction of major energy projects not only helps enhance energy security capabilities but also drives investment, expands domestic demand, strengthens development momentum, and promotes stable economic growth.

Henan, which is in a rapid development stage of industrialization and new urbanization, has great potential for electricity demand growth and needs multiple measures to improve energy and electricity security capabilities. Gao Ke, a deputy to the National People's Congress and deputy station chief of the Xinxiang Substation Operation and Maintenance Station of Xinxiang Power Supply Company in Henan, suggests accelerating the construction of new external power entry channels into Henan and enhancing the transmission capacity of existing channels to introduce more electricity from outside the province.

As important infrastructure, the power grid plays a vital role in ensuring energy supply security and transforming energy advantages into economic advantages. By the end of 2023, the State Grid Corporation of China had completed 35 ultra-high voltage projects with a total line length exceeding 46,000 kilometers and cumulative power transmission exceeding 2.9 trillion kilowatt-hours, providing strong support for steady and long-term economic development.

In recent years, China has deeply implemented the regional coordinated development strategy, and the driving force for high-quality development continues to grow. The government work report mentions "improving the level of regional coordinated development." As regional coordinated development reaches new heights, regional energy supply security also requires new ideas and new models. Pan Yuping, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and president of the Taiwan Federation of Sichuan Province, calls for the country to explore a new cross-regional energy security allocation system, formulate a policy system for an energy security community, and support the Chengdu-Chongqing region in jointly building a green renewable energy utilization system dominated by hydropower.

Regarding strengthening safety capacity building in key areas, the government work report emphasizes strengthening the security guarantee of energy resources and increasing efforts in oil, gas, and strategic mineral resource exploration and development. From the perspective of legislative protection, Zhou Yunjie, a deputy to the National People's Congress and Party Secretary, Chairman of the Board, and CEO of Haier Group, proposed a motion to revise the "Energy Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft for Comments)." "Energy is the grain of industry and the lifeline of the national economy, relating to the national economy, people's livelihood, and national security." Zhou Yunjie suggests that the country take energy security as the main legislative line and basic value goal, accelerate the formulation and passage of the Energy Law, consolidate the value goals and legal system of energy security, and ensure national energy security.

To ensure the security of energy supply, a series of policy documents have been actively issued recently. On March 1, the "Guiding Opinions on High-Quality Development of Distribution Networks under the New Situation" was released, proposing that by 2025, distribution networks will have the capacity to connect about 500 million kilowatts of distributed new energy and about 12 million charging piles. On February 27, the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Peak Regulation Energy Storage and Intelligent Dispatching Capacity Construction of Power Grids," jointly issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, was officially released, proposing that by 2027, the power system's regulation capacity will be significantly improved, with pumped storage power stations reaching an operational scale of over 80 million kilowatts.