High Penetration Renewable Energy System Planning and Operations

As China’s power systems undergo a dual transition driven by high renewable penetration and market-oriented reforms, the trade-off between physical grid security and economic efficiency has escalated into a strict 'energy trilemma' - where system reliability, economic viability, and environmental sustainability (high renewable penetration) form inherently competing objectives. The inherent volatility of renewable energy continuously reduces system security margins, necessitating upgraded operational paradigms and enhanced system flexibility to maintain stability. Concurrently, conventional market mechanisms fail to accurately price and incentivize the true systemic value of critical regulating resources, such as energy storage.

To address this issue, China has accelerated the development of its national electricity market, prioritizing market mechanism design and technological R&D for flexible regulating resources. Systemic efforts are currently focused on unlocking the regulating potential of distributed energy resources via virtual power plants (VPPs), alongside advancing proactive planning paradigms for large-scale interconnected grids with high penetrations of Inverter-Based Resources (IBR). Collectively, these initiatives are forging a security-economy synergistic framework, effectively monetizing systemic flexibility and ensuring a safe, long-term operational transition.

Speaker: Haiwang Zhong, Tsinghua University