The shareholding reform of power trading center is accelerated

Recently, the "Beijing Power Exchange Co., Ltd. Capital Increase Project" was officially disclosed at the Beijing Equity Exchange. After the capital increase is completed, the original shareholder State Grid Corporation of China will hold approximately 70% of the shares, and the new investors introduced through the public capital increase will hold a total of less than 30% of the shares.

As early as 2015, Document No. 9 of the State Council clearly stated that a relatively independent and standardized power trading institution should be established, and the supporting document "Implementation Opinions on the Establishment and Standardized Operation of Power Trading Institutions" was issued. So far, a total of 34 power trading centers have been established across the country, of which Beijing Power Trading Center and Guangzhou Power Trading Center are national-level trading institutions.

So far, a total of 9 power trading centers have completed the shareholding reform. With the approval of the shareholding plan of Beijing Power Trading Center by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, the shareholding reform of power trading centers will be expanded and accelerated.

Less than one-third of equity reform has been completed

The power trading center is mainly responsible for the construction, operation and management of the market trading platform, providing settlement basis and related services, including market entity registration and corresponding management, disclosure and release of market information, etc. The power trading center is not for profit, and provides standardized, open and transparent services to market entities under government supervision.

Last September, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration issued the "Notice on Promoting the Standardized Construction of Electricity Trading Institutions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), stating that electricity trading institutions should reflect multi-party representation, shareholders should come from various types of trading entities, and the capital shareholding ratio of non-grid enterprises should not be less than 20%. It is encouraged to improve the equity structure in accordance with the capital shareholding of non-grid enterprises of about 50%.

At the same time, the "Notice" makes it clear that only the Guangzhou Power Exchange and nine power trading centers in Shanxi, Hubei, Chongqing, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hainan are joint-stock companies, while other power trading centers are still wholly-owned subsidiaries of power grid companies, and have not yet achieved relative independence and standardized operation of power trading institutions.

According to the reporter's statistics, Shanxi, Hubei and Chongqing are under the operation scope of the State Grid, and the remaining six are all under the scope of the Southern Grid. In other words, all power trading centers within the Southern Grid have completed the shareholding system transformation. In addition, shareholders come from various trading entities in the power market, including power generation companies, power sales companies, power users, etc. in addition to power grid companies.

In addition to the substantive actions of the Beijing Power Exchange, the Xinjiang Power Exchange also released a shareholding reform plan in February this year. In addition, according to industry insiders, the shareholding reform implementation plans of other provincial power trading institutions such as Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Ningxia have also been formally submitted to the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration, and are preparing a capital increase plan to be submitted to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council for approval. The progress of the shareholding reform of power trading centers is expected to accelerate.

Breaking the absolute control of the power grid

Peng Peng, director of the policy research department of the Renewable Energy Committee of the China Circular Economy Association, previously stated publicly that the diversity of shareholders can make the trading center more neutral in the future, or in other words, it can consider the interests of more participants when formulating trading rules.

"Only when the shareholding ratios of multiple parties are relatively balanced can the formulation of policy rules be relatively fair. When one party has absolute control, the regulatory authorities may have to spend a lot of effort on supervision," said the above expert.

The Notice also requires that the market management committee be composed of power grid companies, power generation companies, power sales companies, power users, etc. Power trading institutions that have not yet established a market management committee should do so as soon as possible. Power trading institutions that have already established a market management committee should further standardize the relevant working mechanisms such as the selection of the director of the market management committee, the composition of members, the functional positioning, and the rules of procedure to protect the legitimate rights and interests of market entities.

However, at present, one party has absolute control, and the balance of interests is still tilted. An unnamed electricity sales company manager told reporters that the power grid has absolute control, user power data is updated slowly, the main topology map of the power grid is not public, and transaction results such as the details of shared costs are not clear. Without this data, it is difficult for everyone to analyze the market and improve strategies.

“Overall, the functions of the trading system are still being updated, and some data are gradually increasing, but the key data interface is still not public. This interface can import transaction-related data from the trading system into the user's decision-making support system. Of course, these data are said to be public, but there is a lack of data at present. Many strategies such as simulation and trial settlement are blind guesses, and there is no way to start the review.”

There is still a gap to independent operation

According to the reporter's statistics, among the nine power trading centers that have completed the shareholding reform or announced the reform plan, the power grid enterprises in Kunming Power Trading Center hold the least shares, accounting for 50%, while the shareholding ratios of power grid enterprises in other provinces range from 66.7% to 80%.

Some industry insiders have doubts that after the shareholding reform, the power trading center, according to the relevant provisions of the Company Law, the power grid company still has absolute control. Originally, it was a three-party transaction between the power generation side, the power grid side and the user side. At present, the power grid company is responsible for the entire trading platform. In other words, how big is the actual difference between athletes who compete together and also serve as referees?

"It is not critical who holds more or less equity in the power trading center. A mature and complete power trading center is an enterprise directly led by the government. It is responsible for its own profits and losses, and market players do not participate in the shares. The trading center only provides services as a platform." The above expert said.

The existing restructuring results basically meet the requirements of "relative independence" in terms of equity, but there is still a certain gap from the new requirements of "independent and standardized operation".

Zhan Shuguang, a lawyer at Beijing Xinnuo Law Firm, believes that personnel independence and the independence of personnel appointment and removal are the core contents of the independence of trading institutions. "The personnel of trading institutions are separated from their original units and establish a formal labor relationship with the trading institutions; the senior executives of trading institutions are no longer appointed by their original units or the largest shareholders, but are appointed by the government and are responsible to the government."

"In addition, on the basis of independence, the focus should be on 'standardized operation', including establishing standards, implementing standards, operating standards, evaluating standards and other aspects of work, so that power trading institutions can become important organizers, promoters and implementers of power market construction. Only with true independence can the power trading center play a greater role in the power market." Zhan Shuguang said.