NDRC: A new energy storage pricing mechanism will be established in the 14th Five-Year Plan

In order to thoroughly implement the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the arrangements of the "Outline" of the 14th Five-Year Plan, and to deepen the reform of the price mechanism in key areas during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the National Development and Reform Commission recently issued the "Notice on the Action Plan for Deepening Price Mechanism Reform during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan").

The Action Plan proposes that the deepening of price mechanism reform during the 14th Five-Year Plan period should be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, focusing on helping to achieve the goals of "carbon peak and carbon neutrality", promoting resource conservation and environmental protection, improving the quality of public service supply, better guaranteeing and improving people's livelihood, deepening price reform, improving price regulation mechanisms, and enhancing price governance capabilities. By 2025, prices in competitive fields and links will be mainly determined by the market, scientific pricing mechanisms for network-based natural monopolies will be fully established, energy and resource price formation mechanisms will be further improved, price regulation mechanisms for important livelihood commodities will be more sound, public service price policies will be basically improved, and a price policy system that meets the requirements of high-quality development will be basically established.

The Action Plan clearly states that the focus will be on strengthening price regulation and promoting price reforms in energy, water resources and public services:

First, strengthen and improve price control. Improve the monitoring, forecasting and early warning system for key commodities, strengthen price control of important livelihood commodities such as grain, oil, meat, eggs, vegetables, fruits and milk, adhere to and improve the minimum purchase price policy for rice and wheat, improve the target price policy for cotton, respond to price fluctuations of bulk commodities such as iron ore, copper and corn, put forward comprehensive control measures in a timely manner, and strengthen market expectation management.

· Second, we will deepen the reform of energy prices. We will continue to promote the reform of transmission and distribution prices, continue to deepen the market-oriented reform of on-grid electricity prices, improve the price formation mechanism for wind power, photovoltaic power generation, and pumped storage, and establish a new energy storage price mechanism; for high-energy-consuming and high-emission industries, we will improve green electricity price policies such as differentiated electricity prices and tiered electricity prices to promote energy conservation and carbon reduction; we will steadily advance the reform of oil and natural gas prices, adapt to the development direction of "one network across the country", and improve the price formation mechanism for natural gas pipeline transportation.

· Third, systematically promote water resource price reform. Innovate and improve the water supply price formation mechanism of water conservancy projects, deepen the comprehensive reform of agricultural water prices and urban water supply price reform; further improve the sewage treatment fee mechanism, increase the fee standard to a level that compensates for the cost of sewage treatment and sludge harmless disposal and is reasonably profitable, and establish a dynamic adjustment mechanism.

Fourth, accelerate the reform of public service prices. Improve the preschool education fee policy and standardize the fees for private education; establish and improve the elderly care service price mechanism and support the development of inclusive elderly care services; further improve the funeral service fee policy and standardize the fee collection behavior; improve the scenic spot ticket price formation mechanism and strengthen the price supervision of monopoly services in scenic spots; improve the price mechanism of public utilities such as water, electricity, gas, heating and garbage disposal.

The Action Plan emphasizes that we must grasp the timing and intensity of reform, fully study and demonstrate the social bearing capacity, improve supporting measures to ensure people's livelihood; insist on cost supervision as an important procedure for the government to formulate and adjust prices; improve the price legal system, and promote the mechanism and institutionalization of price management. At the same time, it requires all localities to formulate specific plans based on their actual conditions, solidly promote the price mechanism reform during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and ensure that all key tasks are implemented in place.