Design of Hydropower Dominated Provincial Electricity Spot Markets in China

In the new round of China's electricity reform, the construction of electricity spot market will be fully implemented. However, the electricity market of some provinces is dominated by cascade hydropower, resulting in significant differences with those electricity markets in the United States and Europe. A provincial electricity spot market mechanism dominated by hydropower is designed accordingly. Firstly, based on the major market models abroad, the similarities and differences of Brazil and Norway hydropower dominated market models are analyzed in terms of electricity market reform, market trading mechanism and trans-regional resource allocation. Secondly, we analyzed the benefits brought by centralized market model to the operation safety, hydropower allocation optimization and connection with the current scheduling system. Moreover, it points out that the future electricity market should follow the model of “centralized spot market + medium and long-term difference contract”. The development of China's electricity spot market featuring a high proportion of hydropower is predicted according to three stages. Finally, the key technical requirements faced by future hydropower dominated electricity market construction are summarized.