"Power Supply Business Rules" in response to the requirements of the new era

North China electric power University

Wang Xuemian

Interpretation of the new "Power Supply Business Rules":

The National Development and Reform Commission issued the revised Power supply Business rules (hereinafter referred to as the new supply rules) on February 20, 2024, which will come into effect on June 1, 2024, and the original Power supply Business rules (hereinafter referred to as "supply regulations") shall be abolished at the same time. The original "supply regulations", as a departmental rule matching with the regulations on Power supply and use of the Electric Power Law, was issued by the former Ministry of Electric Power Industry on October 8, 1996 and came into effect on the same day, with a total of 10 chapters and 107 articles. It is mainly used to standardize power supply business activities, including power supply mode, new installation, capacity increase and change, construction and maintenance management of power receiving facilities, power supply quality and safety power supply, electricity metering and electricity charge calculation, power supply contract and liability for breach of contract, the main body involved are power supply enterprises and users. Since the promulgation and implementation of 28 years, the regulations of this department have played an important role in guiding the activities of power supply and consumption. However, with China's economic and social development and the changes of the business environment and the rule of law environment, there are some inconsistencies with social practice, so it is necessary to revise them. Compared with the original "supply regulations", the revised new "supply regulations" mainly have the following features.

01 Actively respond to power system reform

In 1996, when the original "supply regulations" was promulgated and came into force, China's power industry was still under the management system of vertical integration of generation, transmission and distribution. In 2002, the State Council issued the Circular on Printing and issuing the Reform Plan of Electric Power system (Guofa (2002) No. 5) to promote "separation of power plants from power grids and competitive bidding". In 2015, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued some opinions on further deepening the Reform of Electric Power system (Zhongfa (2015) No. 9), which further pushed forward the reform of electric power system, requiring "opening up both ends and controlling the middle". Great changes have taken place in China's electric power system, gradually moving from a planned system to a market-oriented one, and many of these reforms involve the supply and use of electricity. As a result, many of the provisions in the original "supply regulations" can no longer be applied. For example, Article 20 of the original "supply regulations" stipulates that "after the power supply plan is determined, the newly installed and increased power supply project fee (hereinafter referred to as the power supply fee) shall be paid to the power supply enterprise in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state." the power industry is a capital-intensive industry, under the circumstances that there are not many users at the initial stage of construction and the construction fund is under great pressure. It is quite necessary to raise funds for the construction of the power system by letting users pay part of the fees for the power supply project. later, with the establishment of China's market economy and the continuous development of the power industry, the capital construction has been initially completed, and it is no longer necessary to retain the system. In 2002, the State Planning Commission and the State Economic and Trade Commission abolished the system through the Circular on issues related to stopping the Collection of electricity supply (Distribution) Project fees (Price (2002) No. 8). For another example, the power supply enterprise stipulated in Article 82 shall calculate the electricity charge according to the electricity price approved by the state, calculate the electricity charge according to the records of the electricity metering device, collect or notify the user to pay the electricity charge on time, and the electricity charge stipulated in Article 95 shall be calculated according to the catalogue unit price prescribed by the state. After the reform of the power system, the electricity price has undergone major changes, except that the residential electricity consumption is still applicable to the catalogue electricity price set by the government. Other electricity prices are set by the market, so the new "supply regulations" will delete the "state-approved electricity price".

02 Actively respond to progress in power technology

When the original "Supply Regulations" were promulgated, some power technologies had not yet appeared. For example, electric energy metering devices did not have the function of remote data transmission. They relied entirely on manual meter reading, and could only use electricity first and then charge. Nowadays, smart energy metering devices are becoming more and more popular, and prepayment is feasible. For another example, some high-voltage users have self-contained transformers in their complete sets of equipment. Whether it can be used as a billing transformer is a question that needs to be answered.