Distributed power generation to grow in China as the State Grid Corporation encourage purchase

The State Grid Corporation of China, the country’s largest energy distributor, on Wednesday announced plans to facilitate the use of distributed power generation.

Households and individual companies will not only be allowed to use small-sized power generation stations to provide themselves with power, but will also be given permission to sell extra power to the State Grid, the company said.

Distributed power generation, also known as on-site generation, is usually done on a small scale near power consumers.

The State Grid will introduce more distributed generation fueled by solar energy, wind, natural gas, biomass energy, geothermal energy, oceanic energy and complex resources into its own network, according to a SGCC guideline.

Households and companies will be restricted to generating 6 megawatts of power each, according to the guideline.

The State Grid issued a guideline in Oct. 2012 to introduce more solar power-fueled distributed power generation.

By the end of 2012, the State Grid had connected 15,600 distributed power generation stations with a total installed capacity of 34.36 million kilowatts, including 23.76 million kilowatts fueled by hydropower.

By 2015, China will have 1,000 distributed generation projects fueled by natural gas, a solar power generative capacity of 10 million kilowatts and 100 cities that exhibit the effective use of renewable energy, according to the 12th Five-Year Plan on Energy Development (2011-2015) approved by the State Council in Oct. 2012.