Notice of the National Energy Administration on Issuing the Administrative Measures for the Development and Construction of Distributed PV Power Generation

NEA New Energy Regulation [2025] No. 7

To: Energy authorities of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), relevant Development and Reform Commissions (including XPCC), NEA regional offices, State Grid Corporation of China, China Southern Power Grid, Inner Mongolia Power Group, relevant generation enterprises, Hydro & Hydropower Planning & Design Institute, Electric Power Planning & Design Institute, National Renewable Energy Information Management Center, National New Energy Consumption Monitoring & Early-Warning Center, China Photovoltaic Industry Association:

To regulate the development and construction of distributed PV power generation and promote its high-quality development in line with new circumstances and requirements, the National Energy Administration (NEA) has revised the Interim Measures for the Administration of Distributed PV Projects (NEA New Energy [2013] No. 433), and formulated the Administrative Measures for the Development and Construction of Distributed PV Power Generation (hereinafter the “Measures”). It is hereby issued to you for implementation.

National Energy Administration
January 17, 2025

Attachment: Administrative Measures for the Development and Construction of Distributed PV Power Generation
Policy Interpretation of the Administrative Measures for the Development and Construction of Distributed PV Power Generation

Administrative Measures for the Development and Construction of Distributed PV Power Generation

Chapter I  General Provisions

Article 1. These Measures are formulated pursuant to the Energy Law, the Renewable Energy Law, the Measures for Supervision of Fair and Open Grid Access, etc., to promote high-quality development of distributed PV and support a new-type power system.

Article 2. “Distributed PV power generation” refers to PV facilities developed on the user side, connected to the distribution network, and balanced/regulated locally within the distribution system in principle.

Article 3. All legally qualified electricity users, investors, professional ESCOs and natural persons are encouraged to invest in, develop, construct and operate distributed PV projects in accordance with laws and regulations.

Article 4. Categories: (1) Residential—natural person; (2) Residential—non-natural person; (3) General C&I; (4) Large C&I.

• Residential (natural person): built on self-owned dwellings/courtyards; PCC voltage ≤ 380 V.

• Residential (non-natural person): built by non-natural persons on residential buildings/courtyards; PCC voltage ≤ 10 kV (20 kV); total capacity ≤ 6 MW.

• General C&I: built on public facilities and C&I buildings; PCC voltage ≤ 10 kV (20 kV); capacity in principle ≤ 6 MW.

• Large C&I: built on buildings and auxiliaries, connected on user side or via dedicated line (not directly to public grid and user & investor are the same legal entity); PCC voltage 35 kV with capacity ≤ 20 MW, or PCC voltage 110 kV (66 kV) with capacity ≤ 50 MW.
  Buildings and auxiliary areas shall lie within the same land parcel (red line).

Article 5. On-grid modes: full feed-in, self-consumption, or self-consumption with surplus feed-in.

• Residential (natural or non-natural person): any of the three.

• General C&I: self-consumption or self-consumption with surplus feed-in (self-use ratio set by provincial energy authority).

• Large C&I: in principle self-consumption; in continuously operating power spot markets, may adopt self-consumption with surplus feed-in to participate in the market.
  If self-consumption is involved, user and project must be within the same land parcel.

Article 6. Localities shall optimize the business environment and maintain fair competition. Investors shall consider grid hosting/consumption capability and develop in a standardized manner.

Article 7. NEA oversees national industry administration. Provincial energy authorities manage within jurisdictions under NEA guidance. NEA regional offices supervise policy implementation, fair access, consumption, market trading and settlement. Grid companies fulfill access conditions, grid connection/upgrade, dispatch optimization, and energy purchase, and assist in carrying capacity assessment and enhancement plans. Provinces organize safety supervision per laws and regulations.

Chapter II  Industry Administration

Article 8. NEA promotes multi-scenario application of distributed PV (buildings, transport, industry), strengthens whole-process monitoring, standardizes order, improves policies and standards in time.

Article 9. Provincial energy authorities align distributed PV with overall energy/power/renewable planning, balance centralized PV and distributed PV, guide sizing by local supply-demand, consumption conditions, grid hosting capacity, and utilization, and steer grid upgrades/investment plans.

Article 10. County-level authorities shall advance local development and respect building owners’ will. Localities shall not monopolize rooftops via franchise, not restrict eligible investors’ equal participation, not impose forced industrial matching or deposits, etc. Use of farmers’ dwellings requires consent and protection of rights; forced leasing is prohibited.

Chapter III  Project Filing (Recordation)

Article 11. Distributed PV projects implement record-filing. Provinces shall specify filing authorities and publish service guides and requirements; authorities shall not add extra document requirements or erect de facto entry barriers.

Article 12. Filing follows “who invests, who files”.

• Residential (natural person): may be centrally filed by grid company as agent, or self-filed.

• Residential (non-natural person), General C&I, Large C&I: filed by the investor.
  Projects invested by non-natural persons shall not be filed under a natural person’s name. Those already filed before issuance may keep the original filing type, but the investor shall inform the filing authority and grid company of O&M responsibility and legal liability.
  For C&I projects built on non-self-owned sites, the investor still files and may choose on-grid mode as per Article 5.

Article 13. Filing info includes: project name, investor, location, type, size, on-grid mode, etc. Project capacity is AC-side capacity (sum of inverter rated outputs). Investor is responsible for authenticity and legality.

Article 14. Non-natural person residential projects may be filed in aggregate but connected separately if the same investor, same filing authority, and each sub-project site/size/scope is clear.
Within one land parcel, C&I projects developed in phases/by different investors shall not add new PCCs to the public grid.

Article 15. Projects shall be built per filed info; major changes (legal entity, site/size/scope, or abandonment) shall be updated with the filing authority in time. Large C&I projects may be adjusted to centralized PV when user load changes greatly (method decided by province with grid company). Local authorities may clean up projects lacking conditions.

Article 16. Provinces shall carry out project archiving & coding on the national renewable information platform. Each project completes archiving within one month after commissioning.

• Residential (natural person): grid company fills and submits information in principle.

• Others: investor fills; grid company submits related info.
  Each project receives a system-generated unique ID for full-lifecycle management.

Chapter IV  Construction Management

Article 17. Investor shall conduct siting and submit grid-connection application; construction may start only after obtaining grid company’s access opinion. Sites must be lawful with clear property rights.

Article 18. For non-self-owned sites, sign use/lease agreements with owners; may sign ESCO contracts with users onsite. For non-natural person residential projects, contracts with natural persons shall ensure balanced rights/obligations, prohibit unfair transfer of responsibilities and fraudulent inducement. NEA will issue a standard contract template.

Article 19. Projects shall comply with spatial planning; rationally arrange module orientation/tilt/height; for buildings, meet structure/fire/waterproof/wind/snow/lightning requirements and reserve O&M space. BIPV is encouraged.

Article 20. For new buildings, consider PV installation at design/construction stages and handle permits together. For existing buildings, certain procedures (land pre-examination, planning permits, energy-saving assessment) may be exempted under compliant conditions, following simple & efficient principles.

Article 21. Parties engaged in design/construction/installation/commissioning shall meet qualification requirements and comply with equipment, construction, and safety standards; acceptance must be properly conducted.

Chapter V  Grid Connection

Article 22. Grid companies shall establish differentiated access procedures, disclose open capacity and standards, offer one-stop services, and publish typical access design schemes.

Article 23. Provinces organize assessments of distribution-grid hosting capacity and enhancement measures, and build a quarterly publication and early-warning mechanism for open capacity by county or other unit. NEA regional offices supervise. When filed projects have conditions but no open capacity, the province organizes system studies and formulates comprehensive solutions.

Article 24. Grid companies shall provide non-discriminatory access and shall not: unjustifiably refuse or delay access; refuse to provide necessary info (access point, available capacity, feeder mode, bays, etc.); impose technical requirements higher than national/industry standards; charge unreasonable fees; or otherwise violate fair and open access.

Article 25. Applicants shall submit letter of intent for connection, investor qualification, site ownership proof, and filing info; non-residential types also submit preliminary progress.

Article 26. Within 2 working days of receiving the intent letter, grid companies issue written acceptance or reasons for non-acceptance/one-time supplement notice; otherwise deemed accepted. Access opinions shall be based on hosting-capacity assessment; if capacity is insufficient, register by application order and process promptly when conditions permit.

Article 27. Investors select access scheme reasonably.

• Residential (natural person): grid companies provide access schemes free of charge.

• Others: conduct access-system design; centralized combiner access is encouraged for non-natural person residential. Grid companies provide necessary grid data once and in time (subject to information security rules).

Article 28. After access design is completed, investors submit the access design report; grid companies respond in 2 working days with acceptance/non-acceptance.
Written opinions shall be issued within: 20 working days for 110 kV (66 kV) access; 10 working days for ≤35 kV access.

Article 29. For projects connected to the public grid, the access project and public-grid upgrades due to access are invested and built by the grid company. For user-side access, user-side facilities are invested by the project investor, while public-grid upgrades due to access are by the grid company. New projects shall be visible, measurable, controllable and adjustable; grid companies measure total generation and feed-in separately and install meters free of charge.
For centralized combiner access, the grid company provides the PCC; combiner and connection auxiliaries are in principle invested and operated by the project investor.

Article 30. For full feed-in or surplus feed-in projects, power purchase/sale contracts shall be signed before COD; all projects shall sign the Grid Dispatching Agreement (using the model texts where applicable). Distributed PV is exempt from power business licenses per regulations.

Article 31. Capacity ratio (DC/AC) shall be determined scientifically; AC capacity ≤ filed capacity. Grid-related equipment shall meet national/industry standards and be certified by recognized institutions—no repeated testing required. After completion, grid companies review main equipment test reports and conduct grid-connection inspection; qualified projects are commissioned.

Chapter VI  Operation Management

Article 32. The investor is the principal entity for work safety, and shall strengthen safety management throughout construction and operation. Regulators shall coordinate per responsibilities.

Article 33. Grid companies and dispatching centers shall strengthen active-distribution-network planning/design/operation, clarify the requirements for being visible, measurable, controllable and adjustable, and establish appropriate dispatch mechanisms. For stock projects with conditions, parties shall invest in upgrades to enhance digitalization/intelligence to meet the above requirements.

Article 34. Distributed PV may participate in dispatching independently or via micro-grids, integrated source-grid-load-storage, or virtual power plants. Dispatching shall be open, fair and just. For dedicated-line supply between project and user, both sides shall bear T&D tariffs, system charges, and government funds/surcharges per rules.

Article 35. After COD, investors may self-operate O&M or entrust professional firms. Parties shall comply with dispatching operation, cybersecurity and data-security requirements. Remote control shall only be via authorized platforms per dispatch relations; no unauthorized external control interfaces. If changing the on-grid mode once per Article 5, file the change and inform the authority; grid company assists in access adjustment and new agreements are signed.

Article 36. Archived projects receive Green Certificates for all generation, with tradable certificates issued for feed-in electricity. Investors may participate in GC trading per rules.

Article 37. NEA conducts project information monitoring via national platforms. Local authorities urge investors and grid companies to timely report/update project info; grid companies perform categorized statistics and monitoring per Article 4.

Article 38. Provinces organize grid companies to quarterly publish distributed PV grid-connection and consumption by county, carry out forecasting and guide rational investment. Issues raised by stakeholders shall be coordinated and rectified in time. Provinces and grid companies monitor/evaluate self-consumption ratios for C&I projects adopting surplus feed-in.

Article 39. Retrofits and upgrades using advanced, efficient and safe technologies are encouraged. Equipment removal, recycling and reuse shall comply with resource utilization, environmental and safety laws and must not cause pollution or accidents.

Article 40. Provinces may, together with NEA regional offices, formulate implementation rules suited to local conditions.

Chapter VII  Supplementary Provisions

Article 41. Local authorities may, as appropriate, manage off-grid distributed PV by reference to these Measures.

Article 42. The NEA is responsible for the interpretation of these Measures.

Article 43. Effective from the date of issuance for five years. The 2013 Interim Measures are repealed simultaneously. Projects filed before the issuance and commissioned before May 1, 2025 shall continue to be governed by the original policies.

Policy Interpretation (Summary)

Background. Since the 2013 Interim Measures, distributed PV has expanded dramatically. By end-2024, cumulative distributed PV capacity reached 370 GW (≈121× 2013), 42% of total PV and 11% of national total capacity; 2024 additions were 120 GW, 43% of PV additions; generation was 346.2 TWh (41% of PV). PV module prices fell from ~¥5/W (2013) to ~¥0.7/W, and the sector has fully entered a parity, subsidy-free, market-oriented stage. Meanwhile, access and consumption have become the key constraints; and issues such as filing under natural-person names and infringements on farmers’ rights need correction.

Guiding principles. Combine support with standardization; uphold local consumption essence of distributed PV; protect users—especially farmers; focus on problem-solving (definitions, categories, on-grid modes, hosting capacity); and adopt differentiated management for operability.

Main contents. The Measures (7 chapters, 43 articles) define distributed PV (user-side, distribution access, local balancing), classify into four types (residential—natural/non-natural, general C&I, large C&I), set three on-grid modes, clarify multi-level responsibilities (NEA, provinces, counties, grid companies, investors), and regulate the full life cycle: filing → construction → grid access → operation.

Key clarifications.

• New vs. existing projects: Non-natural person-invested projects may not file under natural-person names; projects filed earlier and commissioned by May 1, 2025 remain under original policy.

• Large C&I on-grid mode: In continuous spot markets, may adopt self-consumption with surplus feed-in to respond to price signals; projects may be adjusted to centralized PV when loads change greatly.

• Agro-PV/Fishery-PV/Small ground-mounted: Managed as centralized PV plants due to characteristics and land issues; provinces may prioritize small-scale ones in annual plans and simplify procedures.