CHANGZHOU, China, Jan. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Since the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the total social electricity consumption in Changzhou has steadily increased, rising from 58.84 billion kWh in 2021 to 70.28 billion kWh in 2025. Electricity load exceeding 10 million kilowatts has become the norm; in 2025, it set a historical record seven times, with the highest reaching 12.49 million kilowatts. The continuous growth in electricity demand not only highlights the severe challenge of ensuring power supply but also puts forward higher requirements for the efficient utilization of energy across society.
Based on local policy, location, and resource advantages, State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company has taken ensuring the safe and reliable supply of electricity as the foundation, deepening the development of load-side resources and promoting green development as the main line, and constructing intelligent microgrids as the core grasp. It has proactively acted and made precise efforts to explore a high-quality energy development path led by policies, empowered by scenarios, and driven by mechanism innovation. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, from legislative protection to government-enterprise collaboration, from the implementation of diverse scenarios to the aggregation of virtual power plants, intelligent microgrids in Changzhou have successfully achieved a leapfrog development from conceptual conception to comprehensive urban-rural practice, injecting strong impetus into the cultivation of new energy formats.
Policy Foundation + Government-Enterprise Synergy: Building a “Strong Support” for Microgrid Development
The “policy spring breeze” of prioritizing legislation has injected vigorous vitality into the development of microgrids. In April 2024, driven by State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company, the Regulations of Changzhou City on Promoting the New Energy Industry, the first special regulation for promoting the new energy industry in China, was officially issued. This regulation constructs an ecological system for the development of the new energy industry through legislation, explicitly encouraging the promotion of industrial green microgrids and integrated photovoltaic-storage-charging construction, providing a solid legal guarantee for the development of microgrids.
In the same year, the first municipal and regional-level microgrid support policies in Jiangsu Province were successively implemented in Changzhou, systematically planning the construction tasks of each county (district). In 2025, the Three-Year Action Plan for Accelerating the Construction of a New Energy System in Changzhou (2025-2027) was released, clarifying the goal of completing 300 microgrid projects by the end of 2027 and delineating a “timeline” and “roadmap” for industrial development. The 15th Five-Year Plan for Microgrids and Charging-Swapping Infrastructure Development in Changzhou, in which State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company participated in drafting in depth, further optimized goal settings from the dimensions of development scale, technical functions, and comprehensive benefits, depicting a long-term development blueprint for the microgrid industry.
In addition to policy guidance, the government-enterprise collaboration mechanism has built a “solid foundation” for microgrid development. State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company has established a regular consultation “discussion platform”, relying on carriers such as the Office of the Leading Group for the Construction of a New Energy Capital and the Microgrid Industry Chain Hub Platform to regularly assess development strategies and achieve precise alignment between policies and market demands. On March 28, 2025, driven by State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company, the Jiangsu Microgrid Industry Chain Matching Conference and Changzhou Microgrid City Construction Promotion Conference were successfully held. At the conference, the Changzhou Municipal Government and State Grid Jiangsu Electric Power signed the Cooperation Agreement on Jointly Building a Model Microgrid City. The two parties will deepen cooperation around building a benchmark model microgrid city and empowering the green development of the new energy industry, providing replicable and promotable experiences for microgrid construction nationwide.
At the industrial chain collaboration level, the “Changzhou New Type Intelligent Microgrid Development Alliance” composed of enterprises, universities, and research institutes has continuously exerted its effectiveness. Alliance members actively participate in a series of thematic salons led by State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company, such as “Development Opportunities and Challenges of Microgrids Under the Background of New Policy Implementation” and “Promoting the Integration of New Power Equipment Enterprises and Microgrid Project Construction Supply and Demand”, promoting in-depth integration of industry, academia, research, and application, and building a vibrant “energy industry ecosystem”.
Scenario Empowerment + Innovation Drive: Activating “New Vitality” for Microgrid Applications
During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, the application scenarios of microgrids in Changzhou have continuously innovated and expanded, from individual vehicles and single buildings to industrial plants and industrial parks, achieving comprehensive coverage of “taking points to drive areas and connecting beads into chains”. In October 2025, the near-zero-carbon station-grid interactive microgrid in Nanshan Bamboo Sea, Liyang, was officially put into operation. Adopting the “photovoltaic-storage-charging-load” collaborative model, this project not only effectively solves the problem of difficult charging during the tourist peak season but also realizes full coverage of green electricity charging in the Nanshan Bamboo Sea Scenic Area throughout the year, successfully launching the new cultural tourism brand of “Charging Green Electricity Amid Green Mountains and Clear Waters”.
This practice is not an isolated case. In 2025, Changzhou was approved as one of the first batch of national pilot cities for large-scale vehicle-grid interaction (V2G) application and the only one in Jiangsu Province. The grid-friendly charging service network is accelerating its formation. Up to now, 25 charging station microgrid clusters participated in the construction by State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company have been completed and put into operation, with 183 V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) piles taking root. From August to November 2025, State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company took the lead in organizing 680 stations in the city to carry out vehicle-grid interaction activities. Relying on Changzhou’s special subsidy policy for vehicle-grid interaction, it provides a maximum of 4 yuan/kWh for large-scale discharge subsidies to new energy vehicle owners, a maximum of 2 yuan/kWh subsidies to charging and swapping facility operators participating in aggregated interaction, and a maximum of 50,000 yuan and 1,000 yuan subsidies to pilot communities and intelligent orderly charging piles respectively. The activity has attracted more than 7,200 social vehicle participations, with a total discharge capacity exceeding 300,000 kWh, realizing “two-way interaction” of energy between new energy vehicles and the power grid, and accumulating valuable experience for the exploration of urban-level vehicle-grid interaction models.
In the field of building construction, the application of microgrid technology is also brilliant. In March 2023, State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company built the first new type of station-grid interaction demonstration center in China. The intelligent management and control platform built by the center is like a “smart brain” for building energy use, realizing real-time monitoring and precise regulation of various energy-consuming equipment. It has constructed four operation modes: daily operation, demand response, virtual power plant, and independent microgrid. The average deviation of load control in response to grid instructions is less than 5%, making it a national benchmark for microgrids empowering building energy conservation. At present, from the Sino-German Industrial Park to the Tianmu Lake Yushui Hot Spring Hotel, a number of microgrid projects integrating multiple energy forms such as building-integrated photovoltaics, ice storage air conditioning, and combined cooling, heating, and power supply have been successively completed, promoting the transformation of building construction from “passive energy use” to “active energy conservation”.
Modern industrial parks show a more grand picture of energy transformation. State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company has successively built a number of characteristic microgrid demonstration parks such as Liyang High-tech Zone Chuangzhi Park and Wujin National High-tech Zone Innovation Industrial Park. By integrating multiple energy resources such as solar energy and energy storage, and relying on the microgrid energy management system, these parks are endowed with the “autonomous capability” of independent energy regulation, achieving the dual goals of optimal internal energy allocation and flexible interaction with the external main power grid.
Mechanism Breakthrough + Resource Aggregation: Building a “New Engine” for Virtual Power Plants
As a core carrier for aggregating distributed power sources, adjustable loads, energy storage, and other scattered resources, virtual power plants are of great significance for improving power supply guarantee capabilities and promoting new energy consumption. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company focused on three key areas: platform construction, potential exploration, and joint force aggregation, promoting scattered microgrid resources to “gather sand into a tower” and building a new engine for the high-quality development of virtual power plants.
Platform construction is the “first move” and “intelligent hub” for resource aggregation. In 2024, State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company built the first municipal-level virtual power plant management center in Jiangsu Province, realizing “unified management through one network” of highly flexible non-industrial adjustable resources such as user-side photovoltaic-storage-charging and 5G base stations, and fully releasing the aggregation effect of scattered resources. Up to now, the management center has cumulatively connected 23 virtual power plants, aggregated 3,624 users, with an aggregated capacity of 1.2669 million kilowatts, a maximum upward regulation capacity of 425,200 kilowatts, and a maximum downward regulation capacity of 282,900 kilowatts, providing strong support for the safe and stable operation of the power grid.
To address the pain points of load-side adjustable resources such as fragmentation, strong volatility, and inconsistent response capabilities, State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company innovatively launched the solution of “building platforms, labeling, and profiling”. In July 2024, the first municipal-level load-side adjustable resource management platform in Jiangsu Province was officially launched, realizing unified access, unified monitoring, and unified dispatching of 109 intelligent microgrids and 23 virtual power plants in the city. The platform has established a dual capability certification mechanism of “algorithm + actual measurement” and built a “digital ID card” system containing 38 labels. Based on national standards and industry norms, it accurately profiles each resource from the dimensions of response time, regulation accuracy, and peak-valley characteristics, ensuring efficient screening and rapid dispatching when the power grid is in need. Since its launch, the platform has organized 34 capability tests and promoted 9 virtual power plants to complete the official registration in the electricity spot market, becoming the first batch of new market entities in Jiangsu Province to participate in transactions as independent entities.
Ecological co-construction is a “long-term plan” for industrial prosperity and a “strong magnetic field”. Adhering to the concept of “when everyone adds firewood, the flames rise high”, State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company continuously promotes the transformation of load aggregators, electricity sales companies, energy service providers, and charging and swapping facility operators into virtual power plant operators, cultivating professional forces for scattered resource aggregation. Since 2024, it has organized more than 20 special training sessions and government-enterprise-research exchange meetings on market mechanisms and technical standards, attracting the active participation of more than 500 enterprises, and building a diversified, collaborative, and positive interactive virtual power plant industrial ecosystem.
In the next step, State Grid Changzhou Power Supply Company will continue to deepen the construction of microgrids and the development and utilization of load-side resources, continuously improve the policy coordination, scenario innovation, and mechanism guarantee systems, promote the high-quality development of new energy formats, and contribute more Changzhou strength to the construction of a new power system and the realization of the “double carbon” goal.