2025 China Power Market Outlook

In 2025, China marks the tenth anniversary of its latest round of power market reforms. Since 2020, following the introduction of the dual carbon targets — which call for China to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 — and the New Power System framework, power market development has rapidly accelerated. New market structures and pricing mechanisms have been rolled out across generation types, industrial and commercial users, and emerging market participants to drive this transformation.

This year’s report extends our 2023 and 2024 Power Market Outlooks with a focused review of key developments from early 2024 to the present. We track how China is building on past reforms to further refine its power market and pricing systems.

Notable progress includes updates to mechanism pricing for renewables, the expansion of power spot markets, and refinements in capacity pricing and ancillary services markets. We also examine the shifting roles and strategies of major market players.

The report analyzes how these changes are reshaping the market and what they mean for stakeholders across the value chain — from renewable developers and generators to industrial users and tech providers. Staying ahead of China’s evolving power market is now critical for strategic decisions and long-term positioning.