Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has accelerated the construction of a new energy system, continuously strengthened the energy security foundation, and provided strong support for economic and social development. General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward the new energy security strategy of "Four Revolutions and One Cooperation", guiding China to promote the revolution in energy consumption, supply, technology, and system, and comprehensively strengthen international cooperation to achieve energy security under open conditions. This has pointed out the direction for China's energy development in the new era and opened up a new path for high - quality energy development.

The security of energy and electricity is of great significance to the overall economic and social development. Actively developing clean energy and promoting the green - low - carbon transformation of the economic society have become the common consensus of the international community to deal with global climate change. In September 2020, China clearly put forward the goals of "carbon peaking" in 2030 and "carbon neutrality" in 2060. Achieving the "dual - carbon" goals is a wide - ranging and profound economic and social system transformation, and the power system has a heavy responsibility. In practicing the "dual - carbon" strategy, energy is the main battlefield, and electricity is the main force. The low - carbon transformation and development of the power construction industry will play an important role in implementing the national strategy and achieving the national carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.

To thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the first to fifth plenary sessions of the 19th Central Committee, strive to promote the energy revolution, promote the high - quality development of the power construction industry, accelerate the adjustment of the industrial structure and transformation and upgrading, contribute to China's energy and electricity reform and development and the construction of a new energy system, and actively and steadily promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the Five - Year Development Plan for the Power Construction Industry (2021 - 2025) is formulated and released.

I. Development Situation

(I) Development Achievements of Power Construction

The foundation for the high - quality development of the industry has been further consolidated. The power supply capacity has maintained a stable growth. During the "13th Five - Year Plan" period, the national installed power generation capacity increased by 620 million kilowatts, with an average annual growth rate of 7.1%. During the "13th Five - Year Plan" period, the average annual increase was 9.52 million kilowatts for hydropower, 37.46 million kilowatts for coal - fired power, 6.36 million kilowatts for gas - fired power, 4.81 million kilowatts for nuclear power, 23.23 million kilowatts for wind power, 39.40 million kilowatts for solar power, and 3.45 million kilowatts for biomass power. The annual average growth rate of power generation during the "13th Five - Year Plan" period was 5.6%. The power demand has maintained a good growth trend. In 2020, the total electricity consumption of the whole society was 7.51 trillion kilowatt - hours, and the annual per capita electricity consumption was about 5,186 kilowatt - hours per person, an increase of 26.9% and 29.9% respectively compared with 2016. The safe and efficient development of electricity has reached a new level. In 2019, the equivalent available coefficients of thermal power, hydropower, gas turbine, and nuclear power units all reached more than 90%, and the available coefficients of main transmission and transformation facilities such as transformers and overhead lines all exceeded 99%. The low - carbon transformation and development of energy and electricity have been advancing steadily, and the carbon dioxide emission intensity per unit of power generation has decreased by 50 grams per kilowatt - hour.

The scale of power construction projects has been continuously expanding. During the "13th Five - Year Plan" period, the investment scale, number of projects, and scale of China's power construction have continued to grow, and the development scale of the industry has been continuously expanding. In 2020, the national major power enterprises completed an investment of 1,018.9 billion yuan. Among them, the investment in power source project construction was 529.2 billion yuan, and the investment in power grid project construction was 489.6 billion yuan. The investment scale in 2020 increased by 15.1% compared with 2016. In 2020, there were 2,030 power source projects under construction, with a total installed capacity of 429.48 million kilowatts; there were 3,936 power grid projects under construction, with a total substation capacity of 516,253 MVA and a total line length of 79,367 kilometers. In terms of bidding for power engineering projects, the public winning bid amount in the bidding market in 2020 has reached 401.14 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 24.5%. Among them, the winning bid amount for power engineering construction was 394.95 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 24.6%, the winning bid amount for power engineering supervision was 3.25 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 15.4%, and the winning bid amount for power engineering commissioning was 2.94 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 31.0%.

(II) Existing Problems in Industry Development

The risk of uncertainty brought by the epidemic still exists. Impacted by the COVID - 19 epidemic, the domestic engineering projects in the power construction industry had a serious shutdown in the first half of 2020, and the overseas projects have not yet returned to normal due to the continuous spread of the epidemic, and the economic benefits have declined year - on - year. In addition to the special problems such as project performance difficulties, a significant increase in costs, and potential safety hazards caused by blind rush - work due to the impact of the epidemic, there are also many long - standing problems in the power construction industry itself, such as the irregular operation of the bidding market, the illegal collection of security deposits, the imbalance of responsibilities, rights, and interests in the supervision industry, and the imperfect business environment in the industry market. In addition, there are also common problems in the operation of power construction enterprises, such as the heavy task of enterprise transformation, the low speed of contract conversion, and the weak awareness of contract risk prevention, which have seriously affected the development of enterprises and caused great difficulties to the current economic operation of the power construction industry.

There are still weak links in the industry development system and mechanism. The development and utilization of new energy and renewable energy are facing difficulties. The production capacity of equipment manufacturing in the new energy industry such as photovoltaic power generation does not match the construction, operation, and consumption demand, and a virtuous cycle of mutual promotion among R & D, production, and utilization has not been formed. The problem of non - discriminatory and unobstructed access to the grid for renewable energy and renewable energy power generation has not been effectively solved. The supporting system and mechanism for the construction of the power market have not been fully established, and the legislative and law - amendment work is relatively lagging behind, which restricts the marketization and healthy development of electricity. Some existing power - related laws and regulations can no longer meet the actual needs of development, and some supporting reform policies have been slow to come out. It is urgent to revise relevant laws, regulations, policies, and standards to provide a basis for the development of the power industry.

(III) The Situation Facing Industry Development

With the in - depth promotion of China's socialist modernization drive in the new era, the economic development has entered a period of new - old kinetic energy conversion, the pace of supply - side structural reform has been accelerated, the energy strategy of "Four Revolutions and One Cooperation" has been deeply implemented, the energy development has shifted from traditional energy to new energy, and the power system reform has been continuously deepened, which has put forward new and higher requirements for the development of energy and electricity.

The responsibility for ensuring energy and electricity supply has become more significant. With the deepening of economic globalization, China's economy is closely linked to the world economy. In recent years, affected by the intensifying trade frictions, geopolitical tensions, and the uncertainty factors in international cooperation, the world economic development has generally slowed down, bringing more uncertainties to China's economic development. The COVID - 19 pandemic in 2020 has brought new uncertainties to the future development of power construction. However, the long - term positive trend of China's economy will not change. It is estimated that the economic growth rate during the "14th Five - Year Plan" period will be 5% - 6%, and the responsibility for ensuring the development of the national economy and meeting the electricity demand of the whole society is even more arduous.

The green - low - carbon transformation of power construction is more urgent. By the end of 2020, China's installed capacity of renewable energy power generation reached 934 million kilowatts, accounting for 42.4% of the total installed capacity, and the national renewable energy power generation reached 2,214.8 billion kilowatt - hours, accounting for 29.8% of the total power generation. The whole industry must deeply understand that there is still a long way to go to promote the transformation of the power supply structure from a fossil - energy - dominated one to a new - energy - dominated one. The large - scale development and utilization of fossil energy have brought serious problems such as resource shortage, climate change, environmental pollution, and low efficiency, which have become a major bottleneck restricting the sustainable development of the global economy, society, and environment. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put forward the new development concept of "innovation, coordination, greenness, openness, and sharing", and the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the new thought and new strategy of promoting high - quality development. The clean - low - carbon transformation and high - quality development of energy are important starting points and focuses for implementing the new development concept.

II. General Requirements

(I) Guiding Ideology

Adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the plenary sessions of the 19th Central Committee, fully, accurately, and comprehensively implement the new development concept, serve the construction of a new development pattern, take the deepening of supply - side structural reform as the main line, take the promotion of the coordinated development of scientific and technological innovation and intelligent construction as the driving force, accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the power construction industry, realize the low - carbon and green development of the power construction industry, effectively improve the development quality and efficiency, continuously meet the people's needs for a better life, and provide a solid guarantee for China's economic and social development.

(II) Basic Principles

• Adhere to the overall leadership of the Party and strengthen the institutional and mechanism guarantee: Give top priority to the Party's political construction, improve the institutional and mechanism for the Party to lead the development of power construction, strengthen leadership, clarify responsibilities, make overall arrangements, and promote the implementation of various policies and measures to provide a fundamental guarantee for the high - quality development of the power construction industry.
• Adhere to the new development concept and promote new technical methods: Integrate the new development concept into the whole process and all fields of the industry's development. Combine green - low - carbon development with transformation and upgrading, promote the whole - industry - chain collaboration of new technologies, materials, equipment, and products, accelerate the development of industrialization, digitization, and intellectualization, enhance the industrial development benefits of green - low - carbon, and gradually achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in the power construction field.
• Adhere to the systematic and overall concept and optimize the industrial structure layout: Strengthen forward - looking thinking, overall planning, strategic layout, and overall promotion. Optimize the layout of the power construction industry, improve the industrial chain, and achieve the unity of power construction quality, scale, and safety through the implementation of special actions and the strengthening of pilot demonstrations.
• Adhere to deepening reform and opening - up and enhance the "going - global" competitiveness: Break through the institutional and mechanism obstacles that restrict the high - quality development of the power construction industry, give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and the main role of enterprises in the industry's development, strengthen the opening - up measures that are conducive to improving the efficiency of resource allocation and mobilizing the enthusiasm for "going - global", and continuously enhance the driving force and vitality of the industry's development.

(III) Overall Goals

The goals of China's Five - Year Development Plan for Power Construction from 2021 to 2025 are as follows: Based on the historical mission of basically realizing socialist modernization in 2035, initially form the framework of a high - quality development system for the power construction industry. The operation mechanism of the power construction market will be more perfect, the business environment and industrial structure will be continuously optimized, the market order will be significantly improved, the engineering quality and safety guarantee system will be basically sound, the digitalization and intellectualization level of power construction will be greatly improved, the green transformation of the construction mode will be remarkably effective, the transformation of power construction from large - scale to high - quality will be accelerated, a new pattern of clean, low - carbon, safe, and efficient power guarantee supporting the high - quality development of China's economy and society will be constructed, and the unity of power development quality, structure, scale, speed, benefit, and safety will be achieved, so that the allocation of power resources will be more reasonable and the utilization will be more efficient.

• New achievements have been made in structural adjustment: Great progress has been made in the development of intelligent construction. By 2025, the application proportion of BIM in power engineering projects will be increased to more than 90%, and the application coverage rate of green construction technology will reach 100%.
• Engineering quality has been newly improved: By 2025, the engineering quality responsibility system will be basically improved, and engineering quality management will be continuously strengthened. It is planned to win more than 330 national - level awards such as the National Quality Engineering Award in five years.
• New breakthroughs have been made in innovative development: The investment in the research and development of construction technologies has been continuously increased, and the R & D investment intensity of the whole industry has reached 2.5%. The construction of standards will be accelerated, and it is hoped that a certain number of scientific and technological achievements and important standards will reach the international level.
• The talent team provides new support: Cultivate and introduce high - end talents, accelerate the construction of a modern industrial worker team for power construction, and significantly enhance the sense of gain, happiness, and security of employees.
• New steps have been taken in market expansion: The organization mode of engineering construction is further in line with international standards, the market development environment is continuously optimized, and the market of power construction enterprises at home and abroad is fully expanded.

III. Key Tasks

(I) Focus on Power Security and Improve the Power Supply System

Closely focus on the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, accelerate the adjustment of the power supply - side structure, promote the coordinated development of transmission and distribution infrastructure, and promote the clean, low - carbon, safe, and efficient operation of the power supply system, and gradually build a power system with new energy as the main body. Focus on ensuring energy security, unswervingly implement the national energy supply - guaranteeing policies, maintain the stability of power supply and price, and ensure the high - quality completion of the supply - guaranteeing tasks. Fully implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on work safety, ensure the effectiveness of safety protection measures, establish the concept of intrinsic safety, and implement the foundation - strengthening project. Establish and promote a safety production management system that is "standardized and unified, complete in elements, participated by all employees, efficient in operation, and continuously improved", deepen the construction of safety production standardization, and strictly implement the standard operation procedures for each post in power construction. Effectively prevent risks, draw inferences from one instance to deepen the double - prevention mechanism, ensure that major hidden dangers are completely cleared and rectified, improve the emergency plans at all levels, and effectively improve the disposal ability. Effectively build a strong team, enhance the safety management and emergency command ability of cadres, and improve the self - protection, mutual - protection, and joint - protection awareness of employees.

(II) Aggregate Innovation Resources and Activate the Scientific and Technological Innovation Mechanism

Promote the implementation of the action to tackle the key problems of the scientific and technological system and mechanism reform, improve the top - level design, strengthen the support of supporting policies, and accelerate the investment of funds and talents in new industries, new tracks, and key core areas. Promote the establishment of an innovation ecological chain of "basic research + technical research and development + achievement transformation + science and technology finance + talent support", and accelerate the overall leadership of technical research and development, and the originality and forward - looking nature of innovation achievements. Promote the in - depth implementation of the implementation plans for strategic emerging industries and the implementation plans for the source of original technologies, strengthen the selection, cultivation, and key support of start - up enterprises in line with strategic emerging industries and future industries, and accelerate the creation of a new generation of innovative enterprises in new fields and new tracks. Promote the national - level major technical research and development that supports industries and sources in an orderly manner. Actively prepare to establish a national technical innovation center and a national engineering research center in the advantageous fields of power construction, strengthen the resource input of the established R & D platforms in key fields, enhance the basic ability of independent innovation of enterprises, and integrate internal and external advantages to create a high - level R & D organization and a collaborative innovation system.

(III) Deepen Industrial Integration and Improve the Intelligence Level of Power

Promote the deep integration of the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, etc. with power construction, and strive to improve the intelligence level of power. Promote the deep application of digital technology in power construction, and promote the construction of digital workshops, intelligent factories, and the digital transformation of industrial parks. Accelerate the construction of smart power plants and new energy centralized control platforms, promote the intelligent production of renewable energy such as wind power and solar power generation, and achieve the efficient conversion and utilization of renewable energy. Promote

Source: China Electric Power Construction Enterprises Association