How to Check Wind-Farm Grid-Code Compliance in China: the Three Layers (the Technical Standards GB/T 19963.1-2021 Onshore and 19963.2-2024 Offshore, the Turbine Test Standards IEC 61400-21-1:2019 and GB/T 36995-2018, and the Regional 'Two Rules' That Assess Day to Day), What Must Be Proven and When (Southern Region 2025: Transient Models and a Validation Report Three Months Before Connection; Power Quality, AGC, AVC, Primary Frequency and Inertia, Model Evaluation, Ride-Through Simulation and SVG Ride-Through Verification Within Six Months, by a Qualified Test Unit; Grid-Connection Testing Again Above 40 MW of Added Capacity), the Numbers the Dispatcher Watches (AGC Response Under 2 Minutes, 35%/min Ramp, 3% Accuracy, 99.9% and 99% Thresholds; Dynamic Reactive Availability 95%, AVC 98%; Primary Frequency Assessed on Commissioning Only at This Stage, Capped at 1.5 h, While Article 33 Still Requires Performance to Standard) and How the International Frameworks Compare (IEC 61400-27-1 Generic Models, IEEE 2800 IBR Requirements)

Short answer. 'Grid-code compliance' for a Chinese wind farm is three things that are often conflated. First, the technical standard: GB/T 19963.1-2021 for onshore (effective 2022-03-01, partially replacing GB/T 19963-2011) and GB/T 19963.2-2024 for offshore (effective 2025-04-01), both under the China Electricity Council. Second, the proof: the 2021 national grid-connection provisions require generation-side entities' grid-related equipment to meet the standards and require 'grid-related tests' to national and industry standards; the regional rules then say which tests and when — in the Southern region, transient models and a validation report three months before connection, and within six months of connection a list that runs from power quality through AGC, AVC, primary frequency and inertia response, model evaluation and ride-through simulation to SVG ride-through verification, each certified by a qualified test unit, with grid-connection testing to be done again once cumulative added capacity passes 40 MW. Third, the continuing assessment: the same rules assess AGC response (under 2 minutes, 35%/min, 3% accuracy; 99.9% commissioning, 99% qualification), dynamic reactive availability (95%), AVC commissioning (98%) and, 'at this stage', primary-frequency commissioning only — while still requiring primary frequency regulation to meet national, industry and regulatory requirements — in installed-capacity-hours of energy. The international layer — IEC 61400-21-1 for turbine measurement and compliance assessment, IEC 61400-27-1 for generic models, IEEE 2800 for IBR requirements — maps onto the same three layers; the Chinese provisions and regional rules read here refer to national and industry standards, and do not name these documents.

1. The standard layer

CNWattHub reading: this guide has the records, not the clauses, of the three Chinese standards; the ride-through curve, reactive range and frequency band a farm must meet are in texts not read here. The split in ownership is worth noting — the connection standards sit with the power-industry body, the turbine FRT test procedure with the machinery body — because a turbine-level test certificate and a farm-level connection evaluation are different documents from different standard families. IEC 61400-21-1's scope is explicitly the single turbine; farm-level compliance is a separate exercise, which is what the Chinese regional rules describe.

2. The proof layer: what must be delivered, and when

The 2021 national provisions set the frame: grid-related primary and secondary equipment — protection, dispatch communication and automation, excitation and PSS, governor and primary frequency regulation, power forecasting, step-up station equipment — must meet laws, industry standards and grid-stability requirements, and generation-side entities 'carry out grid-related tests according to national and industry standards'. The Southern region's 2025 wind rules turn that into a schedule:

CNWattHub reading: the model comes before the metal — a farm is first represented to the dispatcher as a validated simulation, then tested in the field. A compliance check therefore has two document sets to ask for: the model-validation report and the qualified test unit's certificates, each dated against the connection date. The 40 MW trigger requires the farm to undergo grid-connection testing again; the text does not say what happens to earlier certificates or whether the repeat covers the whole farm or the added capacity, so that is a question for the dispatch body. These are one region's rules; this guide has not read a State Grid province's two-rules text.

3. The assessment layer: the numbers the dispatcher watches

The national provisions name the same assessment headings — primary-frequency availability, capacity, rate, accuracy and response time; AGC availability, capacity, rate, accuracy and response time; reactive-device or AVC commissioning rate, regulation qualification rate and bus-voltage qualification rate.

CNWattHub reading: the assessment currency is installed capacity × hours, so the assessed energy for the same percentage shortfall scales with the farm's installed capacity (what that energy is worth in money is set elsewhere), and the assessment outcome is a monthly energy figure that sits beside, not in place of, substantive compliance with the standards. The primary-frequency clause is explicit that only function commissioning is assessed 'at this stage', while Article 33 separately requires the function to meet national, industry and regulatory requirements; so a farm whose primary-frequency function is commissioned at or above 50% of the time is not assessed on how well it actually responds unless it has opted into action-performance evaluation, and a buyer should not read the commissioning rate as a performance result. The AGC obligation applies at or above 20% of installed capacity; the text does not say how AGC execution is treated below that level.

4. What the international frameworks measure

IEC 61400-21-1 measures a single turbine's electrical characteristics and assesses compliance with connection requirements including the power quality expected 'when deployed at a specific site'; its 2019 additions (frequency control, inertia response, OVRT, updated UVRT, reactive capability, harmonics) match the capability list in the Southern rules' six-month test schedule. IEC 61400-27-1 supplies the generic models that a 'model evaluation' step can be compared with. IEEE 2800 is a requirements document for transmission-connected IBRs — ride-through, dynamic support, negative-sequence injection, protection — rather than a test procedure. EN 50549-1 is the LV distribution end and is cited here by title only.

CNWattHub reading: a turbine type report to IEC 61400-21-1 is evidence about the turbine; the farm-level model evaluation, FRT simulation and SVG verification the regional rules require are separate deliverables, and whether a project must also run the GB/T 36995 procedure (a turbine FRT test standard under the machinery body) is a question for the connection standard and the dispatch body, neither read here on this point. Where a project uses turbine models supplied in IEC 61400-27-1 form, the validation report is where the dispatcher sees whether they represent the plant as built.

5. The contract layer and the context

NEA and SAMR's 2021 model texts replaced the 2014 wind-farm dispatch agreement with a new-energy-station model agreement; agreements are to be concluded by reference to it and filed with the local NEA office. The scale is national: 640 GW of wind at end-2025, 120 GW added in the year, 79% of it in the 'Three North' regions, at a 94% national utilisation rate.

CNWattHub reading: the dispatch agreement is the contract a farm signs with the dispatch body; what it says about standards, tests and assessment is in the model text, which this guide has not read, so a compliance check should read the executed agreement alongside the regional rules current at the time. A 94% utilisation rate is a curtailment figure, not a compliance figure, and belongs to a different guide.

6. A checking sequence

1. Standard. Onshore or offshore part; amendment sheets; the clause values (not in this guide).
2. Models. Transient models and the validation report, dated ≥ 3 months before connection.
3. Tests. The six-month list, with the qualified test unit's certificates; any deferral and its basis.
4. Turbine evidence. IEC 61400-21-1 or GB/T 36995 reports for the turbine type, read as turbine-level only.
5. Monthly numbers. AGC, SVG, AVC and primary-frequency commissioning rates against the regional thresholds, and the assessed energy.
6. Expansion. Cumulative added capacity against the 40 MW threshold for repeat grid-connection testing.
7. Agreement. The executed dispatch agreement and its filing.

Scope limits

This guide reads the catalogue records of GB/T 19963.1-2021, GB/T 19963.2-2024 and GB/T 36995-2018 (no clause text), the IEC 61400-21-1:2019 and IEC 61400-27-1:2020 abstracts, the IEEE 2800-2022 scope, the EN 50549-1 catalogue title, the 2021 grid-connection operation management provisions, the Southern region's 2025 revised wind-farm rules, NEA's 2021 model-texts notice and NEA's 2025 grid-connection report. It quotes no ride-through curve or reactive-range values, no test report, model-validation report or dispatch-agreement clause, and no State Grid regional rule; the EU RfG regulation could not be retrieved. Not engineering, legal or investment advice.