How to Read China's Electricity Market Trading Fees: Who May Charge (Non-Profit Exchanges; Shared-Asset Exchanges in Principle Charge Nothing, Their Cost Counted and Separately Listed in Transmission-and-Distribution Cost and Paid by the Grid Company; Fees Need Market Management Committee Consent and Public Accounts), What Is Charged (Guangzhou 2026: 16,500 Yuan per 100 Million kWh on Inter-Provincial Medium/Long-Term and Cross-Area Trades, 5,200 on Spot Deviation Volume, Registration and Annual Fees Not Collected for the Time Being; Guangdong 2025–2027: 0.11 Yuan/MWh Annual/Monthly, 0.12 Weekly/Spot, Q4 2024 Waived) and Which Other Lines Sit on the Bill (Line-Loss Charge, T&D Price, System Operation Charges, Government Funds, Ancillary-Service Shares Listed Separately)

Short answer. "Trading fees" in China's power market are governed by two national opinions, two published schedules were retrieved, and several other lines on a participant's bill are set by other rules. The 2015 implementation opinion on forming trading institutions made exchanges non-profit bodies that may charge participants reasonably — mainly registration fees, annual fees and transaction handling fees. The 2020 opinion narrowed this: exchanges that share assets with the grid company in principle charge participants nothing, their cost being counted and separately listed in the transmission-and-distribution cost and paid by the grid company; qualifying exchanges may charge only with the market management committee's consent and must disclose income and expenditure to participants. The two schedules retrieved show the scale. Guangzhou Power Exchange's 2026 schedule charges 16,500 yuan per 100 million kWh (excluding tax) on Southern-region inter-provincial medium- and long-term energy trades and on cross-operating-area and cross-border trades, 5,200 yuan per 100 million kWh on spot trades (base: the cumulative absolute daily deviation), and no registration or annual fee for the time being. Guangdong Power Exchange waived handling fees for the last quarter of 2024 and set 2025–2027 fees at 0.11 yuan/MWh for annual and monthly trades and 0.12 yuan/MWh for weekly and spot trades. By CNWattHub arithmetic, 16,500 yuan per 100 million kWh is 0.165 yuan/MWh and 5,200 is 0.052 yuan/MWh. The other lines on a user's bill are set elsewhere: the 2023 third-regulatory-period notice defines the commercial and industrial price as on-grid price plus grid-side line-loss charge, transmission-and-distribution price, system operation charges (ancillary services, pumped-storage capacity) and government funds and surcharges, and the 2025 ancillary-service and settlement rules say how those non-energy charges are allocated, listed separately and disclosed. This guide reads the national texts and two trading-centre fee notices; it quotes no State Grid-area provincial schedule and no exchange's accounts.

1. Who may charge: the 2015 and 2020 opinions

The 2024 Basic Rules place a market management committee, independent of the exchange, over market members as a self-governing consultative mechanism, and divide settlement work: the grid company and dispatch institution supply data, the exchange produces the settlement basis, and the grid company settles on commission from participants. The 2025 medium- and long-term rules list the exchange's duties — registration and contract aggregation, platform operation, organising trades and providing settlement bases, disclosure, monitoring and reporting violations — and list among the grid company's rights the collection of transmission-and-distribution charges and the collection on behalf of others of electricity charges and government funds and surcharges.

CNWattHub reading: the test for any fee a participant is asked to pay is therefore procedural before it is numerical — was it adopted by the market management committee, is it published, and are the exchange's accounts disclosed. An exchange that shares the grid company's systems and still charges should be able to point to the committee's consent.

2. What is charged: the two schedules retrieved

Guangzhou Power Exchange (Southern region), 2026

The schedule published on 3 March 2026 cites both national opinions as its basis and says the fee plan and 2026 standards were adopted at the Southern regional market management committee's third meeting of 2025.

Guangdong Power Exchange, 2024–2027

Notice 广东交易〔2024〕174号 of 23 September 2024, issued under Article 15 of the provincial fee management measures after committee adoption and filing with the provincial energy bureau and NEA's Southern office, waived the handling fee (0 yuan per 10,000 kWh) for the not-yet-collected September weekly/multi-day and spot trades and all October–December 2024 trades, and set 2025–2027 fees at 0.11 yuan/MWh for annual and monthly trades and 0.12 yuan/MWh for weekly (multi-day) and spot trades.

CNWattHub arithmetic: 16,500 yuan per 100 million kWh equals 0.165 yuan/MWh, and 5,200 yuan per 100 million kWh equals 0.052 yuan/MWh; Guangdong's 0.11–0.12 yuan/MWh is of the same order — a fraction of a yuan per MWh in both schedules, consistent with the non-profit, cost-recovery framing of the two national opinions. Two cautions: the spot fee base in Guangzhou's schedule is the cumulative absolute daily deviation volume, not traded volume, so the fee per MWh of traded energy depends on how the schedule defines that deviation; and the Guangdong 2024 waiver shows that schedules change year to year and the current notice, not a brochure, is what governs.

3. The other lines on the bill that are not exchange fees

CNWattHub reading: a dispute labelled "trading fees" should first be mapped to a line — a line-loss adjustment, an ancillary-service share, an imbalance or assessment charge, or the exchange's handling fee — because each is governed by a different text. The 2025 settlement rules give the lever: any compensation, assessment or balancing charge must have had its allocation method disclosed in advance, so a charge that appears without a published method is challengeable on that ground alone.

4. A reading sequence

1. Identify the charging body. Exchange handling fee (committee-approved schedule), grid company (T&D, line loss, agent-collected funds) or dispatch-computed ancillary shares.
2. Check the base. Traded volume after D-2 check, settled volume, or spot deviation volume; whether both sides or only the transferor pay.
3. Check the period. The current year's schedule; whether a waiver or revision applies (Guangdong's Q4 2024 waiver is the example).
4. Separate non-exchange lines. Map each bill line to the 526号 composition and to the spot and ancillary rules.
5. Ask for the method. For compensation, assessment or balancing charges, the pre-disclosed allocation method.
6. Ask for the accounts. An exchange that charges must disclose income and expenditure to participants.

Scope limits

This guide reads the 2015 and 2020 implementation opinions, the 2024 Basic Rules, the 2025 medium- and long-term, ancillary-service and settlement rules, the 2023 spot rules, the 2023 third-regulatory-period notice, Guangzhou Power Exchange's 2026 fee schedule and Guangdong Power Exchange's 2024 fee notice. It does not quote any State Grid-area provincial exchange's schedule, any Hainan fee text, any exchange's income statement, or any national fee ceiling. Not legal, trading or investment advice.