How to Read China's Energy Storage Capacity Market: the First National Storage Capacity Price (发改价格〔2026〕114号 — Grid-Side Independent Storage Not Taking Part in 'Allocated' Storage; Local Coal Capacity Price × Discharge Hours ÷ Longest Net-Load Peak, Ratio Capped at 1; List-Managed), the Coal Benchmark It Scales From (330 Yuan/kW·Year Fixed Cost, ≥50% Recovered From 2026 = 165 Yuan/kW·Year), the Reliable-Capacity Compensation to Be Built in Due Course After Spot Runs Continuously, and Three Provincial Instruments — Xinjiang (Peak Duration Provisionally 6 Hours; Effective 1 June 2026), Gansu (Trial Compensation Issued Before 114号: 330 Yuan/kW·Year × Declared Capacity × Supply–Demand Coefficient From 1 January 2026, 50%/100% Monthly Cuts for Non-Delivery, Trial to End-2027) and Inner Mongolia (0.35 Yuan/kWh on Discharged Energy for Projects Commissioned by 2025, per Xinhua)

Short answer. None of the texts read here sets up a storage capacity auction; what exists, since 发改价格〔2026〕114号, is a national permission for provinces to pay grid-side independent new-type storage a regulated capacity price — the first such national-level mechanism, by NDRC's own account. The price is not set in yuan: it is the local coal capacity price scaled by a peaking ratio (full-power discharge hours ÷ the year's longest net-load peak duration, capped at 1), paid only to stations on a provincial list, and only to storage that does not take part in 'allocated' storage (配储). The coal benchmark it scales from is a national fixed cost of 330 yuan/kW·year, of which at least 50% — 165 yuan — is recovered through the capacity price from 2026. After a province's spot market runs continuously, a reliable-capacity compensation is to be built in due course, measuring eligible units on one 'ruler'; once it exists, the capacity price stops. Three provincial instruments show the range: Xinjiang applies the national formula with a 6-hour divisor from 1 June 2026; Gansu issued, a month before 114号, a trial compensation paying storage 330 yuan/kW·year × declared capacity × a supply–demand coefficient, with 50% and 100% monthly cuts for non-delivery; Inner Mongolia, per a Xinhua report, pays 0.35 yuan per kWh discharged for projects commissioned by 2025.

1. The national mechanism (114号)

NDRC's Q&A adds the definition the successor mechanism rests on: reliable capacity is the capacity a unit can supply continuously and stably in system peak periods — the 'ruler' of peaking ability — and the same installed MW yields different reliable capacity by unit type. It also records why the national text was needed: provinces had explored gas and storage capacity prices on inconsistent principles.

CNWattHub arithmetic (on the tagged figures): with the coal recovery floor at 165 yuan/kW·year, a 2-hour storage station in a province whose longest net-load peak lasts 6 hours would have a ratio of 2/6 and a capacity price of 165 × 1/3 = 55 yuan/kW·year, while a 4-hour station would get 110 and a 6-hour station the full 165 (ratio capped at 1). For a 100 MW/200 MWh station that is 5.5 million yuan a year; for 100 MW/400 MWh, 11 million. These are illustrations of the formula at the national floor; the actual coal capacity price, the peak duration and any 'market progress' adjustment are provincial decisions.

2. The coal benchmark it scales from

The 2023 coal notice fixes the national fixed-cost standard at 330 yuan/kW·year; recovery through the capacity price was about 30% in most places in 2024–2025 and about 50% in some, rising to at least 50% from 2026; the fee goes into system operation costs and is shared monthly by industrial and commercial users in proportion to consumption. The 2024–2025 table gives 100 yuan/kW·year for Gansu and Xinjiang and 165 for provinces such as Henan, Hunan, Chongqing, Sichuan and Qinghai.

CNWattHub reading: under the 114号 formula a storage capacity price is bounded by the local coal capacity price (ratio ≤1), and that reference itself moved from 100 or 165 yuan in 2024–2025 to at least 165 from 2026. A storage financial model that assumes a capacity price above the local coal level is assuming something outside this formula — the notice also lets provinces consider 'market progress and system need', and other instruments (section 3) exist.

3. Three provincial readings

3.1 Xinjiang — the formula applied

CNWattHub arithmetic: Xinjiang's 6-hour divisor makes the national illustration above exact for that region — 55 yuan/kW·year for 2-hour, 110 for 4-hour, 165 for 6-hour-or-longer storage on the list. The word '暂定' (provisional) attaches to the 6 hours, so the divisor can move.

3.2 Gansu — a reliable-capacity compensation issued before 114号

Gansu's trial notice (甘发改价格规〔2025〕4号) is dated 31 December 2025 — before 114号 was issued — and so is a provincial instrument in its own right, not an implementation of the national notice; it was published on 7 January 2026 and runs on trial until 31 December 2027, covering compliant public coal units and grid-side independent new-type storage, excluding sources dedicated to DC export.

• Formula. Annual capacity fee = declared capacity × compensation standard × capacity supply–demand coefficient; the standard is provisionally 330 yuan/kW·year from 1 January 2026 — which the text attributes to '发改价格〔2024〕1501号' (the coal notice this guide reads carries the number 发改价格〔2023〕1501号).
• Declaration. Monthly, by the 25th for the next month; the fee is settled on the declared capacity, which may not exceed the station's reliable capacity, where storage reliable capacity = maximum discharge power × (1 − auxiliary rate) × a reliable-capacity coefficient.
• Penalties. Failing to deliver declared output or discharge duration on a dispatch instruction cuts 50% of the month's fee on the first occurrence and 100% on the second; three months at 100% forfeits the year's fee; an annual clearing uses the minimum actual output during system peak periods, with — initially — one exemption window of up to 24 consecutive hours that each unit may apply for by the end of January.
• Who pays. Shared between monthly export energy (excluding DC-dedicated sources) and all in-province industrial and commercial users in proportion to consumption, published monthly with rolling clearing; alongside, the spot bid floor and cap are 0.04 and 0.5 yuan/kWh from 1 January 2026.

CNWattHub reading: Gansu's 330 yuan is the full coal fixed-cost benchmark, not the 50% recovery floor, but it is multiplied by a supply–demand coefficient whose value this guide has not seen and applied to a declared capacity that is capped by a reliable-capacity coefficient, so the headline number is not the payment. The penalty ladder is the clause an investor should read first: two non-deliveries in a month cost the whole month, and three such months cost the year.

3.3 Inner Mongolia — an energy-based compensation

Xinhua, republished by the regional energy bureau on 12 June 2025, reports that independent new-type storage stations in the regional plan are compensated on energy discharged to the grid at 0.35 yuan/kWh for projects commissioned in or before 2025, and that in May 2025 the two grid companies paid discharge compensation to qualifying stations.

CNWattHub arithmetic: a 100 MW/200 MWh station discharging one full cycle a day for 330 days would discharge 66 GWh and receive 23.1 million yuan a year at 0.35 yuan/kWh — about four times the 5.5 million the national 114号 formula illustration gives a 2-hour station at the 165-yuan floor. The two are different instruments (per kWh discharged versus per kW listed), and the Inner Mongolia figure is from a news report, not a policy text. 114号 says localities 'may' grant a capacity price and that a reliable-capacity compensation is to be built in due course after spot runs continuously; how an energy-based compensation is treated under those words is not stated in any text read here, and a news report cannot show whether 114号 has been implemented in the region.

4. A reading sequence

1. Is the station eligible at all? Grid-side, independent, not 'allocated' storage, on the provincial list.
2. Which instrument? Capacity price (114号 formula), reliable-capacity compensation (Gansu-type), or energy-based compensation (Inner Mongolia-type).
3. The numbers. Local coal capacity price; discharge hours; peak duration (Xinjiang: 6 h provisional); any supply–demand or reliable-capacity coefficient; declared versus reliable capacity.
4. Penalties and clearing. Declaration limits, non-delivery cuts, annual peak-output clearing and its exemption window.
5. Settlement side. User treatment when charging (line-loss, system-operation and transmission charges as separate items); transmission refund on discharge; fees in system operation costs.
6. Durability. Trial end dates (Gansu 2027), '暂定' parameters, the spot-market trigger for the successor, the affordability-assessment gate.

Scope limits

This guide reads 发改价格〔2026〕114号 and NDRC's Q&A, 发改价格〔2023〕1501号 and its provincial table, Xinjiang's notice and interpretation, Gansu's trial notice and the Xinhua report republished by Inner Mongolia's energy bureau. It quotes no NEA list-management rule, no province's resulting storage capacity-price figure under 114号, no Gansu coefficient value, no Inner Mongolia policy text, no Shandong or Guangdong rule and no settlement statement. Not legal, trading or investment advice.