How to Read a Chinese Grid-Connection Approval for a Solar or Storage Project

Short answer. In China there is no single "grid-connection approval" certificate. A project that is "approved and connected" has passed through several separate documents issued by different parties: a filing record from the energy authority, a written opinion and acceptance notices from the grid company, a reply to the interconnection design, a grid-connection inspection, and finally a dispatch agreement and a power purchase contract. When a counterparty says a project is approved, ask which of these documents exist, who issued them, and whether the capacity, voltage level and grid mode on each one agree. This guide uses the 2025 NEA measures for distributed PV as the main source because they describe the sequence in the most detail; the general rules apply to other renewable and storage projects.

The 2025 distributed PV measures: what they cover

The National Energy Administration issued the Measures for the Development and Construction of Distributed PV (分布式光伏发电开发建设管理办法) as 国能发新能规〔2025〕7号 on 17 January 2025. They took effect on publication, run for five years, and replaced the 2013 interim measures; projects filed before publication and connected and commissioned before 1 May 2025 stay under the old policy. "Distributed PV" is defined as PV developed on the user side, connected at the distribution network and, in principle, balanced locally.

The Measures sort projects into four categories by who builds them and by connection voltage and capacity: natural-person household systems at a connection point not above 380 V; non-natural-person household systems at not above 10 kV (20 kV) and not above 6 MW; general commercial and industrial systems at not above 10 kV (20 kV) and in principle not above 6 MW; and large commercial and industrial systems at 35 kV with in principle not above 20 MW, or at 110 kV (66 kV) with in principle not above 50 MW. Three grid modes exist: full export, full self-consumption, and self-consumption with surplus export. The category and the grid mode drive which contracts are needed later, so they are the first two things to read off any document.

Document 1: the filing record (备案)

Distributed PV is managed by filing, not approval. The filed capacity is the AC-side capacity — the sum of the inverters' rated output — and the investor is responsible for the truthfulness of the filing information. A filing record therefore tells you three things: the investing entity, the capacity in AC terms, and the declared grid mode. It does not by itself say anything about grid access. Compare the AC capacity on the filing record with the DC module capacity in any technical offer; they are different numbers by design.

Document 2: the grid company's opinion and acceptance notice

The investor must submit a grid-connection application and obtain the grid company's grid-connection opinion (并网意见) before construction may start. The package includes a grid-connection letter of intent, proof of the investor's qualification and proof of title to the generation site. After receiving the letter of intent the grid company must reply in writing within two working days — an acceptance notice if the letter's content is complete and conforms to the requirements, a written refusal with reasons otherwise, with any missing material requested in one go; if it does not reply, the application is deemed accepted from the day of receipt.

Two readings follow. First, a 并网意见 is an opinion of the grid company, not a government licence; the energy authority files, the grid company connects. Second, an "acceptance notice" (受理通知书) only means the package was accepted for processing — it is not the connection itself.

Document 3: the interconnection design reply

Once the interconnection system design is complete, the investor submits the interconnection design report (接入系统设计方案报告); the same two-working-day written-reply rule applies. This is where the connection point, voltage level and metering arrangement are fixed. The Measures also settle who pays: for projects connecting to the public grid, the interconnection works and any public-grid upgrades they cause are invested in and built by the grid company; for user-side connections the user-side works are the investor's, while public-grid upgrades remain the grid company's. There is one exception: where several projects connect through a concentrated collection arrangement, the grid company provides the connection point but the collection and supporting connection facilities are in principle the investor's to build and operate. The grid company meters total generation and exported electricity separately and installs the meters free of charge. If an offer document assigns public-grid reinforcement costs to the project, that allocation should be checked against this article and its exception.

For participants in energy trading, the Basic Rules for Electricity Market Operation (NDRC Order No. 20, effective 1 July 2024) place the metering point at the ownership demarcation point with the grid company — or, where a meter cannot be installed there, at a point the two sides agree; the metered energy at the legal or agreed point is the settlement basis, and the participant bears losses up to that point unless the state provides otherwise. A design reply that moves the demarcation point therefore moves settlement and loss exposure as well.

Document 4: dispatch agreement and power purchase contract

Before commissioning, full-export and surplus-export projects sign a power purchase and sale contract with the grid company, and all distributed PV projects sign a grid-connection dispatch agreement with the grid company and its dispatch body, following the model texts; distributed PV is exempt from the electric power business licence. The model texts are those issued by the NEA and the State Administration for Market Regulation on 28 December 2021 (国能发监管规〔2021〕67号): a grid dispatch agreement, a new-energy station dispatch agreement, an electrochemical storage station dispatch agreement (trial) and a power purchase and sale contract. Agreements concluded in China must refer to them, and the signed texts are filed with the NEA regional office. A dispatch agreement that departs materially from the model text is a question to raise.

Document 5: inspection and commissioning

AC-side capacity may not exceed the filed capacity. Grid-interface equipment must pass testing and certification by nationally recognised bodies, and the grid company may not demand repeat testing. After completion, the grid company reviews the inverter and other key test reports, performs the grid-connection inspection, and only then allows commissioning. The inspection record is the document that most closely matches what an overseas reader means by "connection approved". Within one month of being built and connected, the project must be registered on the national renewable energy project information platform; registered projects receive green certificates for all generation, with tradable certificates for the exported part.

What the grid company may not do

The Measures list prohibited behaviour: refusing or delaying connection without justification; withholding necessary network information such as connection location, available capacity, actual used capacity, outgoing-line arrangement and number of available bays; imposing technical requirements above national and industry standards except for safety; and charging unreasonable fees. Grid companies must publish available capacity and technical standards and keep typical interconnection design schemes public, and provinces must run a quarterly publication and early-warning mechanism for distribution-network open capacity. If a developer reports that capacity is "unavailable", the published quarterly figure for that county is the reference.

The wider rule set

For utility-scale wind and solar, the relevant supervision rule is NDRC Order No. 15, in force since 1 April 2024, which replaced the 2007 measures. Full guaranteed purchase covers exported electricity from projects that conform to the renewable development plan (biogas excepted), have obtained approval or filed, and meet grid-connection technical standards — so the filing record and the technical standard both matter for offtake. Grid companies must provide the information needed for interconnection design and must state the construction time of the interconnection works in the interconnection agreement. The technical standard for PV stations connecting to the power system is GB/T 19964-2024, issued and implemented on 15 March 2024. For new-type storage, grid companies must give fair, non-discriminatory access to filed projects; before grid-connection testing the project must complete quality, environmental and fire-safety procedures, and the grid company must set out the testing and acceptance process.

A short checklist

1. Filing record: entity, AC capacity, grid mode, filing authority.
2. Grid company documents: letter of intent, acceptance notice, 并网意见 — dates and the two-working-day clock.
3. Interconnection design reply: connection point, voltage level, metering point, who builds and pays for what.
4. Dispatch agreement and purchase contract: based on the 2021 model texts; filed with the NEA office.
5. Inspection record and platform registration: the only documents that evidence a live connection.

Where any of these is missing, treat "approved" as "in progress".

Scope limits

This guide reads the rules, not a specific project. It does not cover provincial approval (核准) procedures for utility-scale plants, grid-company internal forms, or curtailment and settlement practice. Articles cited are from the Chinese texts; translations are CNWattHub's.