In August, the southern region entered a critical period for summer peak power supply assurance, with the regional maximum load reaching 282 million kilowatts, setting a new record high for the sixth time this year. The overall settlement average price on the user side of the wholesale market rose only 0.5% month-on-month. Output from clean energy sources such as hydropower and wind power declined slightly year-on-year. Spot market prices experienced a modest increase, and overall market operations remained stable.

Spot market prices recovered somewhat compared to July. In August, the weighted average price of the day-ahead market across the entire network was 0.355 yuan per kilowatt-hour, while the real-time market weighted average price was 0.36 yuan per kilowatt-hour, rising 19.9% and 20.4% respectively on a month-on-month basis. By province, affected by lower-than-normal rainfall during the flood season and reduced hydropower output, prices in western provinces rebounded notably, with day-ahead average prices in Guizhou, Guangxi, and Yunnan all increasing by more than 30% month-on-month. In Guangdong and Hainan, high load levels combined with rising fuel prices led to slight price increases.

Of particular note, medium- and long-term contracts played an effective role as a stabilizing anchor. In August, the proportion of medium- and long-term contracted electricity on the user side of the wholesale market reached 84.5%, with an average contract price of 0.3257 yuan per kilowatt-hour, down 3.1% month-on-month. The high proportion of medium- and long-term contracts effectively offset the impact of rising spot prices, with the overall settlement average price on the user side of the wholesale market at 0.3158 yuan per kilowatt-hour, up only 0.5% month-on-month. By province, as spot prices recovered, user-side settlement average prices in Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou rose 16.4%, 8.8%, and 3.9% respectively. In Guangdong and Hainan, where medium- and long-term contract prices dominated, settlement average prices fell 3.0% and 3.1% respectively.

In terms of inter-provincial trading, total settled electricity across provinces in August was 28.77 billion kilowatt-hours, roughly flat compared to July. The proportion of spot deviation electricity dropped to 5.2%. Electricity was mainly concentrated in Yunnan-to-Guangdong and Yunnan-to-Guangxi transmissions, with additional deliveries of 820 million kilowatt-hours and 360 million kilowatt-hours respectively. Total settled electricity across operating regions was 2.69 billion kilowatt-hours, up 39.1% month-on-month. This included cumulative support of 1.249 billion kilowatt-hours to State Grid regions such as Shanghai and Jiangsu, and cumulative purchases of 34 million kilowatt-hours from State Grid regions such as Gansu and Anhui.

It was also learned that, to facilitate flexible participation by market entities in various medium- and long-term transactions, starting from September 1, the Guangzhou Power Exchange Center, together with the exchange centers of the five provinces and regions, achieved continuous natural-day trading for medium- and long-term transactions across the entire region. Retail market prices remained generally stable. In August, the average settlement price for retail users in the five provinces and regions was 0.314 yuan per kilowatt-hour, up 1.4% month-on-month, with end-user electricity costs remaining generally manageable. Among them, Yunnan, affected by the recovery in wholesale market prices and a relatively high proportion of spot-linked retail packages, saw a retail average price of 0.1305 yuan per kilowatt-hour, up 7.9% month-on-month, but still the lowest among the five provinces and regions, while other provinces remained essentially flat.