DgcitySichuan, the province behind much of China’s hydropower, has approved a three-year plan to build more than 13 gigawatts of new-type energy storage, a sign that even the country’s best-endowed renewable regions are racing to make clean power more reliable.
The plan, issued by the provincial development and reform commission and energy bureau, targets at least 13 gigawatts and 26 gigawatt-hours of storage between 2026 and 2028. It splits the buildout across the system: five gigawatts on the power-source side, six gigawatts on the grid side and at least two gigawatts for multi-scenario applications.
The accompanying project list names 67 independent grid-side storage stations totaling 7.16 gigawatts, drawn from two batches and a group of demonstration projects. Most use lithium-ion batteries, though compressed air and other technologies are being explored across China.
Sichuan’s motives are rooted in painful experience. Its dams make it one of the cleanest-power provinces in China, sending electricity to the industrial east through west-to-east transmission lines. But in the severe drought of 2022, rivers shrank and hydropower fell sharply, forcing factories to ration electricity and exposing the risk of depending on rainfall alone.
Storage offers a buffer, charging when dams, wind and solar produce more than is needed and releasing power during evening peaks or dry spells. Grid-side systems in particular can ease bottlenecks and reduce the need to curtail renewable generation.
New-type storage, in the planners’ terminology, means technologies other than traditional pumped hydro, the mountain reservoirs that have long stored water behind dams. Lithium-ion stations now make up most of the new fleet, responding within seconds to grid signals, while Sichuan is also studying flow batteries and compressed air. Unlike pumped hydro, battery stations can be built close to cities or existing substations in months rather than years, which is why provinces are turning to them to meet near-term targets.
The plan also reflects a national shift. After years of building panels, turbines and dams, China is now investing heavily in the less visible infrastructure that holds a renewables-heavy system together, with provinces from Sichuan to Inner Mongolia setting aggressive storage targets for the rest of the decade.
