The Hebei Provincial Development and Reform Commission has recently published a public notice concerning the centralized handling of 85 standalone energy storage projects. Under this new policy, 69 projects have been granted an extension to begin construction before January 31, 2027, while 16 projects have been outright removed from the construction plan. The total capacity affected by these measures amounts to 11.665 GW.

According to the official notification, the deferred projects account for 6.905 GW across 69 sites, while the cancelled ones total 1.75 GW across 16 sites. A closer look at the geographical distribution shows that Hengshui City has seen seven energy storage projects either postponed or scrapped. Notably, the cities of Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, and Langfang together account for more than 55% of all delayed projects in the province. Prior to this move, a special inspection targeting 100 standalone storage projects across seven cities in Hebei had found that only four had successfully connected to the grid.

This decisive action by Hebei is supported by clear policy guidelines. In April of this year, the provincial energy authority issued a notice establishing two firm regulatory thresholds. Projects listed in the provincial construction plan must begin substantive work within nine months and reach full grid connection within fifteen months. Only a single extension of up to six months is permitted, and any missed deadline results in automatic disqualification. The policy also tightens the definition of what counts as “substantive commencement,” requiring that both land pre-approval and grid connection approval be in place. Furthermore, the pouring of the first concrete for the storage area and substation must be verified on-site, meaning that token activities like ground-breaking ceremonies or fencing are no longer accepted as valid progress.

Hebei’s approach is hardly unique in the current landscape. Over the past year or so, many regions have been intensifying their efforts to clean up and regulate the energy storage sector. Shanxi Province, for instance, has implemented a quarterly dynamic adjustment mechanism for its project database, and in this year’s first quarter alone, the fifth round of revisions removed 31 projects with a combined capacity of 6.05 GW. In Ningxia, several cities have been nullifying overdue projects in batches; one group of nine projects in the Litong District of Wuzhong City represented a total investment exceeding 5.4 billion yuan. Meanwhile, Inner Mongolia has moved to implement look-through supervision on equity changes during the construction period and within two years of operation, cracking down on the practice of “scalping project approvals.”

Industry analysts attribute the phenomenon of projects being “zoned but not built” to three primary factors. First, many developers lack the necessary capital, as equity funding has not been secured and financing cannot be closed. Second, grid connection conditions are frequently inadequate, with the power flow analysis showing that the local power grid cannot accommodate the new capacity. Third, some enterprises simply lack the operational expertise required for energy storage, having submitted their applications with the sole intention of securing a place in the quota. Beyond these, the weakening economics of storage projects, rising equipment costs, and a decline in leasing demand following the cancellation of mandatory storage requirements have all contributed to a wait-and-see attitude among potential builders.

In January of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration jointly issued a notice on perfecting the capacity pricing mechanism for the generation side. This document clarifies that grid-side standalone new-type storage projects will be managed through a list-based system. Only those projects that are included in the provincial dynamic list and genuinely achieve grid connection will be eligible for the capacity electricity price support. There is broad consensus within the industry that as regional clean-up efforts continue, valuable resources such as land and grid node capacity will gradually be reallocated to projects that possess the genuine ability to be built and completed.