On April 8, 2026, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), jointly with the National Energy Administration (NEA) and other two national ministries issued the Action Plan for Promoting Mutual Empowerment between Artificial Intelligence (hereinafter referred to as “the Action Plan”) with the core objective of promoting mutual empowerment and coordinated development between artificial intelligence (AI) and the energy sector.

The Action Plan puts forward general goals in two periods: initially establish an energy support system for AI development by 2027, and to achieve world-leading levels in related technologies and applications by 2030. Overall, it aims to strengthen safe, green, and economical energy support for AI computing infrastructure, whereas it seeks to leverage AI's multiplicative effect on energy transition, enhancing the clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient performance of the energy system.

This policy document constructs a comprehensive framework spanning energy supply, computing infrastructure, application scenarios, data, models, and ecosystem policies, aiming to achieve deep integration and mutual empowerment of AI and energy. Specific measures listed in the Action Plan are structured in eight key areas:

-   Secure safe, reliable energy supplies for computing infrastructure;

-   Promote the green and low-carbon transition of computing infrastructure by increasing the share of green electricity consumed, improve energy efficiency, and refine policies for direct green power connections;

-   Foster efficient synergy between computing power and electricity through market mechanisms;

-   Open up high-value application scenarios in the energy sector, while establishing a closed-loop mechanism for scenario discovery, validation, and large-scale deployment;

-   Unlock the value of energy data by building high-quality datasets, ensure data security, and activate the data element market;

-   Foster innovation in energy-specific AI models, advancing specialized foundation models, and promote the use of autonomous and controllable software and hardware;

-   Build an ecosystem for collaborative development, including standardization, safety governance, international cooperation, and talent cultivation;

-   Provide policy support through technological innovation, outcome commercialization, and financial backing, along with implementation and monitoring mechanisms.

After years of development and accumulation, China considers its energy sector possesses extremely rich, accurate, and complete data resources, as well as highly promising, challenging, and valuable application scenarios, making the energy sector a natural "training ground" for artificial intelligence. So the document also elaborate requirements and actions to be taken in terms of standardization as follows:

-   Establish and improve planning and construction standards for energy supply in computing infrastructure, as well as standards, specifications, and evaluation systems for energy application scenarios. 

-   Develop standards for building high-quality datasets in the energy sector, classification and grading standards for data, and market-oriented rules for data value assessment and revenue distribution. 

-   Accelerate the development of key technical standards that are urgently needed, such as evaluation methods for AI application capabilities in the energy sector, green and low-carbon performance assessment for computing facilities etc., and promote the internationalization of these standards. 

-   Formulate standards for defining safety responsibilities in AI applications within the energy sector, and establish a mechanism for quantifying and evaluating the value of such applications.

Foreign stakeholders are advised to notice that the publication of this Action Plan signals that energy is no longer merely a "passive supplier" to AI development, nor is AI merely a "technical tool" for the energy transition. Their deep coupling will inject strong momentum into the high-quality development of China’s digital economy and the construction of a new energy system, and therefore both new market opportunities and regulatory requirements may emerge.