China orders power companies to wire up customers in 5 days, no fees, no paperwork

China's state energy commission just tightened deadlines for connecting new electricity customers and expanded free connections to small businesses. Power companies now have 5 working days to connect customers with no external grid work, or 15 days if they have to build new lines — and they must absorb the cost for businesses using up to 160 kilowatts, roughly double the old threshold.

This is a cost shift. Power companies absorb connection infrastructure costs they used to pass to customers, which means they have to plan grid expansion differently — faster, more proactive, less customer-by-customer negotiation. The real move is the speed mandate: 5 days forces utilities to pre-build capacity and staff up connection teams instead of batching work. For small businesses and rural areas, this removes the friction that used to delay operations by weeks or months. The binding timeline with no escape clause (utilities must report delays to regulators) means this is not aspirational — it will reshape how Chinese utilities budget and schedule.