This is Roundtable.
For decades, Chinese factories and families saved money by waiting until midnight to use bulk electricity.
But as solar power floods the grid, the cheapest electricity is not necessarily happening at midnight.
And with record heat driving up power usage, operators are rethinking how to design the system in a smarter way.
And maybe in the future, our bills could tell us exactly when to use cheaper power.
Coming to you from our studios in Beijing, this is Roundtable.
I'm Fei Fei, and for today's program, I'm joined by Steve Heatherly and Yushan.
First on today's show: China's electricity grid is flipping upside down,
and for decades, the smart move was quite simple.
You wait until midnight when demand drops and prices fall,
and then you can fire up those factory machines or charge your EVs.
But that old rule is dying.
Solar power is not so abundant at midday, and prices are crashing while midnight rates are climbing as the sun sets.
Add a brutal summer heatwave squeezing regional grids,
operators are now hunting for smarter ways to balance supply and demand.
So the entire system is being rewritten.
And here is the question maybe for all of us:
What is the smartest way for us to wisely redesign our use of electricity?
And hello, Yushan and Steve in the studio.
I think first of all, we can talk about what's happening