To achieve carbon neutrality, the energy and power system, the main source of China’s carbon emissions, needs to undergo a “decarbonization revolution”. The core of this revolution involves reshaping the pattern of energy supply and demand by applying disruptive technological innovations. Using the theory of a multilevel perspective to analyze the evolution of China’s energy and power systems, issues and challenges are presented. Combined with the theory of disruptive technology, this study constructed a framework for China’s dynamic energy and power transition driven by disruptive energy technologies from a multilevel perspective. The proposed transition framework provides pathways for China’s energy and power transitions driven by disruptive energy technologies from a multilevel perspective. Energy technologies with the potential for disruptive changes are cultivated in the transformation pathway and technological substitution (early stage of the transition). In the reconfiguration pathway phase (mid-period of the transition), disruptive technologies enter a period of growth and diffusion, gradually shaping new technology mixes and regimes, and the existing high-carbon energy socio-technical regime is being reconfigured on a large scale. In the dealignment and realignment pathway (late stage of the transition), disruptive technologies enter a mature and stable phase, driving a fundamental change in the energy structure and achieving a new type of energy system that is clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient.

With the increasing proportion of new factors, such as distributed generation and electric vehicles connected to the power grid, the field of distribution networks is becoming increasingly complex. A secondary system must be constructed for a distribution network that can adapt to the construction demands of a new power system to enhance the local autonomy and fault self-healing ability of the distribution network. First, the challenges faced by the development of distribution networks in the new situation are analyzed, and the current development status and existing problems of the existing secondary systems of distribution networks are summarized from four aspects: data acquisition, transmission, storage, and application. Then, to address the problems in various aspects of the secondary system of distribution networks, a development strategy of “controlling the middle and letting go of both ends” is proposed. The future architecture of each aspect of the secondary system of distribution networks is discussed, providing a reference for their construction under the new power system.