Carbon-economic equilibrium strategy towards a green electric coal supply chain integrated with coalbed methane under low carbon policies and hydropower volatilities

Abstract

China’s increasingly strict environmental protection policy is posing a major challenge to the energy saving and emission reduction efforts in the electric-coal supply chain. Against the backdrop, the equilibrium between economic cost and carbon emissions in the electric-coal supply chain, based on coalbed methane power-generation application and green supply chain theory, has attracted more and more attention. This paper, with an aim to achieve the equilibrium between the total economic cost and carbon emission reduction, constructs a equilibrium strategy for green electric-coal supply chain (GECSC) integrated with coalbed methane (CBM) under low carbon policies, and then applies the equilibrium strategy to a quantitative simulation based on a practical case. Taking full account of scenarios with different carbon cap and CBM utilization under carbon cap, and carbon cap-and-trading and carbon offset policies, proposition and management insights for carbon-economic equilibrium of green electric-coal supply chain are worked out, which indicates the utility and validity of the equilibrium strategy. In addition, the sensitivities analysis was made on impact of varying carbon prices on the GECSC. Eventually, the GECSC is extended to a resilient GECSC which is able to solve inherent volatilities of hydropower allocated to eastern or coastal areas. The results demonstrate the proposed equilibrium strategy can effectively realize trade-off between economic development, pollutants emission reduction of the green electric-coal supply chain, and ensure the stabilities of its power supply.