Performance and challenges of power sector reform in China since 2015

IF 4.1 2区综合性期刊 Q1 MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES

iScience Pub Date : 2025-08-28 DOI:10.1016/j.isci.2025.113461

Yanbo Feng , Jiang Lin , Feng Song , Mun Sing Ho

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Abstract

China has launched a comprehensive market-oriented reform of the power sector since 2015 to foster competition and enhance efficiency. This article summarizes the progress, achievements, and challenges of these reforms. Progress has been made in enhancing competition in wholesale and retail markets, strengthening regulation over grid costs and services, expanding inter-regional transmission, and promoting renewable electricity. Reform efforts have yielded several notable achievements: significantly improving generation efficiency, particularly among smaller-capacity units in the short term; substantially reducing industrial and commercial electricity prices, though primarily due to government intervention rather than market competition; effectively capturing market dynamics through spot market, although their limited scale has constrained broader impacts; and improving efficiency and welfare through market integration but raising concerns about equity. In the transition to a low-carbon energy future, two pivotal challenges remain: striking a balance between market mechanisms and government intervention; and ensuring system flexibility and long-term resource adequacy.

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2015年以来中国电力行业改革的绩效与挑战

自2015年以来，中国启动了电力行业全面市场化改革，以促进竞争，提高效率。本文总结了这些改革的进展、成就和挑战。加强批发和零售市场竞争，加强电网成本和服务监管，扩大区域间输电，推广可再生能源发电等方面取得进展。改革工作取得了几项显著成果：在短期内显著提高发电效率，特别是小容量机组的发电效率；大幅降低工业和商业电价，尽管主要是由于政府干预而不是市场竞争；通过现货市场有效捕捉市场动态，尽管其有限的规模限制了更广泛的影响；通过市场一体化提高效率和福利，但也引发了对公平的担忧。在向低碳能源未来转型的过程中，仍然存在两个关键挑战：在市场机制和政府干预之间取得平衡；确保系统灵活性和长期资源充足性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

iScience Multidisciplinary-Multidisciplinary

CiteScore

7.20

自引率

1.70%

发文量

1972

审稿时长

6 weeks

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