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Measures to improve the performance of China’s thermal power industry in view of cost efficiency

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  • Wang, Yi-Shu
  • Xie, Bai-Chen
  • Shang, Li-Feng
  • Li, Wen-Hua

Abstract

The heavy losses of China’s thermal power industry have attracted lots of attention. Besides the adjustment of power price, how to improve its poor performance becomes an important issue. Combining the cost Malmquist with the Luenberger index, this paper introduces a new method to measure the cost efficiencies of China’s 30 provinces’ thermal power industries with carbon emissions considered. Furthermore, we quantify the influence of input price changes on the price effect (PE) using panel data regression. The empirical results indicate that: (1) combining dynamic efficiency with static efficiency, the results will be more objective; (2) compared with previous emphasis on adjusting external factors, the future policy reforms should incentivize corporations to improve their management; and (3) external fuel price change is not the direct reason for cost efficiency fluctuation, and the thermal power industry should make more efforts to improve their technical efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Yi-Shu & Xie, Bai-Chen & Shang, Li-Feng & Li, Wen-Hua, 2013. "Measures to improve the performance of China’s thermal power industry in view of cost efficiency," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1078-1086.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:112:y:2013:i:c:p:1078-1086
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.01.037
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    7. Xie, Bai-Chen & Shang, Li-Feng & Yang, Si-Bo & Yi, Bo-Wen, 2014. "Dynamic environmental efficiency evaluation of electric power industries: Evidence from OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countrie," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 147-157.
    8. Zhigang Zhu & Xuping Zhang & Yujia Wang & Xiang Chen, 2021. "Energy Cost Performance of Thermal Power Industry in China Considering Regional Heterogeneity: A Meta-Frontier Cost Malmquist Productivity Decomposition Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-19, June.
    9. Andr s Oviedo-G mez & Sandra Milena Londo o-Hern ndez & Diego Fernando Manotas-Duque, 2023. "Directional Spillover of Fossil Fuels Prices on a Hydrothermal Power Generation Market," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(1), pages 85-90, January.
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    13. Song, Chenxi & Li, Mingjia & Wen, Zhexi & He, Ya-Ling & Tao, Wen-Quan & Li, Yangzhe & Wei, Xiangyang & Yin, Xiaolan & Huang, Xing, 2014. "Research on energy efficiency evaluation based on indicators for industry sectors in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 550-562.
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    17. Duan, Na & Guo, Jun-Peng & Xie, Bai-Chen, 2016. "Is there a difference between the energy and CO2 emission performance for China’s thermal power industry? A bootstrapped directional distance function approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 1552-1563.
    18. Li, Feng & Zhang, Danlu & Zhang, Jinyu & Kou, Gang, 2022. "Measuring the energy production and utilization efficiency of Chinese thermal power industry with the fixed-sum carbon emission constraint," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
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    20. Fan, Meiting & Shao, Shuai & Yang, Lili, 2015. "Combining global Malmquist–Luenberger index and generalized method of moments to investigate industrial total factor CO2 emission performance: A case of Shanghai (China)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 189-201.
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