Now there is a saying that "reform will raise prices", which gives people the impression that electricity reform has triggered price increases. In many western countries, the reform of power system is often accompanied by the decline of electricity price. We are just the opposite. Why? This paper attempts to make a brief analysis of this.

First of all, economic transformation is the institutional reason why electricity prices cannot be reduced.

During the period of 1993, at the international seminar on strategic choice of electric power industry reform in China, the director of the Bureau of Industrial Energy of the World Bank compared the characteristics of electric power industry in developing countries and developed countries: "As far as power consumption is concerned, the level of developing countries is low, while that of developed countries is high. In terms of per capita electricity consumption, the former is only1/80 of the latter; This has an impact on policy. The development of electric power industry is a matter of great concern to developing countries, but it is different in developed countries. As far as the development speed is concerned, the annual growth rate of developed countries is very low, only about 1%, which can be solved by improving the efficiency of electricity consumption, while developing countries are different, with high economic development speed, and it is impossible not to increase energy and electricity consumption. In terms of price, developing countries have low energy prices and government subsidies; Energy prices in developed countries are determined by the market. In terms of energy production, the energy industry in developing countries is monopolized by the government, and mandatory and controlling laws and regulations are adopted; However, developed countries adopt open and transparent laws and regulations in which the government and private enterprises coexist and enterprises control themselves and check and balance. There are information barriers and low levels of technology and capital in developing countries; Developed countries act according to the laws of market, value and supply and demand, with smooth information, high technical level and high efficiency. " Of course, it is possible for developing countries to improve efficiency and reduce costs after changing from government monopoly operation to market operation; However, the electricity price in developing countries is low, and market-oriented reform will raise the electricity price; Generally speaking, the power industry in developed countries can reduce the cost and electricity price after introducing competition mechanism because of its high original pricing. However, after the introduction of competition mechanism, the power industry in developing countries can reduce costs. Because the original price is not in place, it is necessary to raise the price to meet the needs of market-oriented reform. This is caused by the different characteristics of the original power industry in developing countries and developed countries.

Second, the long-term low electricity price is the fundamental reason why the electricity price can't come down.

The director of the Industrial Energy Bureau of the World Bank said: "The reform in developing countries has strictly controlled the public power industry, and the government requires power companies to undertake too many social obligations. Many countries believe that cheap electricity is beneficial to social and economic development and artificially lowers electricity prices. According to the statistics of 1988, the weighted average electricity price of 63 developing countries is only 0.043 USD/kWh, which is only 50% of the average electricity price of OECD countries, and the weighted average electricity price of OECD countries is 0.08 USD/kWh. Both developing and developed countries consume energy to generate electricity. Developed countries have high technical level, high efficiency and low consumption, but their prices are higher than those of developing countries. The main reason is that developing countries sell electricity at a price far below the cost. It is estimated that the actual average marginal cost of developing countries is 0. 10 USD/kwh or more. In other words, if the power industry in developing countries is priced at marginal cost, the average electricity price in developing countries should be higher than that in developed countries. "

Many people may wonder whether the electricity price in China is low. In other words, many people admit that the electricity price in China was low in the planned economy era and the early days of reform and opening up, but they have doubts about whether the electricity price in China is low in recent years. In fact, after the reform and opening up, China's power industry relies on price increases outside the price, and some power supply enterprises rely on arbitrary price increases and arbitrary charges to maintain development. This is an obvious fact. Since 1998 power supply and demand eased, various out-of-price price increases and out-of-price charges have been gradually cancelled, and even the subsidies for power supply projects that existed in the planned economy era have been cancelled. The catalogue electricity price in China is still low. Generally speaking, China's electricity price is low, especially for residents. If the power industry is to embark on the road of competitive market-oriented reform, the electricity price will inevitably rise.

In a developing country like China, the view that low electricity prices are beneficial to social and economic development is deeply rooted, and so is China. It has always been thought that the residential electricity price should not be high, otherwise it will affect the electricity consumption of low-income families and poor households, and require power companies to undertake too many social obligations. As a result of artificially lowering the electricity price, the electricity consumption is unreasonable, the economic benefit is not high, and the power industry is short of funds, which can not guarantee sufficient power supply and lead to power shortage; The artificially low electricity price makes it impossible for the power industry to obtain power investment, and even the maintenance of old power plants is difficult to maintain, let alone update and transform. This is the fundamental reason for the long-term power shortage in developing countries and China in the planned economy era. To solve the problem of low electricity price and power shortage in the power industry, we must first solve the concept that low electricity price is beneficial to social and economic development, and give the power industry a reasonable price so that it can maintain simple reproduction and expand the capital demand for reproduction.

Third, the supply-side electricity price structure is unbalanced, which urgently needs a reasonable return of electricity price.

In China, there has been a long-standing situation that "rebirth becomes light supply, while construction is heavy and existing is light". After the reform and opening up, the electric power reform is also being regenerated and rebuilt. During the period of 1985, the State Council decided to implement the policy of multi-source power supply and multi-channel fund-raising power supply. Whether it is the implementation of the electricity price of debt service, the upward adjustment of fuel electricity price and the policy of electric power construction fund, it is mainly to take care of power generation projects; Later, the implementation of the operating period electricity price only replaced the original "debt service electricity price" policy. As a result of these reform policies, the return on assets of independent power generation companies reached 7. 1% and the return on net assets was 9.5%. The return on assets of State Grid Corporation is only 65,438+0.65%, and the return on net assets is only 0.55%. When the power system was reformed in 2002, the on-grid tariff of power generation enterprises was implemented according to the original on-grid tariff. For the old power plants owned by the former State Power Company, the temporary on-grid tariff is verified according to the principle of compensation cost, and the remaining part after deducting the sales tariff is the transmission and distribution tariff. According to this method, the original high on-grid electricity price, high profit, low transmission and distribution and low profit are maintained; The new power plant has high on-grid electricity price and high profit, while the old power plant has low on-grid electricity price and low profit.

According to statistics, before the end of 1990s, the proportion of investment in power generation, transmission and distribution in China was about1:0.265,438+0: 0.65,438+02, while that in the United States was 1:0.43:0.7 and that in Britain was1:. If the total investment in the power industry is 1, the investment in power transmission and distribution projects in China accounts for 25%, and a considerable part of the investment is raised by charging users for power supply projects, while the investment in power transmission and distribution in the United States, Britain and Japan accounts for 55%-60% of the total investment in the power industry.

Judging from the absolute level and the proportion of transmission and distribution prices, China's transmission and distribution prices are very low. In 2002, China's transmission and distribution price accounted for 26.7% of the sales price, while developed countries can reach about 60%. In the case of low sales price in China, the proportion of transmission and distribution price in sales price is low, even lower than that in other countries. The transmission and distribution prices in China are only 1/3 in Britain, 1/4 in Germany and 1/6 in Japan. Such a low transmission and distribution price makes the profitability of power grid companies seriously low, the debt ratio rises, and it is difficult to raise construction funds. Therefore, it is inevitable to raise the transmission and distribution price and promote the sales price level when the power industry is undergoing market-oriented reform.

Fourth, the distortion of the sales electricity price structure also makes the electricity price need to be raised moderately.

There are some problems in China's sales price: first, the classification of sales price is unreasonable; Second, the price relationship between various types of electricity prices is unreasonable; Third, there are many kinds of preferential electricity prices; Fourth, increase the price outside the price.

Due to the unreasonable classification of sales electricity price, unreasonable price comparison of various electricity prices, excessive preferential electricity prices and price increases, the electricity price is seriously distorted. Anyone who can get low price and preferential electricity price from public power grid will rely on public power grid to buy electricity; Users who have to bear the cross-subsidy will do everything possible to build their own power plants, and they will build their own self-management and self-supply to avoid the subsidy responsibility. As a result, small coal-fired power and pseudo-thermoelectric power prevail and the advantages of public power grid are completely lost. Because of these problems, the direct purchase of electricity by large users has been seriously affected. Under the condition of separation of power plant and power grid, large users build their own power plants and directly buy and flee from the public power grid. There are only various users with preferential power supply in the public power grid, and the public power grid will buy electricity at a high price and sell electricity at a low price, resulting in serious losses and unsustainable.

The purpose of market-oriented reform of electric power industry is for the sustainable development, efficiency and fairness of electric power industry. Under the condition of market economy, the price consumers face is the marginal cost of social production. If the price is artificially distorted, the effective allocation of resources cannot be realized. We cross-subsidize the electricity prices of residential electricity, agricultural electricity and agricultural products, which is to artificially distort the sales electricity price. According to the research of welfare economics, we can know that it is better to give income subsidies to specific groups than to subsidize them through price distortion. We must make up our minds to ban all practices that distort electricity prices, and it is necessary to raise prices appropriately.

Five, the shortage of energy resources forced coal-electricity linkage is imperative.

In recent years, the world oil and gas prices have remained high, and coal prices have also risen sharply. As an energy conversion industry, the power industry continues to maintain low-cost power supply, and users tend to use more power to avoid bearing high-priced energy. Anyone who can use electricity instead of oil and gas should use electricity as much as possible. Some of these energy substitutes are reasonable, which can save investment and cost, and also can save energy resources. Some of them are unreasonable, which will cause waste of energy resources, such as burning hot water and heating with electricity, and the efficiency of electricity use is extremely low. In recent years, the growth rate of electricity consumption is not only higher than that of energy, but also higher than that of GDP. The elasticity coefficient of power consumption is greater than 1 for six consecutive years.

The fundamental reason for this situation is that the prices of oil, natural gas and coal have far exceeded the range of cost+reasonable profit+tax. Oil and natural gas have made huge profits, but today they demand small profits or losses in the power industry, which cannot reflect their scarcity. In the case of a sharp rise in energy prices, the only way for electricity in the energy conversion industry is that the electricity price fluctuates with the energy price, which is the coal-electricity linkage implemented in China.

In order to maintain the reasonable price parity of terminal energy, promote the rational utilization of energy and save energy resources, the electricity price should be reasonably increased with the increase of oil, gas and coal prices. Of course, the price increase should be moderate, taking into account the affordability of the national economy in many aspects, and maintaining the price parity relationship of oil, natural gas, electricity and heat. However, from the published electricity price reform plan and the three management methods of on-grid electricity price, transmission and distribution price and sales electricity price, it is still far from this requirement.

The above shows that in the process of reform, electricity prices often rise. The author thinks that China's power system reform should introduce competition between power generation and power sale, straighten out the electricity price before large users buy electricity directly, classify the electricity price first, straighten out the electricity price level, cancel the preferential electricity price and cancel the price increase.