By Shi Yaodong & Zhou Yi, Research Team on “Review and Experience of the Past 40 Years of Reform and Opening up”, DRC

Research Report, No.176, 2019 (Total 5676) 2019-10-9

Abstract: In the past forty years, the electric power sector has achieved development through reform, providing a solid guarantee for the national economy and social development. This paper touches upon three situations of the electric power sector at the beginning of the reform, including the state monopoly operation, integrated function of the government and the enterprise and the characteristics of state planning, as well as the problems caused by the above situations like shortage and low efficiency. Then, it sorts out the reform of the electric power sector into three stages, which can be roughly concluded as the stage of exploring and conducting pilot projects, delegating powers and separating the government and enterprises, the stage of industrial restructuring and market-oriented reform, and the stage of accelerating reforms, price reform and optimizing the structure. Generally speaking, the electric power sector has yielded great fruits in the past forty years, but there are still some problems that need to be addressed through deepening reforms. We need to establish a law-based and regulated market system in which functions of the government and enterprises are separated, the market entity is standardized, the transaction is fair, and the price is reasonable, with focuses on such aspects as reforms of electricity price, electricity trading system, power generation and utility planning, open access to the power grid on a fair basis, and scientific supervision.

Key words: power sector, reform process, deepen reforms, policy options