Reforming the Chinese Electricity Supply Sector: Lessons from Global Experience

The Chinese electricity sector is the largest in the world, covering well over 20% of the world's electricity supply. While many other countries liberalized their electricity systems in the 1990s, thereby creating competitive wholesale and retail electricity markets, China’s move towards liberalization has advanced at a slower pace – until now. 

Following the China State Council's publication of the No. 9 document on 'Deepening Reform of the Power Sector', this book reflects on the ambitious new round of reforms aimed at introducing competitive wholesale electricity markets and incentive regulation for its power grids. Written in collaboration with Hao Chen, Lewis Dale and Chung-Han Yang, this book provides lessons for China’s reforms from international experience, combining a detailed review of reforms from around the world with specific application to China and focuses on how the industrial price of electricity is determined in a liberalized power system.

Michael G. Pollitt is Professor of Business Economics at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK. He is Assistant Director of the Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG), joint Academic Director of the Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), and sits on the council of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE). He is one of Europe’s leading energy economists and has published extensively on the impacts of electricity reforms across the world.