Power price limit coal price development and reform commission to play a price adjustment "combination boxing"

November 30th, 2011 Chart: China will test residents' ladder price system Xinhua News Agency reporter Lu Zhe has prepared a trial ladder price for residents, a temporary ceiling price for coal, and a non-residential electricity price increase. The National Development and Reform Commission announced a set of coal price regulation yesterday. "Combination punches."

In terms of electricity prices, since December 1st, the average on-grid tariff for coal-fired power plants nationwide has increased by 2.6 cents per kilowatt-hour, and the subsidy for renewable energy tariffs to be levied with the sales price has been raised from 0.4 cents per kilowatt hour to 0.8. Dividends, conducted to the terminal non-resident sales price, are an average of 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. The National Development and Reform Commission also announced that it has tried a ladder-based electricity price system for residents' electricity prices. For coal, the contracted coal price increase that coal companies supply to power companies from January 1st next year must not exceed 5% of the contract price in the previous year, and the maximum price of coal in the major ports of 5500 kcal in the market should not exceed one tonne. 800 yuan, while the direct coal transportation market price control is not higher than the level of April this year.

On-grid tariff and sales price increase The National Development and Reform Commission announced that since December 1st, the on-grid electricity price of coal-fired power plants nationwide has increased by an average of 2.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. The additional renewable energy price standard to be levied with the sales price will be 0.4 per kilowatt-hour. Dividends have been increased to 0.8 cents; in some regions, the denitrification price policy has been implemented for coal-fired power plants that have installed and operated denitrification devices, and 0.8 cents per kilowatt-hour outside the on-grid tariff has been used to offset the increase in denitrification costs. The above measures have affected the average sales price of electricity in the country by approximately 3 cents per kilowatt-hour.

For the sales price increase of 3 points per kilowatt-hour, the industry believes that it is the normal transmission of downstream prices after the previous two on-grid tariff adjustments. Some analysts told reporters: “The two price adjustments in the previous year only adjusted the on-grid price, and the sales price did not move, which caused a certain impact on the profitability of the power grid. From the perspective of the adjustment of sales price, the basic adjustment was synchronized with the increase in on-grid tariff. It is also for the purpose of smoothing the effects of price adjustments downstream."

Speaking of the background of the price increase, an analyst who declined to be named told reporters that since the beginning of this year, the rising coal price has caused the “ignition price” of thermal power generation companies to be almost equal to the on-grid tariff, and even added various financial expenses. Later, it was higher than the on-grid tariff, which caused power generation companies to suffer profit losses, and their enthusiasm for generating electricity declined. It is reported that many local power generation companies use "downtime maintenance", "freight increase" and other excuse not to buy coal, do not boot, which is undoubtedly caused by the use of electricity in winter in areas where electricity is a hidden danger. The increase in electricity prices is also intended to provide appropriate compensation to power generation companies in order to mobilize their enthusiasm.

Regarding whether the increase of 2.6 cents will bring substantial benefits to power generation companies, Lin Boqiang, professor of the China Energy Economics Institute of Xiamen University, said in an interview with this reporter: “The 2.6 cents contain 0.8 cents out of stock cost, that is, Said that the power company actually got 1.6 cents, according to the existing thermal power consumption, the increase of 1 point on-grid tariff will bring 42 billion yuan in revenue to the power companies, actually adjusting 1.6 cents will bring nearly 80 billion yuan income."

According to the previous argument that the thermal power company announced a loss of 100 billion yuan, Lin Boqiang believes that after the increase in the price of electricity, the power company's losses can be basically compensated, and it is expected to gradually move toward profitability.

For the renewable energy surcharge of 0.4 cents added to the sales price, the NDRC stated that in order to promote the development of renewable energy, the “Renewable Energy Law” stipulates that the renewable energy power generation price is higher than the conventional energy power generation price in the country. Apportion within range. Since 2006, the state has imposed renewable energy price surcharges on the sale price. At present, China's renewable energy tariffs are levied at a rate of 0.4 cents per kilowatt-hour, and the annual amount collected is about 10 billion yuan. With the rapid development of renewable energy power generation, the renewable energy price-additional funds have not been able to make ends meet. In 2010, the gap was about 2 billion yuan; in 2011, the gap was about 10 billion yuan. In the future, with the development of renewable energy, the demand for this additional fund will further increase.

"Renewable energy consumption is 0.4 cents per kilowatt-hour subsidy. According to the current 4 trillion kilowatt-hours of renewable energy consumption, the subsidy scale is about 16 billion yuan," the relevant securities analyst told reporters.

The ladder price reform plan emerged in this coal power comprehensive adjustment program. The coal price limit and power price increase seem to be only short-term policy adjustments in Lim Bo-keung’s view. “There is still far from being coal-electricity linkage,” but he also believes that In this program, one of the measures related to electricity price reform has been started. This is the “Guidance on Pilot Electricity Prices for Residents' Living Electricity Trials” (hereinafter referred to as the “Guidance Opinions”) issued by the National Development and Reform Commission.

According to the "Guiding Opinions," the current single form of residential electricity price will be changed to implement different electricity price standards according to different consumer electricity consumption, and the electricity price will increase step by step in three steps with the increase of electricity consumption. The electricity price that covers 80% of the residents' electricity consumption will remain unchanged. The price of electricity between 80% and 95% will rise by 3 cents, while the unit price that uses the most electricity in the remaining 5% will be Price increase is 0.3 yuan. At the same time, low-income groups will be provided with 10 kWh or 15 kWh of free electricity per household per month. This policy needs to be implemented by local governments following the price hearing process.

“Although the ladder price policy is a substantial price increase for high-use electricity users, it is actually a measure to balance the total amount. The more you use it in the future, the more you pay for it. This is also in line with the principle of fairness.” An energy expert told reporters .

In fact, since October of last year, China has been openly soliciting opinions on the implementation of ladder electricity prices. The reporter noted that the "Guidance Opinions" have been revised on the basis of the original, such as changing the price of the first tranche to the principle of not increasing the price, so as to ensure that the vast majority of residents do not increase their electricity bills and increase the standard of sub-standard electricity. The first tranche of electricity was expanded to cover 80% of households.

In the process of reforming our country from "planned electricity" to "market electricity", there have been disputes about the ladder electricity price and the peak-valley electricity price. In response, the National Development and Reform Commission stated that the ladder electricity price and peak-to-hour electricity price are not contradictory and can be paralleled. Both are important demand-side tariff management systems, with different emphasis. Residue ladder price mainly encourages electricity users to save electricity; peak-to-hour electricity price mainly encourages electricity users to use less electricity at peak hours, use more electricity in low seasons, cut peaks and fill valleys, and improve the efficiency of power system operation. The State encourages the implementation of the time-shared price of residents' peaks and valleys, and requires all localities to formulate measures for the time-average price of electricity for residents.