China released documents on Monday on electricity sector reforms covering subjects such as power supply pricing and setting up a national electricity futures market.
In particular, the authorities claimed that it will open the electricity power sales business to the private capital and cultivate power sales competitors via multiple channels. The innovative arrangement for the access and exit of the power sales market is a bright spot in this new round of power system reform, said analysts.
After the reform, the power sales competitors can be divided into three categories, including power sales companies of the power grid enterprises, power sales companies with rights of operating the power distribution network, and the independent power sales companies without rights of operating the power distribution network and not offering guaranteed power supply services.
According to the data of the National Energy Administration (NEA), China's electricity consumption, a key barometer of economic activity, edged down 0.2 percent to 449.1 billion kilowatt hours (kwh) in October.
In the first ten months, power use rose 0.7 percent from a year earlier to 4.58 trillion kwh. If calculated by the 0.2 yuan/kwh difference for purchase and sales, more than 1 trillion yuan of electricity power sales market will be open to the private capital annually, said analysts.
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