| The report of the 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that "advancing green and low-carbon economic and social development is a crucial factor in achieving high-quality development." In the new era,to promote China’s modernization and achieve high-quality economic growth,it is imperative to expedite the transition towards a greener development model.Since China introduced its "Double Carbon Goal" at the 75 th United Nations General Assembly in October2021,the central government has successively issued a series of policies such as "Opinions on Fully Implementing the New Development Concept for Effective Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality" and "Notice on Publishing and Distributing the Action Plan for Achieving Carbon Peak before 2030".These policies clearly define green and low-carbon energy transformation as an essential pathway for reducing carbon emissions,while also proposing specific measures like enhancing green electricity pricing policies.Electricity serves as a vital conduit for energy in modern society,making effective implementation of reform policies within the power sector pivotal to achieving low-carbon energy transformation.In September 2023,the National Development and Reform Commission released both the "Business Regulations for Power Supply(Draft)" and "Fundamental Rules for Electricity Spot Market(Trial)",further refining top-level design principles governing the electric power industry system along with specific regulations pertaining to electricity trading markets.This underscores how significant an integral role is played by this industry within national strategic planning efforts aimed at facilitating energy transformation.The core of market-oriented reform on the power sales side,as the "final link" in China’s ongoing power system reform,lies in establishing effective competition in the power sales market by granting users the right to choose,enhancing energy utilization efficiency and clean energy consumption levels,and promoting green and low-carbon regional economic and social development.While significant progress has been made in the reforms pertaining to power generation and transmission/distribution pricing during China’s power system reform process,there remains a crucial gap where market-oriented electricity prices have not yet reached end-users.Presently,thermal power generation continues to dominate despite an increasing share of renewable energy sources being incorporated into China’s electricity production.This situation has resulted in serious environmental pollution issues.Furthermore,China’s follow-up efforts regarding energy conservation and carbon reduction within its power system reform are relatively weak.The structural reformation of "controlling the middle while letting go at both ends" is still incomplete after separating primary from auxiliary functions as well as plant operations from network management.It is imperative to achieve "online sales separation" through reforms on the power sales side so that we can truly harness the transformative potential of market-based electricity trading mechanisms.By employing a mandatory mechanism for technical innovation at both ends(power generation)and production sides(power sales terminal),we can transition our power structure from fossil fuel reliance to non-fossil fuel dependence while improving overall energy utilization efficiency.Additionally,this transformation will enable comprehensive supervision over all aspects of power generation,transmission/distribution alongside meeting demand requirements.However,the current market-oriented reform of the power sales sector is facing challenges such as the power sales company’s reliance on a single profit model,the emergence of new monopolies in power sales,significant barriers in regional trading markets,and delays in power legislation.These issues raise uncertainties regarding whether this reform can truly embody its intended "green attributes" and achieve its environmental goals.Furthermore,as the medium and long-term market trading system of the power market gradually improves,initial results from pilot work in inter-provincial spot trading markets have demonstrated optimized resource allocation on a larger spatial scale.This suggests that there is potential to further expand the correlation mechanism between market-oriented reforms in power sales and regional green economic development from a spatial perspective.Therefore,it is worth conducting further research on how market-oriented reforms in power sales will impact regional green economic development and exploring any potential spatio-temporal heterogeneity.Based on empirical research conducted in 2015,this paper establishes a theoretical framework to investigate the green economic impact of market-oriented reforms in the electricity sales sector.By employing multi-time DID and spatial DID models,this study empirically examines the influence of marketization reforms on regional GTFP and its underlying mechanisms.These findings not only contribute to expanding the application scope of relevant theories but also offer scientific guidance and decision-making support for further deepening China’s market-oriented reform in electricity sales,addressing existing flaws in the power market reform system,and optimizing the top-level design of such reforms.The research content of this paper primarily encompasses the following aspects:Firstly,employing big data retrieval and text quantitative analysis methods,it systematically examines the institutional background of China’s local power legislation and market-oriented reform in the power sales sector.It also investigates practical issues that currently exist in the policy design and implementation process of China’s market-oriented reform in the power sales sector.Secondly,utilizing theoretical analysis methods,it explores the potential impact of China’s market-oriented reform in the power sales sector on regional green development and elucidates its direct mechanism path for influencing regional green development.Thirdly,a multi-time point DID model is constructed to analyze the causal relationship between market-oriented reform in the power sales sector and regional green development.Parallel trend tests and robustness tests are conducted to enhance credibility of estimated results while carrying out correlation heterogeneity analysis.Fourthly,by combining spatial econometrics with DID models,a Spatial-DID model is developed to examine spatial green economic effects resulting from China’s market-oriented reform in the power sales sector.Robustness tests and correlation heterogeneity analyses are performed as well.Lastly,based on theoretical analysis,a group regression method is employed to conduct mechanism testing regarding both local effects and spatial effects arising from China’s market-oriented reform in the power sales sector;robustness tests are also conducted.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)China’s market-oriented reform of electricity sales hinders the development of regional green economy.(1)The lack of government supervision and legislation leads to the unrestrained new monopoly of electricity sales,which leads to disorderly and inefficient competition.In addition,the "clean threshold" is set too low,which is difficult to stimulate market innovation technology,inhibit the technological progress of the region,and hinder the development of green economy.(2)The profit model of electricity sales companies is single,the value-added business is weak,the demand side response is insufficient,which weakens the local resource allocation effect and inhibits the development of green economy.(3)The investment in incremental distribution network business is large,the cycle is long,and the lack of incentive leads to the outflow of local clean resources,which leads to the solidification effect of industrial structure and inhibits the development of green economy.(4)In areas with a lower level of local electricity legislation,a weaker level of financial development and a weaker strength of property rights protection,the inhibition effect of promoting the market-oriented reform of electricity sales on the development of green economy is more significant.(2)China’s market-oriented reform of electricity sales has a significant positive spillover effect on the development of green economy in spatially related provinces.(1)The market-oriented reform of electricity sales will inhibit the technological progress of the region,but can promote the technological progress of adjacent regions,and then positively affect the development of green economy in spatially related provinces.(2)The market-oriented reform of electricity sales will restrain the performance of regional power resources transfer and the construction of the regional power industry,but it can positively affect the expansion of the investment scale of the power industry in the adjacent region and promote the green economic development of the spatially related provinces.(3)The market-oriented reform of electricity sales can not significantly affect the layout of energy production in the region,but it can significantly improve the power production structure of the spatially related region under the "learning effect" and "warning effect",and positively affect the green economic development of the province.(4)Stronger government financial strength,stronger information infrastructure level and stronger market development level can alleviate the adverse impact of the market-oriented reform of electricity sales on the green economic development of the province,and enhance the positive spillover effect of the green economic development of the spatially related region.Based on the above research conclusions,this paper puts forward four policy suggestions: breaking the new monopoly pattern of electricity sales with the rule of law,promoting the orderly competition of electricity sales with the demand side response,driving the green electricity consumption with the incremental development of the distribution network,and optimizing the inter-provincial power dispatch with the construction of the electric power integration.The innovation of this paper is reflected in the following three aspects: Firstly,this study unveils the "black box" of the relationship between market-oriented reform on the power sales side and regional green economic development through theoretical analysis and empirical testing.It also reveals the spatial perspective’s internal mechanism by which market-oriented reform on the power sales side influences regional green economic development,thereby expanding both the depth and breadth of perspectives on power system market-oriented reform policies.Secondly,this study constructs a Spatial-DID model by combining spatial econometrics with DID modeling.By examining the spatial spillover effect of China’s market-oriented reform on the power sales side’s green economic impact,it tests for potential interference in estimated results when not considering spatial spillover effects according to SUTVA hypothesis.This scientific approach distinguishes both the green economic impact and internal mechanisms of market-oriented reform on the power sales side while enhancing credibility in evaluating policy conclusions related to such reforms.Thirdly,this paper innovatively employs quantitative analysis methods using local power legislation texts to evaluate legislative levels within 30 pilot projects for power sales-side reforms in China.Through group regression analysis,it investigates how legislative levels affect China’s green effect resulting from these reforms.This provides new insights into empirical studies concerning legal regulation within the field of electric power while offering scientific considerations for improving green economic impacts associated with market-oriented reforms on the power sales side from a legal system perspective. |
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