Despite three decades of reform, China's electricity sector is still organized by a “new reformed plan” where capacity investment has been liberalized but prices and production remain controlled. This paper examines the impact of the current plan prices on end-users with reference to the...

Theoretical and empirical evidence is presented to show that inefficient power firms in China are subsidised by the state through the ability to charge high electricity prices and the creation of a “soft price constraint†on costs. This cost inefficiency challenges the merits of...

This introduction is to highlight comprehensively the Chinese electricity industry for issues related to the institutional reform, capacity growth, pricing regime, technology development, supply structure and new investment in upgrading electric power grids. Through reviews of statistics and...