Is it still up? The pricing power is becoming a double-edged sword. On the one hand, because it is difficult to reflect market laws, it hurts the market. On the other hand, it has become the hot potato in the hands of the National Development and Reform Commission.

On November 17th, the reporter learned from relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission that electric power companies have frequently submitted letters to the National Development and Reform Commission to request an increase in electricity prices to alleviate the huge loss of thermal power. However, the current domestic economic situation makes the National Development and Reform Commission vacillate, and internal Whether there is a difference in the price of electricity raised has led to delays in determining the price adjustment plan. "A part of the NDRC's opinion that the increase in electricity prices will help ease power losses and power shortages, but another part of the view is that the current economic situation is not appropriate to increase the price, should encourage power companies to improve their profitability." The above person told reporters.

And just as the National Development and Reform Commission worried that the price of electricity will raise the price of coal, the new coal price negotiations have already begun to warm up, and the coal that has been suppressed for a year has begun to brewing and then adjust the contract price of coal.

Diversions in electricity prices in the past few years, the power companies have never stopped the call for price increases, and the market is also out of the government will raise the price of electricity news.

The news of the increase in electricity prices is not groundless. On October 20, the spokesperson of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission stated publicly that it is necessary to increase the on-grid tariff of coal-fired power plants in a timely manner, reduce the losses of power plants, and increase the enthusiasm for power generation.

According to a person in charge of the Huadian Group, the person in charge told the reporter that for the country’s huge losses in thermal power and the continued spread of electricity, the SERC and CEC believe that only the increase in the on-grid price of thermal power plants can ease the thermal power losses and power shortages. However, the price adjustment power pricing power in the hands of the National Development and Reform Commission, still need the National Development and Reform Commission introduced the price increase plan and approved the approval of the State Council can be formally implemented.

The relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission told reporters that power companies have frequently submitted letters to the National Development and Reform Commission, requesting that the price of electricity be raised to alleviate the huge loss of thermal power. However, the current economic situation in China has caused the NDRC’s attitude to fluctuate, and there are internal differences as to whether the price of electricity is raised. It is difficult to determine the price adjustment plan.

“A part of the NDRC's opinion is that the increase in electricity prices will help ease the thermal power losses and power shortages, but another part of the view is that the current economic situation is not suitable to increase the price, but should encourage power companies to improve their profitability. Fine-tune the price of electricity to ease the thermal power companies The limited effect can not solve the fundamental problem, and ultimately only lead to coal price rises, and the rising coal price will soon eat up the fine-tuned electricity price,” said the above sources.

The depth of thermal power losses led to a series of production cuts. The China Electricity Council predicts that the biggest power gap in China this winter and next spring will be 30 million to 40 million kilowatts, which is more intense than in the first three quarters of 2011. Except for the northwest and northeast power grids, the supply and demand situation in other regions continues to be tense. At the beginning of this year, there were 20 power grids in the provincial power grids in China. The power gap was as high as 30 million kilowatts. This kind of power shortage continued into the summer and further deteriorated in the winter.

Hu Zhaoguang, vice president of the State Grid Energy Research Institute, believes that this year's power shortages are mainly due to mechanical and regional power shortages: Rapid increase in coal prices has resulted in insufficient power plant output. Inadequate grid cross-regional transmission capacity has made it difficult for inter-regional adjustments. .

The person in charge of the Henan Yifen Power Plant told the reporter that in recent years, the domestic installed capacity has skyrocketed and should not be short of electricity, but now there are frequent power cuts in many provinces. This is not because domestic power generation capacity is not enough, but it occupies power supply. The main share of coal-fired power companies, because coal prices rose too fast and the price of electricity is only fine-tuning, cost pressures have fallen into deep losses, no electricity.

The latest report of the CEC pointed out that during the five-year period of the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan”, the nation’s total installed power generation capacity increased by 450 million kilowatts, setting a new record for world power construction. At the same time, according to the statistics of the operation of the five major power generation groups from January to July this year, the CEC’s statistics showed that the five major groups had a total loss of 7.46 billion.

The Datang Group, which has the largest installed base of thermal power plants in the five major power groups, is even more dismal. It is reported that Datang Group has suffered a loss of 67% this year, and the asset-liability ratio of its 30 heavily-losing power plants exceeded 100%, resulting in serious insolvency. .

Loss of power generated by thermal power plants does not allow companies to generate electricity. According to industry predictions, about 20% of the thermal power in the entire five southern provinces has not been sent out. Datang's head of a Hunan-based thermal power company told reporters that coal prices have risen so badly that power generation has been lost, and coal is often lacking.

"That is, the central SOEs can continue to sustain such losses, and private enterprises have long declared bankruptcy. Although local banks are reluctant to give power to thermal power companies, the central government and local governments have rigid instructions for banks to support thermal power companies. Banks can only make things difficult for them," said a person in charge of Shenzhen Development.

However, the person in charge of a coal company in Inner Mongolia believes that the current high coal prices are largely due to the high transportation costs due to high oil prices. The coal price itself has not risen too much due to the power coal agreement.

Breakthroughs in coal and electricity contradictions From the perspective of future energy trends, it is not a simple matter to solve the coal-power conflict that has been tangled in China for many years.

On November 18, the Director of International Energy Agency Maria van der Hoeven stated in the “2011 World Energy Outlook Report” that in the past ten years, the increase in coal consumption accounted for nearly half of the increase in global energy consumption, most of which came from The electricity sector in emerging economies represented by China is expected to increase its energy demand by 69% between 2009 and 2035. By 2035, China’s energy consumption will be nearly 70% higher than that of the United States; if China is here, The effective implementation of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” during this period is expected to slow the growth of coal demand and promote the demand for non-fossil energy and natural gas.

The head of Datang Power Generation pointed out that for China, the development of heavy industry and urbanization relies heavily on coal-fired power resources, and the strong demand for coal-fired electricity is the root cause of high coal prices and power shortages. It is imperative for China to adjust its energy structure and rationalize the price mechanism.

According to CEC data, China’s annual power generation capacity increased from 2,495.7 billion kwh in 2005 to 4.2278 trillion kwh in 2010, and the average annual growth rate of 11.1% of electricity consumption supported the 11.2% annual growth rate of the national economy.

A senior expert from the power system told reporters at the same time that the internal contradictions of the electric power central enterprises were very deep and the mechanism was obsolete, which also led to the low profitability of power companies and the need to rationalize the contradictions of coal and electricity systems. Chen Weidong, chief energy researcher of CNOOC, also admitted that the central government must monopolize and profit again. Under this mechanism, the government has no way to release pricing power. To rationalize the energy price mechanism must open the market from the enterprise level and introduce competition mechanisms.

"Coal supports economic growth, but the future development prospect depends on the promotion of high-efficiency power plants and carbon capture and storage technologies," said Maria van der Hoeven.