电力体制改革能否降低电价

Whether the Electricity System Reform Can Reduce Electricity Price

本文试图探讨两个问题:第一,降低电价是否是推动电力体制改革的合理动机;第二,电力体制改革是否能够降低电价。理论分析表明,传统电力体制的核心弊端是效率低、成本高,而高成本必然分摊到终端销售电价上。以引入竞争为核心的电力体制改革旨在通过市场竞争提高效率、降低成本,进而降低电价。但是,在电力市场体制下,衡量价格与成本偏差的勒纳指数可能会扩大,这会使得生产成本的降低无法充分传导到电价降低上,而是增加企业利润。这一点在英国体制改革中已经得到验证。在我国,电力行业的生产效率还有较大提高空间,因此,各地方政府希望通过改革降低成本,从而降低工业电价。但是,考虑到政府管制下我国电力行业的资产利润率长期偏低的事实,改革后成本的节约必然会体现在某些企业利润增加上,而不是降低电价。甚至可能由于市场设计不当导致勒纳指数大幅度提高,则电价不降反升。

This paper attempts to discuss two issues： First, whether the reduction of electricity price is a reasonable motivation for the electricity system reform; Second, whether the electricity system reform can reduce electricity price. The theoretical analysis shows that low efficiency and high cost are the core drawbacks of the traditional electricity system, and high cost will surely cause the increase of the electricity end-use prices. The electricity system reform, whose core is introducing competition, aims at improving ~efficiency and reducing cost by market competition to reduce electricity price. However, in electricity market system, the Lerner Index measuring the de- viation between price and cost may expand. This could cause that the reduction of production cost cannot be fully transmitted to the decline of electricity price, but to the increase of enterpris- es＇ profits. This has been verified in the UK＇s electricity system reform. In China, there is still much space to improve the productivity of electricity industry. Therefore, local governments hope to reduce cost by reform, and thus decreasing electricity prices for industry. Nevertheless, con- sidering the fact that under government regulation, the return on assets of the electricity indus- try in China has been experiencing a low level, the cost saving after reform will surely be re- flected in the increased profits of certain enterprises instead of the reduced electricity price. Furthermore, it is even possible that the improper market design will result in the remarkable in- crease of the Lerner Index, and thus electricity price will rise rather than decline.