SERC revoked the future of electric reform

On the morning of March 10th, the Third Plenary Session of the First Session of the Twelfth National People's Congress was held. State Councilor and Secretary General of the State Council Ma Kai read the “Note on the Institutional Reform and Functional Transformation of the State Council” at the meeting. It has been speculated by the outside world for a long time. The new round of major department reforms finally unveiled.

According to the State Council’s organizational reform and functional change plan announced on the 10th, the State Council will reorganize the National Energy Administration and improve the energy supervision and management system. In the previous round of institutional reform of the State Council, to strengthen energy management, the National Energy Administration, which is under the administration of the National Development and Reform Commission, has been effectively implemented. In order to coordinate the promotion of energy development and reform, strengthen energy supervision and management, and put forward plans, we will integrate the responsibilities of the current National Energy Administration and the State Electricity Regulatory Commission and reorganize the National Energy Administration. The main responsibilities are to formulate and organize the implementation of energy development strategies, plans and policies, study and put forward energy system reform proposals, and take charge of energy supervision and management. At the same time, the Electricity Regulatory Commission is no longer maintained.

The Ministry of Supervision and Administration of the People's Republic of China was revoked and the related functions were merged into the National Energy Administration of the vice ministerial level. After the reorganization, the National Energy Administration continued to be managed by the National Development and Reform Commission. The National Development and Reform Commission is mainly responsible for the coordinated connection between national economic and social development planning and energy planning.

Compared with formal reorganization, the outside world is more concerned with what kind of changes can take place in the post-reorganization of the National Energy Administration's authority, and in particular, what kind of thrust it will exert on the next energy system reform.

Electricity Regulatory Commission cancels

The State Electricity Regulatory Commission, established in August 2003, is a direct result of the “Document No. 5” and is closely related to electricity reform, reflecting the country's determination to promote the reform of the electric power system. However, over the past decade, China’s modern electricity market has not been established.

Regarding the reasons for the integration of the SERC into the National Energy Administration, an insider who is close to the economic reform decision-making level stated: “In the past ten years, China’s electric power reform has not advanced and returned, so the SERC could not do anything in its own right and was in name only. China’s electricity market development The stage differs from that of the United States, and it has not reached the level of marketization that urgently requires supervision. Therefore, the separation of political prisoners is still only a wish, not an opportunity. The reorganization of the SERC and the Energy Administration is also a realistic consideration."

“After the establishment of the SERC, the State Council did not give much power. This reform of the energy management system is actually abolishing the SERC and improving the national energy monitoring system. In addition to electricity, energy regulation also needs to be expanded to oil and gas, coal. "The field," said Zhou Fengqi, senior adviser to the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission.

The separation of political prisoners in China's energy regulation has also been criticized. Experts who are mainstream in the energy sector believe that the current management of energy prices and investment by the National Development and Reform Commission is more of an administrative examination and approval, not a modern regulation based on rules; the internal costs of power grids and oil companies lack supervision and are difficult to reasonably price. Some experts from the Development Research Center of the State Council have proposed the establishment of an independent national energy monitoring committee to supervise market order, cost supervision, fair use of monopoly facilities and fair opening.

However, the separation of political prisoners and administrative reforms faces real resistance. “The supervisory functions of developed countries such as market access, prices, costs, investment, service quality, and market trading rules are all under the unified responsibility of the regulatory agencies and cannot be divided. In China, the price and investment of the National Development and Reform Commission Approval will still play a role, and it will be difficult to incorporate into the real sense of supervision in the short term, said a person in charge of the China Energy Research Association.

For this reason, the China Energy Research Association proposed in a report last September that in the short-term, China could adopt a unified model of political prisoners and internal independent institutions. In the future, with the advancement of energy market reforms, the energy regulatory agencies will be separated and transitioned to a model of separation of political prisoners.

The reform plan for the establishment of the Ministry of Energy of the Ministry of Justice at the ministerial and ministerial level looks exactly the same. “The problem is that the establishment of a unified political and administrative agency is equivalent to self-regulation. The regulatory agency is greatly affected by the level of authority. Whether parallel supervision or self-regulation has difficulties. It is necessary to introduce third-party supervision of the market and monopoly industries.” said Zhou Fengqi. .

Lin Boqiang, member of the National Energy Experts Advisory Committee and director of the Energy Economics Research Center of Xiamen University, said in an interview with the media that it seems that the functions of the reorganized National Energy Administration have been expanded because of the addition of “energy supervision and management” functions, but energy Important functions such as prices, which have more core values, are still in the hands of the NDRC. This means that some of the old problems in the energy industry, such as the "Kowloon Water Management" type of multi-headed management will continue.

The future of electric reform is uncertain

Huang Taiyan, deputy to the National People's Congress and an economist, said: "In this government work report, there was also a clear signal for energy price reforms. Last year, the consumer price index (CPI) rose by 2.6%, and this year's CPI is expected to rise by 3.5%. The increase is actually to provide room for reform of energy prices for natural gas, petroleum, electricity, and coal.” This is also seen as evidence of the promotion of energy reform.

Right now, the biggest expectation in the industry is that electric power reform will hit the road again. The power system reform is considered to be the most consistent with Comrade Li Keqiang’s previous proposal that “reform is the biggest dividend, achieving sustainable development, and transforming the economic development model. We need to seize the reform breakthrough that triggers the whole system.” The simultaneous launch of the Ministry of Railways The reform of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has only recently involved the separation of government and enterprises, which is equivalent to the situation in the early stage of China's power system reform more than ten years ago. Therefore, the reform of the power market is the most mature compared to other industry reforms and is most urgently needed. .

However, some industry authorities are not optimistic about the ability of the New Energy Agency to promote electric reform. A high-level person close to the energy reform stated that the New Energy Bureau cannot really push forward the reform of electricity prices and the construction of a modern electricity market. “It is not a certain government department that truly changes electric power, but the courage and determination to push forward by the top leaders of the country.”

Lin Boqiang believes that the integration of the SERC into the Energy Bureau means that there has been a change in the thinking of the country's electrical reform. "The establishment of the SERC in that year was a copy of Britain's model. It is highly compatible with the idea of ​​electric reform in 'Document No. 5'. Now that the Electricity Regulatory Commission has withdrawn, it does not rule out the possibility of changes in the idea of ​​electric reform." If this Guessing that the establishment, the principle of electric reform established in the "Document No. 5" will also be shaken. However, whether there will be changes and what kind of changes will occur will only remain at the guessing stage.