Energy-saving and emission-abatement potential of Chinese coal-fired power enterprise: A non-parametric analysis

• Published in: Energy economics 2015-05, Vol.49, p.33-43
• Main Authors: Wei, Chu, Löschel, Andreas, Liu, Bing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abatement; Air pollution; Census; China; China (People's Republic); Classification; CO2 abatement potential; Coal-fired power enterprise; Coal-fired power plants; Electric power; Electric power plants; Electricity distribution; Emissions; Emissions control; Energy; Energy conservation; Energy economics; Energy efficiency; Energy-saving potential; Enterprises; Evaluation; Indexes; Industrial plant emissions; Power plants; Public enterprise; Studies; Weighted Russell Directional Distance Function
• ISSN: 0140-9883; 1873-6181
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2015.02.002

In the context of soaring demand for electricity, mitigating and controlling greenhouse gas emissions is a great challenge for China's power sector. Increasing attention has been placed on the evaluation of energy efficiency and CO2 abatement potential in the power sector. However, studies at the micro-level are relatively rare due to serious data limitations. This study uses the 2004 and 2008 Census data of Zhejiang province to construct a non-parametric frontier in order to assess the abatement space of energy and associated CO2 emission from China's coal-fired power enterprises. A Weighted Russell Directional Distance Function (WRDDF) is applied to construct an energy-saving potential index and a CO2 emission-abatement potential index. Both indicators depict the inefficiency level in terms of energy utilization and CO2 emissions of electric power plants. Our results show a substantial variation of energy-saving potential and CO2 abatement potential among enterprises. We find that large power enterprises are less efficient in 2004, but become more efficient than smaller enterprises in 2008. State-owned enterprises (SOE) are not significantly different in 2008 from 2004, but perform better than their non-SOE counterparts in 2008. This change in performance for large enterprises and SOE might be driven by the “top-1000 Enterprise Energy Conservation Action” that was implemented in 2006. •Energy-saving potential and CO2 abatement-potential for Chinese power enterprise are evaluated.•The potential to curb energy and emission shows great variation and dynamic changes.•Large enterprise is less efficient than small enterprise in 2004, but more efficient in 2008.•The state-owned enterprise performs better than non-state-owned enterprise in 2008.