Solve the current "electricity shortage" and new ideas for thermal power companies' losses

In view of the continuous rise in thermal coal prices over the years, the huge loss of thermal power companies, and the emergence of local “electricity shortages” in many provinces, the government, companies, and academics have proposed a large number of solutions, but whether they rely on thermal power companies’ own internal digestion or The solution to downstream transmission (ie coal-electricity linkage) has its drawbacks and cannot solve the problem fundamentally. The transmission of thermal power costs upstream may be a more effective solution.

Excessive profits of coal are unreasonable

In recent years, the operating performance of coal-fired power producers and coal companies can be described as the “two sides of the world.” From the comparison of the statistics of power and coal listed companies (2008-2010), the profitability of coal enterprises with the same asset size is far Better than electric power companies, coal companies have the profit margin to absorb the substantial increase in thermal power companies' costs.

From 2003 to the present, the price of thermal coal has risen sharply. Despite many reasons, the increase in the annual profits of coal enterprises is not basically created by management factors such as reducing costs and increasing efficiency, increasing labor productivity, but because natural resources are scarce. Sex leads to a sharp increase in prices, which is caused by the increase in resources. And the value-added portion of resources should belong to the entire people rather than the enterprise. Now that the vast majority of people have not only enjoyed the fruits of the increase in resources, they have to pay for the rise in electricity prices caused by the rise in coal prices. This is unreasonable.

Due to the irrational mechanism of the coal power system, “Coal and Electricity Joint Venture” became the first choice of the five major power generation groups. They purchased large-scale coal mines on the basis of some existing coal mines, and the central enterprises, such as Shenhua, which mainly use coal mining, also used their resource advantages. Large-scale mergers and acquisitions of power generation companies for vertical integration. When provinces reported a new thermal power project, the competent authority first required that the project owner must bring coal “rations”. But what about local power companies? In particular, local power companies in the coal- and coal-poor areas will not allow them all to die. And everyone's rushing to grab coal mines will inevitably lead to the disorderly development of resources.

Coal value-added income can subsidize thermal power

What kind of reform can we reasonably adjust to the original unreasonable interest pattern among coal-fired power companies? For example, the Australian government has proposed to levy the “Resource Over Profit Tax” (RSPT) on resource companies or levy natural resource For the admissibility of ad valorem, the author believes that it is feasible to implement products that are monopolized by one or two large-scale central enterprises and have unified government-guided prices for refined oil and natural gas, but this market-oriented resource for coal is not feasible. of. Because the resource tax is an indirect tax, after the increase in tax burden, the cost will certainly be transmitted downstream. The prices of refined oil and natural gas must be approved by the National Development and Reform Commission, and whether the increased tax burden can be conducted downstream under the control of the state. Even if the state subsidizes all the collected coal resource tax revenues to thermal power companies, it will not achieve the goal of reducing losses. Because the pricing of coal is market-based, coal companies will transfer the price to downstream companies, and coal prices will rise. Subsidy eats all. The fundamental solution is to implement a method of adding government approved costs plus reasonable profits to coal companies (the principle of reasonable profit determination is that the profitability of industries with low technological content cannot in principle be higher than the profit level of industries with high technological content), and the revenue is deducted from costs and reasonable The part after the profit is the value-added income of coal, which is divided by the central government and local governments according to the proportion. The governments at all levels then transmit most of the coal value-added income as a special subsidy to thermal power companies. In this way, even if the standard coal unit price rises to 2,000 yuan/ton or even 3,000 yuan/ton with the international market in the coming decades, as long as the domestic coal mining and transportation costs have not risen sharply, most of the price increase has turned into coal. Value-added benefits and subsidies to thermal power companies, thermal power companies will not increase the loss of the entire industry to the degree of collapse, it does not need a substantial increase in power prices, the rise in electricity prices due to the CPI upside will be effectively curbed. In this way, the contradiction between coal mining, electricity production, social power capacity, and inflation can be successfully resolved. In addition to most of the value-added coal gains used as compensation for thermal power companies, a small portion can be invested by the government to further improve the safe production of coal companies, the ecological environment in which coal mines are located, and the coal power capacity of railways.

The distribution of coal value-added income should insist that the country take the big head to take the small head, and the country, the province (region), the city (state), and the county share in proportion. Considering that China's economic and social development level and resource distribution are extremely uneven, coal resources are mainly distributed in the western and northern regions. In the east, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other economically strong provinces lack primary energy resources, many coal-fired power plants, and relatively concentrated power loads. Therefore, the central government needs more macro-control. Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and other large coal provinces can rely on the value-added revenues from local governments to solve the problem of subsidy for local thermal power companies. The subsidies for coal-fired power plants in coal- and coal-poor areas must rely on the value-added benefits of coal obtained by the central government.

policy suggestion

First, the National Energy Commission should establish a corresponding organizational structure as soon as possible to specifically lead and advance the reform of the coal power system and mechanism, and straighten out the ownership of energy resources. Accelerate the consolidation and consolidation of coal resources in the country, determine the procedures for the identification of coal mines, and carry out classification work according to the resource conditions of each coal mine and the difficulty of mining. To determine the unit output cost of different grades of coal mines, determine the proportion of government, provincial (district), city (prefecture), and county governments at all levels to divide the value-added revenue of coal, and to determine the total amount of subsidies for thermal power enterprises in each country (district) of the country in each year. And distribution methods, the introduction of representatives of downstream industries and other stakeholders to participate in government departments to determine the reasonable profit of the coal industry, if necessary, by the government, coal companies and interest companies and intermediary organizations and third parties to assess the objective.

Second, the establishment of the National Energy Regulatory Commission to better coordinate the interests of different energy industries, especially the upstream and downstream industries and other issues, so that all energy companies have a reasoning, representation and application for arbitration, rather than rely on national ministries to intervene to interfere When coal price increases or “**” and “CPPCC” are opened every year, leaders and experts of power companies appeal at the meeting.

3. Each province is established under the leadership of the deputy governor of the province, and the value-added coal revenue of the Development and Reform Commission, the Energy Bureau, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Economic and Information Commission, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Electricity Regulatory Office, the Safety Supervision Bureau, the Coal Supervision Bureau, the Finance Department and the Inland Revenue Department. The management agency is responsible for collecting, turning over, allocating, and monitoring the value-added revenue of coal, and it is earmarked for special purposes. The allocation amount of each coal-fired power company's coal value-added income in each year is determined according to the requirements of energy-saving dispatch, unit parameters, and coal consumption levels.

4. After the thermal power enterprises reduce losses or even make profits, the price of electricity will no longer rise sharply. The continuous increase in the price of international petrochemical resources will leave room for the industrialization of high-tech and energy-saving environmental protection products such as the development of new energy vehicles in China. The next step may also consider starting up. Thermal power denitrification price, carbon tax collection and other related work.

V. Establish a national cost awareness of resource development as soon as possible. We must fully consider the national cost of obtaining resources, especially foreign resources. Without the full support of the state, it is unrealistic for large state-owned enterprises to obtain the development rights of relevant resources abroad. The state cost should be fully taken into account in their revenues.

The poor mechanism of the coal and electricity system has affected social stability. It not only concerns the issue of CPI upwards and the development and survival of a large number of thermal power companies, but also concerns the income of hundreds of thousands of workers in the thermal power industry, the assessment of leading cadres, and especially whether the hard work paid can be recognized by the country and the whole society. . It also indirectly affects the various aspects of the approval review, investment and construction, production and operation, survey and design, construction, supervision, and equipment manufacturing of power projects. Therefore, we should speed up the reform of the coal power system and mechanism.