Analysis of China’s energy security evaluation system: Based on the energy security data from 30 provinces from 2010 to 2016

Abstract

Energy security is important for the economic and social development of a country, especially for China, because it has become one of the biggest energy consumers in the world and the energy security varies greatly in different regions. However, most existing studies evaluate China’s energy security from the perspective of the whole country, while few studies from the perspective of different regions within the country. So this paper aims to evaluate China’s provincial energy security from 2010 to 2016, not only identify the problems but also provide policy strategies. Firstly, a comprehensive evaluation system of energy security is established including availability and stability of energy supply dimension, sustainability and acceptability of energy use dimension, and external influences of policies and market dimension. Secondly, the combination method of the order relation and the entropy method is utilized to evaluate the provincial energy security in 30 provinces, which considers both subjective and objective information. Thirdly, according to the changes in the ranking of provincial energy security between the 30 provinces over the 7 years, this paper analyzes the reasons and put up corresponding suggestions. The results show that there is still a huge gap among different regions and some provinces changes greatly in the ranking. The most energy-secure provinces are mainly in the northwest and northeast provinces with abundant natural resources such as Shanxi, Shaanxi and Sichuan, the least energy-secure provinces are mainly in the resource-deficient regions such as Zhejiang, Guangxi and Jiangxi. And in order to beef up the provincial energy security, suggesting that some provinces should develop clean energy, optimize the structure of terminal energy consumption and improve energy efficiency according to the changes in the ranking.