Impacts of the coal resource tax on the electric power industry in China: A multi-regional comprehensive analysis

Abstract

A coal resource tax is a common policy tool for promoting rational exploitation and utilization of resources. This study establishes a co-optimization model for both electricity and coal that not only depicts the power dispatched at the micro temporal scale but also considers the capacity expansion that occurs at the macro temporal scale and the spatial dispatch of coal. Based on this model, we investigate the impact of the coal resource tax on China’s electric power industry from four perspectives: economic efficiency, generation portfolio, inter-regional energy dispatch, and environmental benefits. The results show that the current tax rate has a relatively limited impact on the power system. Increasing the tax rate will inhibit the construction of supercritical and ultra-supercritical units and accelerate the diffusion of solar PV, small hydropower, and nuclear units. At the regional level, East China is most affected by the change in the resource tax, and other northern provinces are affected to varying degrees. The coal resource tax has little impact on inter-regional power grid investment, but it does affect the utilization efficiency of existing lines and reduces the volume of almost all coal transportation routes. Thus, it is necessary to consider the relationship between various policies and plans during decision-making.