The cost and marketability of renewable energy after power market reform in China: A review

Abstract

The renewable energies of China have been through a fast-developing process for about ten years. But they suffer from curtailment in recent years, especially for wind and photovoltaic. China started a new power market reform in 2015, featured by the establishment of electricity wholesale market. Whether the deregulated power market will help renewable energy penetration has become a hot topic. This paper aims to review the cost and marketability of renewable energy before and after power market reform in China so as to provide suggestions and inspirations for the field. A review approach based on literature classification and analysis of selected studies is utilized for argumentative review. The main work of this paper is as follows. 1) Generation and integration costs of renewable energy are analyzed through empirical data and comparison. 2) Current cost allocation of power generation in China is analyzed. 3) The marketability of renewable energy is discussed. 4) This paper comes with a conclusion that the major obstacles for renewable energy marketability lie in the non-independence of the system operator, the faultiness of the market mechanism (thus the distortion of cost allocation) and the history problem of the power structure. 5) A market-premium-like regime is suggested for relieving these obstacles. The conclusions and suggestions can be helpful for further research and policy making.