Study On The Impact Of Environmental Regulation On Abatement Efficiency Of Thermal Power

Electric power industry is a pillar energy industry in China,and is also the first "culprit" of greenhouse gas emissions in China.It has become the focus of national implementation of green,low-carbon development strategy.Although clean energy(wind power,nuclear power,solar energy,etc.)generation is an irresistible trend of development to replace fossil energy generation,but limited by capital,technology and other factors,thermal power will still play a dominant role in China's power structure for a considerable period of time in the future.In today's increasingly prominent ecological awareness,how to find a balance between the gradual transformation of energy structure and the effective meeting of energy demand is a realistic problem that our country needs to face for a long time in the future.In this context,improving the environmental governance efficiency of thermal power industry is an important prerequisite for China to successfully survive the painful period of energy structure transformation.Based on the natural nature of capital profit-seeking and the inertia of government administrative regulation,this paper holds that the idea of environmental regulation based on national power is the inevitable choice to optimize the power supply pattern and improve the environmental governance efficiency of thermal power generation in China.By means of network data envelopment analysis(NSBM)with relaxation variables,this paper divides the thermal power generation process into thermal power production process and thermal power environmental abatement process,calculates the comprehensive efficiency of thermal power generation and decomposes it into thermal power production efficiency and environmental abatement efficiency.At the same time,it analyses the thermal power production efficiency and environmental abatement efficiency from different levels such as province,region and so on.The study found that: in 2006-2015,the efficiency of thermal power production is significantly higher than that of environmental abatement.From the provincial point of view,the average thermal power production efficiency of China's provinces in 2006-2015 is 0.75.The overall level of Beijing,Shanghai and Jiangsu Province is in the forefront of the country.The average thermal power environmental abatement efficiency of China is 0.41.The top three provinces are Guizhou,Beijing and Shanghai,respectively.From a regional perspective,the eastern region has the highest efficiency of thermal power production,followed by the western and central regions;and in terms of environmental governance efficiency,the western region is significantly higher than the eastern and central regions.On this basis,based on the method of nuclear density estimation,the environmental governance efficiency of thermal power generation in China is analyzed from the perspectives of spatial differences,regional characteristics and dynamic trends,and the differential effects of investment-based environmental regulation and cost-based environmental regulation on the environmental abatement efficiency of thermal power generation are further analyzed with the help of threshold regression model.The results show that investment-based environmental regulation and cost-based environmental regulation have a single threshold effect on the environmental abatement efficiency of thermal power generation.The impact of investment-based environmental regulation on the environmental governance efficiency of thermal power plants presents an inverted "U" curve,while the cost-based environmental regulation has a tortuous impact on the environmental governance efficiency of thermal power plants.Marketization index,enterprise scale,power generation structure and FDI have a significant impact on the environmental abatement efficiency of thermal power generation.On the basis of the above conclusions,this paper puts forward targeted policy recommendations.