AUTHOR=Wang Jing , Li Hong TITLE=The Impact of Electricity Price on Power-Generation Structure: Evidence From China JOURNAL=Frontiers in Environmental Science VOLUME=9 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.733809 DOI=10.3389/fenvs.2021.733809 ISSN=2296-665X ABSTRACT=

Being affected by a variety of factors, power-generation structure plays an essential role in a high-quality and sustainable development. The focus of this paper is to evaluate the influence of electricity price on it. First, we provide a microeconomic framework to understand the impact mechanism. We discuss two effects through which price level can affect power generation, and then the power-generation structure. After that, an empirical test is conducted using provincial panel data, and the results of it are robust. We also test the above-mentioned mechanism empirically. There are two main conclusions. First, the electricity price has a positive effect on the share of thermal power in electricity generation. Second, the mechanism test shows that an increase of electricity price can not only improve efficiency of power plants but also propel firms to invest in more renewable energy plants.