[Study] Three Dilemmas Faced by Thermal Power Enterprises

As the price of thermal coal continues to grow, the cost of coal for power generation continues to rise, thermal power generation companies suffer large-scale losses, and the operating status of power generation companies continues to deteriorate. Although the five major power generation groups achieved profitability in 2010, they mainly relied on non-thermal power businesses and non-electric industries such as coal and finance. What is even more shocking is that the debt ratio of power generation companies has risen sharply. As of the end of 2010, the total liabilities of the five major power generation groups reached 1.75249 trillion yuan, and the average debt-to-equity ratio was as high as 86.03%, which has exceeded the nationally recognized red line. In some provinces, the debt-to-equity ratio of thermal power plants has even exceeded 100%, and the capital is insolvent. If it is not a central enterprise, backed by a powerful group company, its production and operation have long been difficult to sustain.

Due to the work relationship, the author often contacts some middle-level cadres of power generation companies. Once there was a middle-level cadre who lamented that power generation companies would unexpectedly fall to the point where they are today, and even more unexpectedly, in the rapid development of the socialist market economy, the power generation The enterprise still has no operational autonomy. The products produced by the power generation companies, whether they are price, output, or the next development plan, have no autonomy for the power generation companies that are the main players in the market. Thinking carefully, the comrades said that it is not unreasonable. We can sort out the many regulations that current power companies face:

Internet price. At present, the on-grid tariffs implemented by power generation companies implement the benchmark price system, which is based on the relative cost of repayment and payment of electricity and the price of electricity during the operation period. The benchmark price is a major advancement in China's on-grid electricity price system, which has changed the irrational status of one-for-one prices in the same province and reached a The purpose of controlling the investment cost of the power generation enterprises, but the system still continues the 60-year system of government approval, and power generation companies do not have autonomy in prices. The State Council's No. 5 document “The Power System Reform Program” has identified “preliminary establishment of regional power markets for competition and house opening, and the implementation of competitive bidding for online access; establishing a reasonable pricing mechanism for electricity prices, dividing electricity prices into on-grid tariffs, transmission and distribution tariffs, distribution tariffs, and terminal sales. The target of electricity price and on-grid price formed by the country's capacity electricity price and the electricity price generated by the market bidding has not been achieved.

Electricity plan. This is a policy with an extremely obvious plan economy. Some people once compared it to the "big pot" system. As long as the power generation company is born (in production), it will be allocated rations (electricity plan). But even today, using this "big pot" type of electricity distribution method, there is still no industry-recognized rule. In the "big pot" of electricity, who eats more, who eats less, depends entirely on Master's "hand". As a result, the "run" power plan has become the norm for power generation companies. Of course, this is under the premise that power generation is still profitable.

Project approval. First of all, we must acknowledge that serious and strict approval and approval of electric power projects are extremely necessary. The approval of our electric power projects is very meticulous and strict, with long approval lines and complicated procedures, involving multiple departments, and the number of projects from approval to approval often requires Year's time. However, in recent years, the repeated appearance of a large number of illegal projects has become the norm in the development of the industry. A large number of units have not been approved for construction, and have been approved for construction. The non-compliance projects are not individual phenomena of individual power generation companies and individual regions, but have gradually become A normal state. In addition, in order to achieve the “high pressure” requirement in some regions, some production time is not very long. In the 150,000 units of its young and middle-aged, 200,000 units have been shut down. Problems such as this have forced us to ponder and study.

In this case, power generation companies still have only the right to produce products (electric energy), and they do not have the right (price plan) for autonomous pricing (electricity price), distribution, and sales of their own products. They cannot be based on actual business conditions, unit conditions, and energy consumption. And the emission level comes from the main arrangement of production, and the next development plan (new construction) cannot be determined on its own. In the 30 years of reform and opening up, in China, where the socialist market economy is rapidly developing, highly-commoditized products such as electricity are still firmly under the government's administrative control. Looking at all walks of life in China, like power generation companies, It's not much that the control is so strict and so wide.