Study on China’s Renewable Energy Policy Reform and Improved Design of Renewable Portfolio Standard

Abstract

China officially implemented the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) on 1 January 2019, and it remains uncertain as to whether this can effectively solve the problem of renewable energy consumption in China and ease the pressure of government subsidies. In order to study the impact of this policy on China’s renewable energy power generation and explore RPS policy that is more suitable for the characteristics of China’s renewable energy, we first develop a revenue function model based on the just released RPS policy to explore the effectiveness of the policy, the feasibility conditions for successful implementation, and the problems that may be encountered during the implementation process. Then, we propose policy recommendations based on the possible problems of the current policy and design an “incremental electricity price” supplementary policy to improve the possibility of successful implementation of the RPS policy. Finally, an evolutionary game model is established to simulate and verify the possibility of successful implementation of the supplementary policy. The main research results are: (1) the essence of the current RPS policy is the comprehensive implementation policy of the RPS and feed-in-tariff (FiT); (2) because of the characteristics of China’s energy structure, the implementation of this policy reform is more resistant; (3) the quantitative research on the revenue function model shows that the current transaction price of the green certificate market is very low, which is not conducive to alleviating the state’s subsidy pressure on renewable energy power generation; and (4) analysis of empirical data shows that the successful implementation of the “incremental electricity price” policy relies on the initial strategies of grid companies and users.