Does generation form influence environmental efficiency performance? An analysis of China’s power system

To achieve sustainable development, the focus on power system efficiency should move from analysis of just economic benefits to environmental efficiency studies that assess both economic benefits and carbon emissions. Therefore, balancing the development of different generation forms is a critical field in improving environmental efficiency. Here we classify the 30 provincial administrative regions (PARs) in China into three categories according to the proportion of thermal power ratio. We then use a two-stage environmental network DEA model to compare their efficiency performance. Analysis of the evaluation results leads to the following conclusions. Generation forms have a significant influence on the environmental efficiency performance of power systems, but the differences vary greatly according to the power supply and demand situation. The policy to incentivize clean energy development has achieved its objective in the generation division and further policy reforms should be extended to the grid division. A more flexible power development plan should be implemented according to regional resources endowment for better planning of power system development on a nationwide basis.