The division and dismantling of electricity and network

Zhang Guobao, former deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission and former director of the National Energy Administration

　　2002The power system reform carried out in10Year.

　　10years, the rapid development of the power industry, installed capacity from2001of the year3.386billion kilowatts, increasing2011of the year10.5billion kilowatts,2012The year will break through.11billion kilowatts, will soon catch up with the United States and become the world'sElectric power installationThe country with the largest capacity; the power grid has been basically disconnected from the six major regional power grids to form a national interconnection including Tibet and Hainan Island. But on the other hand, the success of the power system reform is still controversial.

　　1999I started the National Development Planning Commission in(hereinafter referred to as "State Planning Commission")Deputy Director, in charge of energy, transportation, industry, high-tech and other industries, the responsibility lies. Fortunately, under the direct leadership of Zhu Rongji, then Premier of the State Council, Wu Bangguo, Vice Premier of the State Council, and Zeng Peiyan, director of the State Planning Commission, he participated in the design of reform plans for the four industries that are considered monopolistic by the society. As a person and witness, I have the responsibility to record this history.

　　Power generation enterprises:

　　"one for five" and the introduction of multiple forms of ownership

last century90At the end of the decade, compared with the reform of civil aviation and telecommunications, there was a high demand for the reform of the power system.

In the past, the structure of government management of the economy was largely influenced by the Soviet Union, and many professional industrial departments were set up. With the reform of China's economic system, many professional departments have been abolished and merged into several comprehensive management departments. After the reform, many specialized departments were gone and were relatively concentrated and streamlined. Some of these professional departments have become enterprises. These enterprises not only manage some corporate affairs, but also inherit some of the functions of the original departmental government management. The same is true of electricity. In the past, the Ministry of Electric Power evolved into the State Power Company, which still exercises some government administrative functions, as well as enterprise management functions.

Looking back, this may be a very important step in our reform process, and it is also a step with relatively large resistance. At that time, there was a saying: there are so many Bodhisattvas in the temple, and if you just invite the Bodhisattvas away, there will be other Bodhisattvas coming, so you have to demolish the temple before moving the Bodhisattvas. If you think about it, dozens of ministries and commissions were involved at that time. I don't have detailed figures on the number of people involved. It is estimated that there are at least tens of thousands of people. Such a big reform requires a lot of courage.

After the merger and reform of ministries and commissions, the second step is to further reform some institutions that have become companies but also have administrative functions, first of all, the electric power, civil aviation, railway and telecommunications departments.

It is very difficult for these departments to change themselves, so a comprehensive department is needed to design a reform plan. This task fell to the State Planning Commission. Comrade Zeng Peiyan was the director of the State Planning Commission at that time. He was the leader of the reform leading group, and I was the deputy leader, because at that time, I was in charge of these four industries. Comrades from the Office of system reform and several departments under reform also participated in the work of the reform leading group.

At that time, there was a consensus on the reform of the power system. First of all, the government was separated from the enterprise, and the functions of the government were separated from the original state power company and put into the government departments. The second is the reform mode. The unified view is that the power plant and the network are separated. Before the reform, both the power generation enterprises and the power grid transmission and distribution business belonged to the State Power Company. The power generation enterprises that originally belonged to the State Power Company were stripped out. They were no longer monopolized and no longer run electricity by one company. Instead, they were allowed to run electricity by multiple companies and various ownership systems, thus introducing competition.

There are actually two steps in running electricity: one step is to spin off the power generation enterprises belonging to the original State Power Company, but it is not a power generation enterprise, but formed5power generation enterprises.5Home can compete with each other, according to your service, according to your other abilities. Another major step is that power generation companies outside the scope of the State Power Corporation are also allowed to participate in competition, that is, multiple ownership systems are allowed to participate in the power generation field, including foreign capital, Sino-foreign joint ventures, private enterprises, and non-power sector companies. Come to run electricity. For example, China Resources in Hong Kong, Formosa Plastics in Taiwan, Shenhua and Tongmei Group in the coal industry, Xiexin and Zhujiang in the private sector, Hebei Construction Investment and Jiangsu Guoxin, which are local investors, have all set up some power plants. It is estimated that there are more than hundreds of power generation companies, and the five major power generation companies that originally belonged to the State Power Corporation account for less than half of the power generation capacity. This indicates that multiple ownership systems are allowed to participate in the power generation field, forming a number of The competition pattern of running electricity.

　　grid into the focus of reform:

　　National "one network" or "multiple network"?

In the process of power reform, many problems have been encountered. One of the problems is how to deal with the power grid?

Some people have suggested that the power grid can also introduce competition, similar to turning power generation into five major companies, turning the power grid into several companies. Had an idea, according to the original6Electricity Authority(Northeast, Northwest, North China, Central China, East China, South), take this6The power region became six grid companies.

But some people have suggested that even if you turn it6It is still a power grid company within the jurisdiction of any power grid company. For example, the Northeast Power Grid, in the Northeast region, it is impossible to send the power of the Southern Power Grid to the Northeast to compete with it, so it is still a natural monopoly within its scope, but the scope of this natural monopoly has changed from the whole of China to a certain region. Therefore, some people think that this reform is not feasible and advocate that the power grid cannot be split, but should be "one network" across the country ".

The power reform has encountered great resistance. Some comrades in the power department and other departments feel very distressed and difficult to accept the separation of the power plant and the grid. Since the founding of New China, it has been such a system, and it has developed into such a large-scale power industry. Now it has been dismantled, and it is hard to feel. But these comrades can't say anything, because public opinion believes that the separation of government and enterprises and the separation of factories and networks should be carried out. This is the general trend.

However, on this basis, there is great resistance to further separating the "net. In the end, the focus of the power system is: is the country "one network" or "multiple networks"?

The senior management also has different views. Some advocate "one network" and some advocate "multiple networks". The reform of the power system has reached the stage of specific plan design and encountered great difficulties. The State Power Company is the object to be changed. For example, the separation of power plants and grids is directly related to the separation of power companies. It is not only the separation of power generation companies, but also the problem of whether the power grid companies can be dismantled. This is much more complicated than now imagined. Reform is the general trend, but it is impossible for you to say that you have no idea at all. This is a fact.

At that time, the organization asked me to find Gao Yan.(General Manager of the State Power Company at that time)After talking about it once, he did not say in front of me that he disagreed or showed resistance to the reform, but after only a few commonplaces, he said that he was sick and asked others to talk to me. Do you think he's happy? He wouldn't want the power to be further dismantled. There are not only a few people who know this way.

In order to form a consensus on reform, at that time, people were organized to investigate abroad, learn from the experience of other countries' power management systems, and held many seminars and symposiums at home and abroad. Whether the power grid could be disassembled became a focus issue of whether the power system reform plan could be introduced at that time. The society was also very concerned, and everyone put forward various suggestions. There are those who advocate separation and those who advocate that they cannot be separated. We have held many large seminars and invited many foreign consulting agencies and energy institutions, such as Goldman Sachs and Cambridge Energy Research Institute in the United States. Other countries have also introduced their experience in power management.

I have attended most of the seminars. I think the mode of the seminars is basically the same. Zhang San said so and Li Si said so. Looking back now, I don't think any power management mode in all countries in the world is exactly the same. This is not to say that a certain model is generally recognized as the best, and there is no model that every country can follow. Including western countries, is the British model the same as that of the United States? Is the British model the same as that of France? Is the Japanese model the same as that of Britain? They are all different.

At that time, all kinds of opinions were mixed, including investment banks, such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. They seemed to know the business and told you what to do. In fact, they wanted to help these enterprises go public in the future, and more importantly, they were looking for business opportunities and economic benefits. In retrospect, some investment banks are just trying to figure out the intentions of Chinese leaders. If the leaders think "one net" is good, they will say "one net". If the leaders say "multiple nets" is good, they will say "multiple nets". In fact, they don't understand. Why don't they understand? It's not that they don't have this knowledge. As I said earlier, there is no power management model in the world that is exactly the same and can be used for reference. Each has its own characteristics and advantages and disadvantages.

　　general secretary jiang zemin personally intervened and demanded:"compromise”

due to the great controversy over the power grid, the reform of the power system cannot be carried out,General Secretary Jiang Zemin also personally asked about the reform of the power system: Why has it not been changed yet? What is the resistance? Where are the differences? He directly called Comrade Zeng Peiyan.I was right next to it.

Comrade Zeng Peiyan truthfully reported some opinions on the design plan for the reform of the power system, but in fact, he finally focused on the question of "one network" or "multiple networks. After listening to this, General Secretary Jiang spoke in English."compromise"The general meaning is to compromise the two opinions and coordinate them again.

Why did it become the State Grid and the Southern Power Grid later? Since there was already a bridge from Tianshengqiao at that time.(Editor's note: Tianshengqiao Hydroelectric Power Plant, located in Xingyi City, Guizhou Province)Sending electricity to Guangdong has taken shape from the southwest to Guangdong. Before the reform of the power system, a series of west-to-east power transmission work has actually been carried out. On this basis, the prototype of the interconnection of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Guangdong has been formed. Therefore, the State Grid and China Southern Power Grid formed later were the result of the coordination and unification of various opinions, including the opinions of senior leaders, and were also decisions made based on the status of China's power grid at that time.