NDRC: my country's residential electricity prices are low, and the next step will be to restore the commodity attributes of electricity

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission mentioned in its reply to netizens’ comments on “suggestions to improve the residential tiered electricity price system and encourage urban and rural residents to use more clean electricity resources” that the next step is to improve the residential tiered electricity price system so that electricity prices can better reflect the cost of power supply. At the same time, the National Development and Reform Commission stated in its reply to Shaanxi netizens’ comments that “for a long time, my country has been experimenting with lower residential electricity prices. The residential electricity prices are significantly lower than the power supply costs because industrial and commercial users have borne the corresponding cross-subsidies. Compared with other countries in the world, my country’s residential electricity prices are relatively low, while industrial and commercial electricity prices are relatively high.” The National Development and Reform Commission revealed that “in accordance with the requirements of further deepening the market-oriented reform of electricity prices, the next step is to improve the residential tiered electricity price system, gradually ease the cross-subsidies of electricity prices, make electricity prices better reflect the cost of power supply, restore the commodity attributes of electricity, and form a residential electricity price mechanism that more fully reflects the cost of electricity, the relationship between supply and demand, and the degree of resource scarcity.”