Notice on Matters Concerning the Optimization of Environmental Electricity Price Regulation (Draft for Comments)

The Notice applies to public coal-fired generating units and the grid-connected generation portion of captive coal-fired units. Where hourly average emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, or particulate matter exceed applicable limits, grid enterprises shall deduct the corresponding environmental electricity price payments for desulfurization, denitrification, dust removal, and ultra-low emissions during the relevant periods when settling electricity charges. Where pollution-control facilities are shut down or improperly operated without justified reasons, resulting in exceedances of one time or more above the limits, market regulation authorities shall impose penalties in accordance with law. Objective circumstances, including unit start-up and shutdown, denitrification withdrawal during low-load operation, and CEMS failures, do not constitute price violations, but the relevant payments shall still be deducted. Ecology and environment, market regulation, and development and reform authorities, together with grid enterprises, shall conduct quarterly data verification, accounting, enforcement, and information exchange; fines shall be remitted to the treasury, and deducted payments returned to users as prescribed.