Spatial-temporal distribution and evaluation of China's provincial power sector with disaggregating MRIO

The cross-regional coordination mechanism optimizes the inter-provincial power factor allocation. To quantify the transfer of and track externalities, this paper firstly disaggregated the power sector in China's MRIO into the power supply, thermal, hydropower, wind, solar and nuclear power sector. Secondly, inter-provincial carbon emissions and value-added transfers driven by the power sector were measured. Then, the forward and backward linkages of the power industry in the industrial network were explored and their importance as nodes in the I-O network was assessed. Finally, the dynamic analysis of power sector's transformation was summarized. The findings show that: 1) Provincial power sector's outputs decline from east to west. The power supply sector contributes 64.7 %, and its output exceeds that of the power generation sector in over 80 % of provinces. 2) The power sector correlates significantly with upstream infrastructure, transportation, service industries, and downstream manufacturing and construction industries. 3) Eastern provinces with high electricity consumption drive carbon emissions and value-added growth. Driven provinces are in northern coal-rich areas. 4) The power spatial network has weak connectivity, with resource-rich regions as key nodes. Renewable power has less influence than traditional thermal power, and reaction coefficient varies little among power sub-sectors. 5) China's provincial power system has seen deeper coupling and clearer responsibility division from 2012 to 2017, and forming a new pattern of load center driven and resource area undertaken. Some policy recommendations have been proposed.