"Ladder prices" come

Peng Sen, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said on March 8, 2012 that residents of the National Development and Reform Commission launched a “ladder price” that will be popular throughout the country in the first half of the year. This means that urban residents will soon face the reality that the more electricity they use, the more expensive they will be.

What is "ladder price"?

The “ladder tariff” is called “step-wise progressive tariff”, which is a one-size-fits-all model that changes how much we actually implement the “electricity price” once, and divides the electricity used by the residents into basic electricity, normal electricity, and high quality. Three ladders of electricity. The first ladder is the base of the number of electric power facilities. This ladder has less electricity, and the price per kilowatt-hour is also lower. The second ladder has higher electricity, the electricity price is higher, the third ladder has more electricity, and the price of electricity is higher. As the consumption of electricity per household increases, the electricity price per kilowatt-hour increases gradually. For urban and rural minimum living guarantee households and five-guarantee households, 10 to 15 degrees of free electricity is set according to the situation. This is a newly added free file. The specific implementation plan of the “ladder price”, including the determination of the electricity and the price of electricity, must be combined with the actual conditions of each place and can be implemented only after the hearing. Because this kind of electricity price takes care of the low-income population's demand for maintaining a minimum living standard, it is also commonly known as the "poor people's electricity price."

Why do we have to implement "a ladder of electricity prices" for residents?

For power companies, low-income consumer groups tend to have more room for growth in electricity use and expand low-cost markets, which can significantly increase electricity consumption. Therefore, for electricity sales, once differential pricing is established, low-income residents will increase their consumption due to lower electricity prices, while high-income residents will not reduce consumption due to higher electricity prices, so overall electricity consumption will increase.

For the government, implementing a step-wise increase in electricity prices for residents can improve energy efficiency. From the perspective of social fairness, low-price electricity should also be implemented for low-income groups, and the direction of efficiency and fairness should be the same. With segmented power, it is possible to achieve differentiated pricing in the market segment and increase power efficiency. And, in terms of fairness, it can relatively subsidize low-income residents.

For residents, the current average price of electricity for residents in China does not consider different consumer groups. According to the current electricity average pricing or average price increase, low-income residents will reduce electricity consumption (relatively expensive), while high-income residents increase electricity consumption (relatively cheap). Implementing the ladder price will better reflect social fairness, and it will also be more conducive to encouraging residents to conserve electricity and reduce energy waste.

However, there are also many people who have expressed doubts or wait-and-see attitudes toward the "ladder price":

Netizen tz Liangliang said that the residents' ladder price to be implemented will be the price of “energy saving”.

Netizen cwqc_i1h said that manufacturers of high-power home appliances should reduce production, and residents of the “ladder price” plan to use electricity.

Netizens flashy vicissitudes of life 1213 said that "ladder prices" were fully implemented in the first half of the year. Is it a disguised price increase? However, this is normal.

For the sustainable development of society, energy shortage and environmental pollution have become the main contradictions that restrict the sustainable development of economy and society. The implementation of a ladder-level electricity price policy for households is one of the important measures taken by many energy-starved countries to cope with high energy prices and curb the unreasonable consumption of energy.