Research on the Evolutionary Game Equilibrium and Win-Win Mechanism of Power Grid Investment Regulation: A Perspective of Government-Enterprise Interaction
Power grid investment is an important support for accelerating the construction of a new power system, promoting energy transformation and achieving the "dual carbon" goal. However, current power grid enterprises have both the motivation to pursue maximum profits by expanding effective assets and the need to undertake social responsibilities such as providing guaranteed power supply services and integrating new energy into the grid. Meanwhile, the government needs to strike a balance through regulatory measures such as the regulation of transmission and distribution prices and the supervision of investment effectiveness. It should not only prevent power grid enterprises from blindly expanding but also encourage power grid enterprises to meet the investment intensity. Therefore, power grid enterprises are under the dual pressure of pursuing economic benefits and taking into account social responsibilities in this regulatory environment. Under this development trend, clarifying the relationship between government supervision and power grid investment behavior, and how to choose the investment motives of power grid enterprises and the government supervision methods to achieve a win-win situation for both the government and power grid enterprises have become urgent issues to be studied.
This paper constructs a two-party evolutionary game model of power grid enterprises and the government to explore the strategy choices of enterprises and the government under the supervision of power grid investment, and analyzes how the changes in parameters such as the reduction value of the investment scale determination rate, the reduction value of the permitted rate of return, and the government's relaxation of supervision on the reasonable investment incentives of enterprises affect the evolutionary equilibrium strategies of the game subjects.
The research finds that, first, under the supervision of power grid investment, the choice of government supervision methods and enterprises' investment motives is uncertain, and the two sides can reach two stable equilibrium states in the game process. When enterprises only consider economic interests, compared with the government's relaxation of supervision, the regulatory benefits brought by strengthened supervision are higher, and the system will reach the state of only considering economic interests and strengthening supervision. When the incentive benefits of the government are greater than the investment losses caused by enterprises taking into account social responsibilities, the system will reach the state of taking into account social responsibilities and relaxing supervision. Moreover, taking into account social responsibility and relaxing supervision is the most ideal strategic combination for regulating power grid investment behavior, improving the effectiveness of government supervision, and achieving a win-win situation for both the government and enterprises. Secondly, the strategic choices of power grid enterprises and the government are influenced by the reduction values of the permitted rate of return, incentive benefits, and the reduction values of the investment scale determination rate. Under the strategy of only considering economic interests and strengthening supervision, the reduction values of the investment scale determination rate and the permitted rate of return have inhibitory effects on the choices of enterprises' investment strategies. That is, the gradual change of parameters will reduce the speed at which the enterprise reaches a stable state. Under the strategy of taking into account social responsibility and relaxing supervision, incentive returns have a promoting effect on the choice of enterprise investment strategies, that is, the expansion of parameters accelerates the speed at which enterprises reach a stable state. Thirdly, the government can achieve an ideal state from only considering economic interests and strengthening supervision to taking into account social responsibilities and relaxing supervision by adjusting the permitted rate of return and the determination range of effective assets. However, the adjustment range of parameters should be controlled to avoid the low profits of enterprises dampening their enthusiasm for investment. Finally, in order to guide the evolution of the government-enterprise game system for power grid investment supervision towards taking into account social responsibility and relaxing supervision, based on the research conclusions, relevant suggestions are put forward for the government and power grid enterprises, providing a theoretical basis and policy reference for achieving a win-win situation for the government and enterprises under power grid investment supervision.
Given the current stage of comprehensive deepening in our country's power market reform, there are still issues that need to be addressed. These include insufficient digital supervision capabilities, issues with transmission and distribution prices, and inadequate incentives for the investment return mechanism in grid investment supervision. As a result, the evolutionary game model of enterprises and the government under grid investment supervision constructed in this study may have certain limitations. Furthermore, the accelerating promotion of energy transformation and the construction of a new power system have posed new, systematic, structural, and technical requirements for grid investment. Formulating regulatory strategies under these new requirements has become an important issue that requires attention in the current period and in the future. Therefore, future research will focus on these key issues to provide support for multiple stakeholders, including the government and grid enterprises, in achieving a win-win situation.
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