IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i2p1006-d1038005.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring and Analyzing Operational Efficiency and Returns to Scale in a Time Horizon: Assessment of China’s Electricity Generation & Transmission at Provincial Levels

Author

Listed:
  • Toshiyuki Sueyoshi

    (The Center for Economic Research, Shandong School of Development, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China)

  • Ruchuan Zhang

    (The Center for Economic Research, Shandong School of Development, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China)

  • Aijun Li

    (The Center for Economic Research, Shandong School of Development, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China)

Abstract

This study discusses the assessment of OE (operational efficiency) and RTS (returns to scale) over a time horizon. Many previous DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) studies have discussed how to measure OE/RTS. However, their works did not consider the measurement over time. The important feature of the proposed approach is that our models are different from standard ones in terms of factor (inputs and outputs) unification. A problem with standard models is that they produce different efficiency measures for input and output orientations. Consequently, they yield different OE and RTS estimates depending upon which production factor is used for measurement. To handle the difficulty, we develop a new DEA formulation whose efficiency measure is determined after combining inputs and outputs, and then we discuss how to measure the types of RTS. The other methodological feature is that the proposed model incorporates a time horizon. As an empirical application, this study considers electricity generation and transmission across Chinese provinces from 2006 to 2019. The first key outcome is that the performance of China’s electricity generation and transmission system tends to improve with an annual growth rate of 0.45% across time. The second outcome is that, during the observed periods, China has more occurrences of decreasing rather than increasing RTS. As an implication, some provinces (e.g., Jiangxi and Hainan) need to increase their generation sizes to enhance their OE measures, while other provinces (e.g., Jiangsu and Zhejiang) should decrease their generation sizes. Finally, this study confirms significant technological heterogeneity across Chinese provinces and groups.

Suggested Citation

  • Toshiyuki Sueyoshi & Ruchuan Zhang & Aijun Li, 2023. "Measuring and Analyzing Operational Efficiency and Returns to Scale in a Time Horizon: Assessment of China’s Electricity Generation & Transmission at Provincial Levels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-23, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:2:p:1006-:d:1038005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/2/1006/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/2/1006/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arabi, Behrouz & Munisamy, Susila & Emrouznejad, Ali & Toloo, Mehdi & Ghazizadeh, Mohammad Sadegh, 2016. "Eco-efficiency considering the issue of heterogeneity among power plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 722-735.
    2. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Goto, Mika, 2017. "Measurement of returns to scale on large photovoltaic power stations in the United States and Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 306-320.
    3. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan, 2016. "Returns to damage under undesirable congestion and damages to return under desirable congestion measured by DEA environmental assessment with multiplier restriction: Economic and energy planning for s," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 288-309.
    4. Chang, Kuo-Ping & Guh, Yeah-Yuh, 1991. "Linear production functions and the data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 215-223, May.
    5. Banker, Rajiv D., 1984. "Estimating most productive scale size using data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 35-44, July.
    6. Zhang, Ruchuan & Wei, Qian & Li, Aijun & Ren, LiYing, 2022. "Measuring efficiency and technology inequality of China's electricity generation and transmission system: A new approach of network Data Envelopment Analysis prospect cross-efficiency models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    7. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    8. Korhonen, Pekka J. & Soleimani-damaneh, Majid & Wallenius, Jyrki, 2011. "Ratio-based RTS determination in weight-restricted DEA models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 215(2), pages 431-438, December.
    9. Zhang, Baocheng & Wu, Hao & Yang, Xinsheng & Zhai, Wenpeng & Xia, Qingjun & Li, Yafei, 2014. "An estimation of returns to scale of airport airsides under multiple optimal solutions in DEA," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 149-156.
    10. Wang, Zihan & Li, Jiaxin & Liu, Jing & Shuai, Chuanmin, 2020. "Is the photovoltaic poverty alleviation project the best way for the poor to escape poverty? ——A DEA and GRA analysis of different projects in rural China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    11. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Goto, Mika, 2019. "The intermediate approach to sustainability enhancement and scale-related measures in environmental assessment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(2), pages 744-756.
    12. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Wang, Derek, 2017. "Measuring scale efficiency and returns to scale on large commercial rooftop photovoltaic systems in California," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 389-398.
    13. Eguchi, Shogo & Takayabu, Hirotaka & Lin, Chen, 2021. "Sources of inefficient power generation by coal-fired thermal power plants in China: A metafrontier DEA decomposition approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    14. Filip Fidanoski & Kiril Simeonovski & Violeta Cvetkoska, 2021. "Energy Efficiency in OECD Countries: A DEA Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-21, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Toshiyuki Sueyoshi & Mika Goto, 2023. "Energy Intensity, Energy Efficiency and Economic Growth among OECD Nations from 2000 to 2019," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-29, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Aijun & Zhang, Aizhen & Huang, Huijie & Yao, Xin, 2018. "Measuring unified efficiency of fossil fuel power plants across provinces in China: An analysis based on non-radial directional distance functions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 549-561.
    2. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Goto, Mika, 2019. "The intermediate approach to sustainability enhancement and scale-related measures in environmental assessment," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 276(2), pages 744-756.
    3. Zhang, Zumeng & Ding, Liping & Wang, Chaofan & Dai, Qiyao & Shi, Yin & Zhao, Yujia & Zhu, Yuxuan, 2022. "Do operation and maintenance contracts help photovoltaic poverty alleviation power stations perform better?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    4. Banker, Rajiv D. & Chang, Hsihui & Cooper, William W., 1996. "Equivalence and implementation of alternative methods for determining returns to scale in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 473-481, March.
    5. Zhang, Ning & Zhao, Yu & Wang, Na, 2022. "Is China's energy policy effective for power plants? Evidence from the 12th Five-Year Plan energy saving targets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Li, Feng & Zhang, Danlu & Zhang, Jinyu & Kou, Gang, 2022. "Measuring the energy production and utilization efficiency of Chinese thermal power industry with the fixed-sum carbon emission constraint," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 252(C).
    7. Löthgren, Mickael & Tambour, Magnus, 1996. "Alternative Approaches to Estimate Returns to Scale in DEA- Models," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 90, Stockholm School of Economics.
    8. Peter Bogetoft & Joseph M. Tama & Jørgen Tind, 2000. "Convex Input and Output Projections of Nonconvex Production Possibility Sets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(6), pages 858-869, June.
    9. Beatriz Gonzalez Lopez-Valcarcel & Patricia Barber Perez, 1996. "Changes in the efficiency of spanish public hospitals after the introduction of program-contracts," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 20(3), pages 377-402, September.
    10. Joe Zhu & Zhao-Han Shen, 1995. "A discussion of testing DMUs' returns to scale," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 590-596, March.
    11. Golany, Boaz & Yu, Gang, 1997. "Estimating returns to scale in DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 28-37, November.
    12. Reuben Elan & Verma Bharat Bhushan & Bhat Ramesh, 2001. "Hospital Efficiency: An Empirical Analysis of District and Grant-in-Aid Hospitals in Gujarat," IIMA Working Papers WP2001-07-05, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    13. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Li, Aijun & Wang, Daoping, 2017. "Methodological comparison among radial, non-radial and intermediate approaches for DEA environmental assessment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 439-453.
    14. Seiford, Lawrence M. & Zhu, Joe, 1999. "An investigation of returns to scale in data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-11, February.
    15. Alirezaee, Mohammadreza & Hajinezhad, Ensie & Paradi, Joseph C., 2018. "Objective identification of technological returns to scale for data envelopment analysis models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 266(2), pages 678-688.
    16. M. Zarepisheh & E. Khorram & G. Jahanshahloo, 2010. "Returns to scale in multiplicative models in data envelopment analysis," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 173(1), pages 195-206, January.
    17. Hadjicostas, Petros & Soteriou, Andreas C., 2006. "One-sided elasticities and technical efficiency in multi-output production: A theoretical framework," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 168(2), pages 425-449, January.
    18. Tsai, P. F. & Mar Molinero, C., 2002. "A variable returns to scale data envelopment analysis model for the joint determination of efficiencies with an example of the UK health service," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 21-38, August.
    19. Zhu, Joe, 2000. "Further discussion on linear production functions and DEA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 127(3), pages 611-618, December.
    20. Fukuyama, Hirofumi, 2000. "Returns to scale and scale elasticity in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 93-112, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:2:p:1006-:d:1038005. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.