Applicability evaluation of China's retail electricity price package combining data envelopment analysis and a cloud model

With the reform of the power system, the retail electricity market in China has gradually been liberalized. The mechanism of freely selling electricity have been set up. To grab market share and increase profits, electricity retail companies have introduced a series of retail electricity price packages. To evaluate the applicability of these retail electricity price packages, an adaptive evaluation index system that takes into account the interests of both the power company and the users is first established. Furthermore, an integrated evaluation model that combines data envelopment analysis (DEA) and the cloud model is proposed. In this model, DEA is used to process quantitative indicators and the cloud model is employed to quantify qualitative problems. A case study of Tianjin is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed evaluation system and model. The empirical study shows that qualitative indicators can also affect the applicability of the retail electricity price packages, and the applicability of the retail electricity price package was different in different seasons. Finally, several reliable suggestions on how to design retail electricity price packages are given based on the research. This study provides useful support for customers to choose the price package to increase the competitiveness of power selling companies and ultimately promote the reform of power selling. © 2020 by the authors.