Effectiveness of carbon emissions trading and renewable energy portfolio standards in the Chinese provincial and coupled electricity markets

China has formulated the carbon emissions trading (CET) system and renewable portfolio standards (RPS) to address climate change. Meanwhile, the development of provincial and coupled provincial-interprovincial electricity markets is underway in China. This paper establishes the operation frameworks and optimization models of the above electricity markets. The research results show that: CET or RPS can both increase the penetration of renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions. The effect of different CET parameters in the provincial electricity market is apparent. However, the effects of different RPS parameter changes on the two markets are fixed.