Sustainable Development of Power Retailers and Industrial Parks in China's Belt and Road Initiative

Energy infrastructure construction is a top priority and focus for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and this drives dramatical demand for significant energy consumption growth and investment funds in BRI countries. In response, the concept of a regional power grid of an industrial park (RPGIP) has emerged as a new energy infrastructure, where the industrial power supply, load, and grid are integrated to form a balanced and independent regional power grid. Moreover, dramatically increased market competition on the retail side of the electricity market challenges developing countries striving to achieve sustainable development of power retailers. This paper proposes that power retailers transform into energy saving companies (ESCOs) to participate in the electricity management of an RPGIP. By using a financing scheme realized by asset securitization, power retailers can smoothly participate in the construction and operation of a power system of BRI that contributes to accelerating energy infrastructure construction, the electricity management of the RPGIP, and sustainable development of power retailers in BRI countries. Furthermore, this study provides a game analysis for achieving maximum benefits of power retailers and industrial consumers in the implementation of the financing scheme.