China makes further reforms to lower energy costs

BEIJING - China's top economic planner Wednesday unveiled new measures to regulate electricity pricing at provincial power grids.

The measures clarified pricing, incentives and restraints for power grids, a National Development and Reform Commission statement said.

The new measures came after a previous move by the commission to supervise energy prices in terms of power grid costs.

Due to energy price decreases brought by the measures, enterprises nationwide have saved more than 180 billion yuan (about $26 billion) in energy costs since 2015, the statement said.

Lowering corporate costs is one of the five main tasks of China's ongoing supply-side structural reform, along with cutting industrial capacity, reducing the housing inventory, cutting leverage and improving weak economic links.

Despite difficulties, policymakers have decided to stick with supply-side structural reform in 2017 in a bid to address entrenched problems and find long-term growth momentum.