Environmental efficiency of electric power industry in the Yangtze River Delta

There are 16 cities in the Yangtze River Delta and this region plays a leading role in Chinese economic growth. A great deal of power is needed for the economic growth and social development in the Yangtze River Delta, but the local firms’ production and people’s living are often disturbed by shortages of power. From 2000 to 2010, the power output of the regional electric power industry was accompanied by a large amount of undesirable outputs. Environmental Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technology is applied. Two DEA models incorporating undesirable outputs are constructed and used to measure the environmental efficiency of the electric power industry in the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2010. Both constant return of scale and variable return of scale are considered. Some meaningful findings are obtained from the measurement results of the 16 cities and of the whole region.