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This paper studies when and under what conditions the actions undertaken by the power plants involved in China's emission trading scheme (ETS) pilot became cost effective. Based on unique plant-level panel data and the difference-in-differences strategy, we identify that an insignificant initial reduction in cost efficiency occurred at the announcement stage for power plants in the pilot provinces; however, the cost efficiency of the pilot plants increased significantly following formal policy implementation. Additionally, the by-stage treatment effects differed across the pilot provinces due to localized market and non-market variations. Localized conditions of higher marketization, stricter policy enforcement, and lower carbon dependence enhanced this positive effect. The synthetic control results confirmed this variation in the policy effects. The carbon trading pilots resulted in improved efficiency in power plants in Shanghai, Guangdong, and Tianjin during the period 2013--2017, with an associated total cost saving of approximately 29.75 million RMB. To enhance the efficacy of the ETS policy, our findings suggest that the design of the policy should consider localized external factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the vital auxiliary machine of the coal-fired power plant, monitoring the real-time operating status of coal mills is critical to the secure and stable operation of the power plant. In this study, a new method of construction of the coal mill health indicator (HI) is proposed, and the operation condition monitoring approaches of the device are designed based on the HI value. Firstly, an improved coal mill dynamic model considering the joint influence of drying force, ventilation force, and grinding force is established, and a synchronous optimization approach of model structures and parameters based on the genetic algorithm is designed. Then the deviation between the model output and the actual value is computed by the designed distance measuring approach, and the typical fault characteristic factors are designed based on the relation between the dynamic model and the actual operating state. And the HI value is calculated by fusing the deviation with the characteristic factors. Finally, the HI value is applied to the process of operation condition evaluation, fault diagnosis, and trend prediction, and has obtained favorable application effects. The results of this research show that the established HI value can reflect the operating status of the coal mill promptly and accurately, and the monitoring method designed based on the values have satisfactory practicality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]