In 1999, the State Council announced that the country wouldn't start any more big electricity projects for three years, which caused major power shortages in 2002. In 2004, these shortages were raised to the level of serious national problems.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) is currently working on provisions to allow private capital to invest in the power industry – both the generating sector and the national grid, which until now has always been a state monopoly.
Over the past 10 years, experiments have been started and then cancelled; plans made, then changed. Many reforms have been further complicated by sudden policy changes that have altered the role of industry regulators and other decision makers.
