Promoting the sustainable development of the provincial electricity spot market: supervision obstacle identification, analysis, and solutions based on the ISM-DEMATEL model

As a pivotal element of the power market system, the provincial electricity spot market has a critical foundation for effectively improving the efficiency of electricity resource consumption and promoting the clean energy transformation of the new power system. However, it still faces challenges of supervision dysfunction that have led to market imbalances and unfair trade. To enhance supervision efficiency, an obstacle system comprising 50 factors is initially developed through a comprehensive literature review and expert consultation. This system is tailored to the characteristics of the provincial electricity spot market in China and encompasses five dimensions: market structure, market participant behavior, operational mechanisms and performance, transparency and information disclosure, and system security and scheduling. Considering uncertainty and redundancy in subjective obstacle identification, interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is introduced to refine the original decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method to remove redundancy obstacles and further analyze the comprehensive importance and causal relationships. Based on the critical parameters derived from the results, spot price fluctuation level, the effect of regulatory policy implementation, and the completeness and timeliness of information disclosure hold the highest three positions in terms of importance. Additionally, market size and capacity obstacles demonstrate a greater impact on the entire system. The results provide valuable insights for shaping governmental regulations and enterprise practices to address the obstacles effectively. Finally, this paper proposes a series of general solutions and specific policy recommendations for provincial electricity spot market supervision to boost prosperity.