the scheduling and commitment of power generating units vary in each country or gridconnected balancing area dependent on the generation portfolio availability of plants market incentives and many other factors having more standby reserve adds to the operational costs for utilities in the case of china these costs are not compensated through any marketbased or priceincentivised mechanism coalfired power plants large or smallscale natural gas plants and hydro power plants conventional and pumped hydro together generated close to of chinas total electricity in