Comprehensive Evaluation of Energy Transition in Industrial Cities: A Case Study of Suzhou

The quantitative evaluation of urban energy transition is helpful for the sustainable development of urban economy and society, especially for the guidance of industrial urban energy system transition. However, the comprehensive evaluation of energy transition faces the challenges of multi dimensional variables, multi-structure coupling and multi level structures. Taking Suzhou as an example, this paper proposes a comprehensive evaluation system for China’s industrial city energy transition based on the interpretative structural model and analytic hierarchy process, solving the direct correlation and hierarchical relation of multidimensional variables of industrial urban energy transition. On this basis, a comprehensive evaluation model and system for quantifying the energy transition of industrial cities can be obtained through binary comparison. By substituting the statistical data of Suzhou from 2013 to 2018, the development of Suzhou urban energy transition during this period was summarized and evaluated. The results show that the overall development of Suzhou urban energy transition is on the rise, and the most significant progress is in energy efficiency, energy structure, and industrial development. However, the self-sufficiency rate of electricity has dropped from 79% to 70%, so the pressure on energy security has increased, causing the score of energy supply capacity to fluctuate and increase. The score of energy consumption intensity decreased annually from 2013 to 2017 and increased in 2018. The situation of energy intensity control was grim. The R&D intensity scores for 2017 and 2018 were lower than those for 2016, and further investment is required. Finally, based on the above data analysis, we provide five suggestions for the subsequent energy transition in Suzhou.