Energy plays a primary role in the economic development of any country because it is the driving force for social, industrial, technological, and cultural integration, and can drive a country towards a sustainable and prosperous future. The rapid development of China's economy is accompanied by a large amount of energy consumption. While supporting economic development with a large amount of fossil energy consumption, China has also actively adapted to the global energy reform situation.   In 2014, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Energy Development Strategic Action Plan (2014-2020)", proposing to accelerate the construction of a clean, efficient, safe, and sustainable modern energy system and adhere to the strategic policy of "conservation, cleanliness, and safety". According to BP World Energy Statistics, China's self-sufficiency rate of primary energy is at the middle level in the world. Although the total energy is not small, the per capita ownership is low. By the end of 2017, China's coal reserves and production ratio accounted for about 3/10 of the world average, oil reserves and production ratio accounted for about 1/3 of the world average, and natural gas reserves and production ratio accounted for about 2/3 of the world average (British Petroleum, 2018). The level of fossil energy security plays a crucial role in the overall level of energy security. In 2017
China's fossil energy consumption accounts for 79.2% of the entire energy consumption structure, and fossil energy has a high degree of dependence on foreign countries. Therefore, it is urgent to conduct research on China's energy utilization. In addition, the rapid growth of population and the acceleration of urbanization have led to increasing pressure on the global energy, water, and food resource systems. Therefore, energy utilization plays an important role in policy issues in many countries, and governments have taken multiple regulatory measures to promote the development of renewable energy, improve energy efficiency, or suppress carbon dioxide emissions.
The research on energy utilization at home and abroad mainly involves various aspects such as energy utilization goals, energy utilization connotations, ecological environment, energy reserve system, and energy transportation channel security. Among them, there are many studies on energy efficiency evaluation, and most of them use Data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis. Some scholars also use improved Data envelopment analysis (Wang Teng, 2017). Geng Yili et al. (2017) selected coal, oil, natural gas, and clean energy to analyze the impact of long-term social and political stability, energy abundance, energy use security factors, and energy structure adjustments on China's energy security by using the Shannon Wiener index to quantify energy security indicators. Cheng Lei (2018) pointed out that the connotation of energy security in the new era includes accessibility, affordability, efficient and clean utilization, and government energy governance capabilities. Wang Xiaoqin (2016) established an energy evaluation index system from four aspects: energy accessibility, sustainability, availability, and technological development. Fan Aijun et al. (2018) constructed a China energy security evaluation index system that includes oil external dependence, energy self-sufficiency rate, average energy consumption, oil price volatility, energy foreign exchange reserves, proportion of clean energy, and carbon dioxide emissions. They used factor analysis and the Three Sigma Rule to determine China's energy security level from 1995 to 2015. Wang et al. (2019) established an energy security evaluation model from three dimensions: energy supply and transportation security, energy utilization security, and political and social environment stability, analyzing the spatiotemporal evolution and driving mechanisms of the global energy security landscape. Biresselioglu et al. (2017) pointed out that due to the important role played by the industrial sector in energy demand, cooperation between high energy consuming industrial enterprises is of great significance in energy evaluation.
Based on existing literature, it can be seen that research on energy utilization is mostly based on establishing indicator systems and evaluating them, but most lack consideration of energy order. Some energy evaluation indicator systems are complex and overlapping, with strong subjectivity and poor universality. The setting of energy utilization evaluation indicators should follow the principles of simplicity, objectivity, and accuracy. The academic community pays attention to energy supply, mainly focusing on the contribution of various factors on the supply side, but neglecting the impact of the temporal and spatial arrangement of factors and their differences in subject status, and rarely considering the response of demand side consumers. Therefore, this study uniformly considers the coordination of different levels of subject relationships between the energy demand side and the supply side, as well as the matching of resource functions in their allocation. Chen Kai et al. (2018) first combined the order theory in traditional Chinese economic management science with the total factor productivity theory in Western economics to create a new method for measuring the order of energy utilization. They evaluated the smoothness of energy utilization order by measuring the relative income changes of energy utilization entities and the changes in total factor productivity. The research on energy based on order theory is still in its early stages and there are few achievements. The latest achievement is that Chen Kai et al. (2019) measured the energy utilization order and coupling coordination scheduling in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces based on order theory. Based on this, this article analyzes the stability of China's overall energy utilization order from three aspects: vertical order, horizontal order, and overall order, using order theory. By measuring the vertical and horizontal order of energy utilization in China from 2003 to 2017, the overall order score of energy utilization was obtained, and the stability of China's energy utilization order was analyzed. It was found that the overall order of energy utilization in China was in a relatively good state of ups and downs between 2003 and 2017, with the overall order score being 50% or above, and the overall trend approaching the ideal state.
Through analysis and research, it is believed that the current energy utilization situation in China is formed by various factors: 1) The main reasons for the low order of energy utilization in China are the large wealth gap between energy consumption entities and the slow pace of technological progress, efficiency improvement, and scale improvement of energy supply entities; 2) The main reason for the low order of energy supply is that the transportation and storage of crude oil have not yet been fully implemented; 3) The main reason for the large fluctuation in energy consumption is the polarization of consumption entities, which leads to consumption alienation. Environment and order are the carriers of energy, and a stable and safe environment and order can lay a solid foundation for energy utilization.
Based on the above analysis, the adaptive policy measures for the current energy utilization order mainly include: 1) increasing the income and welfare of low-income groups, suppressing polarization, and stabilizing the energy utilization pattern; 2) Promote energy technology progress, technological efficiency improvement, and scale improvement; 3) International political and economic events are sensitive to the impact of crude oil prices and supply, and international cooperation should be actively carried out to increase import sources and achieve diversification of China's energy import channels; 4) Strengthening energy strategic reserves; 5) Strengthen technological innovation, vigorously carry out low-carbon research on high carbon energy and research on renewable energy technologies, focus on developing clean energy, and protect environmental and ecological balance.