The initial carbon emission quota allocation results of generating units will affect the production enthusiasm of power generation enterprises. A bi-level programming(BLP) model is constructed for coal-fired generating units. The upper BLP model takes the maximum economic benefit of the unit as the goal

and the initial carbon quota allocation and reserved auction amount are taken as decision variables. The lower BLP model takes the carbon emission intensity of the unit as the goal and the carbon emission of the unit as the decision variable. By using Karush-Kuhn-Tucker condition and large M method

the bi-level programming model is transformed into a single-level mixed integer linear programming model

which is solved by Gurobi solver. The allocation results show that

compared with the allocation scheme based on grandfather method

the large capacity coal-fired generating units with advanced technology in the allocation scheme based on BLP model will obtain more initial carbon emission quotas. Compared with the allocation scheme based on baseline method

the total amount of carbon emission quotas used in the allocation scheme based on BLP model is less.