China is a coal dominated country, where CCS has a great potential to be used in coal-fired power plants (CFPP) but it is limited by the high investment cost. The competitiveness of the CFPP that responsible for the entire chain of carbon capture, the transportation and storage (CPCCS) was compared with the natural gas combined cycle power plants (NGCC), the centralized solar photovoltaic power station (CPV), the on-shore wind farms (WF), and the agro-forestry biomass direct combustion power plants (BPP), through calculating the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) at the same emission reduction level from the national and regional perspectives. The results showed that 1) the CPCCS had an advantage over other technologies when it had suitable storage sites within short distances and low coal prices. 2) The LCOE of the CPCCS was effectively affected by the CO2 transportation distance and the coal price. The initial investment cost of the CPV and WF, as well as the fuel price of the NGCC and the BPP were the decisive factors for their LCOE. 3) The LCOE of the CPCCS had the largest advantage in Shanxi, Tianjin, Gansu, and Xinjiang when compared to the NGCC, BPP, CPV, and WF. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.