Under the goals of carbon emissions peaking and neutrality, China and its provinces are actively promoting emission reductions. As China's largest emission sector, the electric power industry has become the focus of emission reduction. However, the implicit carbon emissions in the power industry have caused actual emissions to be underestimated, and inter-provincial carbon transfer has led to a prominent problem of unfair provincial emission reduction responsibilities. Therefore, identifying the life-cycle carbon footprint of the power industry, especially the characteristics of the implicit carbon footprints of different provinces and the transfer of carbon footprints between provinces, will help to correctly assess the emissions of the power industry, scientifically determine the emission reduction responsibilities of different provinces, and rationally allocate emission reduction responsibilities. This paper constructed a life-cycle node-flow model of the power industry to reveal the energy activities existing in the power industry chain, and then defined the lifecycle carbon footprint based on the consideration of the power consumption side in 2018. Carbon implicit ratio and transfer ratio were established to analyze the implicit emissions and inter-provincial transfer emissions of the power industry. The results showed that: ① The life-cycle emission coefficient of China's power industry was 689 g/(kW·h), and the carbon emissions were 4 .747×109 t, among which the emission coefficient was high in most parts of northern China, with the highest in Shandong (891 g/(kW·h)); the coefficient was low in most parts of southern China, with the lowest in Yunnan (101 g/(kW·h)). ② The carbon implicit ratio of nationwide power industry was 8.95%, and the carbon implicit emissions were 4.25×108 t. The carbon implicit ratio of the coal-poor provinces located in the southeastern coastal areas and the provinces with high carbon emissions in the coal production process was high, with the highest carbon implicit ratio in Guizhou (14.63%). The carbon implicit ratio of the coal-rich provinces in northwestern China and northern China was low, with the lowest carbon implicit ratio in Xinjiang (only 4.94%). The highest carbon implicit emissions in Guangdong were 5.0×107 t, while the lowest emissions in Qinghai were only 1.17×106 t. ③ The carbon transfer emissions of nationwide power industry were 9.26×108 t, accounting for 19.5% of the total carbon emissions. The provinces with lower self-sufficiency ratio of power and coal had higher dependence on external carbon transfer, among which Beijing had the highest ratio of 71.24%. Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Anhui, Xinjiang, and Guizhou were the main carbon transfer-in provinces, with a total carbon transfer-in of 7.11×108 t, among which Inner Mongolia was as high as 2.64×108 t; Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shandong, Hebei, Beijing, Liaoning, Henan, and Shanghai were the main carbon transfer-out provinces, with a total transfer-out of 6.92×108 t, among which Jiangsu was as high as 1.12×108 t. 240 pairs of provinces existed carbon transfer, and 102 pairs exceeded 1.0×106 t. Based on the research, corresponding suggestions are put forward to promote the fair and reasonable low-carbon development of the provincial power industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]