Abstract: Under the background of new energy system construction and the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, coal and coal-fired power, as highly bound upstream and downstream related industries, their game predicament has restricted the efficiency of energy supply guarantee and the process of industrial transformation. By using literature research, case analysis and comparative research methods, the cooperation experiences of the coal and electricity industry at home and abroad were sorted out, and combined with the actual development of China’s coal and electricity industry, a contradiction analysis of competition in the coal and coal-fired power industries was conducted from the dimensions of interest demands, supply and demand relationships, and market-oriented reforms. This article focused on the four core contradictions of the coal and coal-fired power industries, including the difficulty in reconciling their interests, the difficulty in coordinating coal supply and demand, the difficulty in fulfilling long-term contracts, and insufficient supervision. It clarified the functional positioning of coal and coal-fired power under the new situation, summarized the new characteristics of industry contradictions in the new era, and drew on domestic and foreign case experiences to propose specific countermeasures and suggestions. The results indicated that the root cause of the contradictions in the coal and coal-fired power industries lay in the asynchronous market-oriented reforms in the upstream and downstream, the unreasonable mechanism of interest distribution, and it was necessary to work together from three levels of system, market and enterprise to solve the dilemma. Looking ahead to the future, with the continuous deepening of the construction of a new energy system, the coal and coal-fired power industries will gradually shift from zero-sum games to collaborative symbiosis, and it is necessary to continuously improve institutional mechanisms, strengthen market regulation, deepen enterprise cooperation, and promote low-carbon transformation and high-quality development of the industry, so as to build a solid bottom line for national energy security.