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Lecture1 Introduction Part6

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36 views

Lecture1 Introduction Part6

Uploaded by

dfere
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Generation Sources in Texas 2014

Biomass
0.18%

Solar
0.09%
Coal
Wind 36.1%
Other 10.7%
0.01%

Nuclear
11.6%
Gas
5.3%

Gas-CC
35.9%
Hydro
0.07%
Energy Economics
• Electric generating technologies involve a
tradeoff between fixed costs (primarily capital
costs to build them) and operating costs:
– Nuclear, wind, and solar high fixed costs, but low
operating costs,
– Natural gas has low fixed costs but relatively high
operating costs (dependent upon fuel prices)
– Coal in between (although recent low natural gas
prices has meant that some coal plants have higher
operating costs than some natural gas).
• Total average costs depend on fixed costs,
operating costs, and capacity factor (ratio of
average power production to capacity).
17
Ball park operating Costs
Nuclear: $10/MWh
Coal: $40/MWh (some coal considerably lower)
Wind: couple $/MWh (maintenance and operating)
Hydro: few $/MWh (maintenance and operating)
Solar: $0/MWh
Natural Gas:
cost in $/MWh is 7 to 20 times fuel cost in $/MBtu;
for example, with $8/MBtu gas, cost is $56/MWh to
$160/MWh; with $5/Mbtu gas, cost is $35/MWh to
$100/MWh.

Note, to get price in cents/kWh take price in $/MWh and


divide by 10.
18

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