Electricity Generation Costs
Indicative current electricity costs (2001) are shown in Table 9. Conventional pulverised coal plant without FGD has been included for comparison as this would be an option if low sulphur coal was available. In these examples a discount factor of 10% has been used over a 20-year plant life. Gas and coal prices of $3/GJ and $2.5/GJ respectively have been used. The net load factor has been assumed to be 90%.
Table 9: Electricity Costs in 2001 (10% Discount Factor, 20 Year Life, $3/GJ Gas, $2.5/GJ Coal, 90% Load Factor)
| Technology | Cost c/kWh |
|---|
| Capital | Fuel | O & M | Other | Total |
|---|
| Conventional Pulverised Coal with FGD | 4.3 | 2.5 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 9.7 |
| (Conventional Pulverised Coal without FGD) | 3.5 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 8.3 |
| Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle | 5.2 | 1.8 | 1.1 | 1.6 | 9.7 |
| Gas Combined Cycle | 1.4 | 2.4 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 4.7 |
| Advanced Gas Combined Cycle | 2.1 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 5.5 |
| Combustion Turbine | 1.1 | 3.6 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 5.2 |
| Advanced Combustion Turbine | 1.5 | 2.9 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 5.1 |
The effects of the capital costs and efficiency changing through time are shown in Appendix D. The costs are sensitive to changes to capital, fuel and O&M costs, plant factors and discount rates. The effects of some of these on the various unit cost components are also shown in Appendix D. Unit costs range from 4.0 to 7.6 c/kWh for gas based technologies and from 6.7 to 10.1 c/kWh for coal based technologies.
In cases where the costs of generation from a type of technology are similar other factors such as environmental considerations may be included. In these cases combined cycle plant are likely to be preferred because of their more efficient use of the gas and lower environmental effects.
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