Power System Economics: Screening Curves

The level of production in a year (8,760 hours) of a utility which consists of three generation plants is shown in Table 1, along with other information of the plants. Table 1 Generation Plant Information Plant Capacity (MW) Life of Plant (Years) Annual Production (MWh) 175,200 5,256,000 20,805,000 G1: Gas Turbine G2: Coal G3: Nuclear 200 1,000 2,500 20 40 40 Overnight Cost Fuel Cost ($/kW) ($/MWh) 379 35 1,118 15 1,720 5 (a) Draw a screening curve (capacity-based ACK). Assume variable cost is only fuel cost and interest rate is 10% per year. You may round numbers and use integers to plot. Use $/MWh on the y-axis (not $/kWy). (18 points) (b) Based on the screening curve from (a), how would you operate each plant in a year? (6 points) Assume all load served has the same duration so that capacity factor equals load duration (cf=1 is equivalent to D= 8,760 hours). (c) Does the annual production given in Table 1 for each generation plant follow the annual operation derived from part (b)? (6 points) Hint: Use information in Table 1 to calculate average utilization of each plant (i.e. ratio of annual MWh production divided by total MWh capacity if running nonstop all year round). The level of production in a year (8,760 hours) of a utility which consists of three generation plants is shown in Table 1, along with other information of the plants. Table 1 Generation Plant Information Plant Capacity (MW) Life of Plant (Years) Annual Production (MWh) 175,200 5,256,000 20,805,000 G1: Gas Turbine G2: Coal G3: Nuclear 200 1,000 2,500 20 40 40 Overnight Cost Fuel Cost ($/kW) ($/MWh) 379 35 1,118 15 1,720 5 (a) Draw a screening curve (capacity-based ACK). Assume variable cost is only fuel cost and interest rate is 10% per year. You may round numbers and use integers to plot. Use $/MWh on the y-axis (not $/kWy). (18 points) (b) Based on the screening curve from (a), how would you operate each plant in a year? (6 points) Assume all load served has the same duration so that capacity factor equals load duration (cf=1 is equivalent to D= 8,760 hours). (c) Does the annual production given in Table 1 for each generation plant follow the annual operation derived from part (b)? (6 points) Hint: Use information in Table 1 to calculate average utilization of each plant (i.e. ratio of annual MWh production divided by total MWh capacity if running nonstop all year round)