About Electricity Capital Cost Terminology

There is considerable internal inconsistencies [false data] and resulant confusion in the literature in the field of electrical power units relating to what is a Nameplate Capacity Rating for installed equipment, and what is the forecast output of the equipment measured over a time interval. The false data that does exist has grown with solar and wind power plants being specified as so many Megawatt [MW] of installed capacity to compare the capital costs of project costs with traditional fossil fuel burning thermal power plants.

Due to the preponderance of thermal methods of generation, most commonly the capacity of an installed coal-run power plant is rated in Megawatts [MW]. For example, utility scale thermal plants have traditionally started at a rated capacity of 1,000 MW. However, this rating bears no direct comparison to the actual output of the power plant as coal-run plants cannot operate at 100% efficiency. The Nameplate [rated] capacity is never realized and must be reduced for fuel sources that do not burn properly and other operational inefficiencies.

Similarly with solar and wind plants being stated in terms of MW of installed capacity is non-sensical for two reasons.

Firstly, they are not thermal thermal plants being inherently intermittent, and secondly, solar and wind plants operate at efficiencies of around 20% and 40% at the very best due to the inconsistency of weather patterns – sunshine and prevailing winds.

So one could put this another way and say that apples are being compared to oranges, resulting in thermal versus solar & wind project capital cost comparisons being meaningless.

About Electricity Capital Cost Terminology

To compound the above confusions and add a further layer of untruth to stated capacities, some people commonly confuse the nameplate rated capacity stated in MW of output with the actual output which must be measured over a time interval to make sense. The most common time interval is one hour. So we see output correctly stated as so many MW hours -[MW hrs] which means that so many Megawatts are produced consistently for the period of one hour. To say that 1 MW of power is needed is meaningless without stating the time interval, be it output by the second or by the hour.

Small volumes of electricity output are denominated in kilowatts [kW; kW hrs]; larger volumes of output are stated in Megawatts [MW; MW hrs], Gigawatts [GW; GW hrs], and Terawatts [TW;TW hrs]. Electricity pricing is another factor Retail (consumer) electricity prices paid by consumers are most commonly denominated in kW hrs, and Wholesale electricity prices paid to Independent Power Producers for electricity fed into a Grid, or supplied directly to an end user, are most commonly denominated in MW hrs.

1 kilowatt [kW] = 1,000 [one thousand] watts; 1 Megawatt [MW] = 1,000,000 [one million] watts; 1 Gigawatt [GW] = 1,000,000,000 [one billion] watts; 1 Terawatt [TW] = 1,00,000,000,000 [one trillion] watts.

About Electricity Capital Cost Terminology

Planetary Civilisation Ventures calculates the output potential of NewHYDRO™ per second and multiplies that by 60 seconds in the minute, and then 60 minutes in the hour to arrive at a stated output figure of kW hrs, MW hrs, GW hrs or TW hrs on a per hour basis. The only valid basis to compare thermal power plants or solar and wind renewable power plants rated capacity is on the basis of actual output per unit of time.  As NewHYDRO™ does not burn any fuel, is not weather dependent, and operates at 100% efficiency – it is not valid to compare it to thermal, solar or wind on any other basis than actual design output capability per second, or per hour.

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