Operation and Maintenance

A major component of the Full Cost of Electricity is recurring (e.g., annual) operation and maintenance expenditures required to effectively and reliably generate electricity and deliver it to the end user.

Operating expenditures include fuel, operation and supervision engineering labor, the cost of electric energy consumed by generation and delivery equipment, and the cost of environmental monitoring and controls. Maintenance expenditures include the cost of maintaining the operability of existing generation, delivery, and other infrastructure.

Related Energy Institute Publications

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Capacity Expansion and Dispatch Modeling: Model Documentation and Results for ERCOT Scenarios

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Federal Financial Support for Electricity Generation Technologies

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Impact of renewable generation on operational reserves requirements: When more could be less

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Integrating Photovoltaic Generation: Cost of Integrating Distributed Photovoltaic Generation to the Utility Distribution Circuits

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Market-calibrated Forecasts for Natural Gas Prices

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New U.S. Power Costs: by County, with Environmental Externalities

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Journal Publication:
Rhodes, Joshua D., King, Carey, Gülen, Gürcan, Olmstead, Sheila M., Dyer, James S., Hebner, Robert E., Beach, Fred C., Edgar, Thomas F., Webber, Michael E.. “A geographically resolved method to estimate levelized power plant costs with environmental externalities,” Energy Policy, 2017, 102 (March 2017), 491-499, doi: 10.1016/j.enpol.2016.12.025. View paper free online here or download PDF.

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State Level Financial Support for Electricity Generation Technologies: An analysis of Texas & California

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Trends in Transmission, Distribution, and Administration Costs for U.S. Investor Owned Electric Utilities

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