Electricity plants, costs

Electrical and Instrumentation Estimation These costs usually range from 4 to 10 percent of the total installed plant cost, with a median value of about 7.5 percent. As with piping estimation, the process design must be almost completed before detailed drawings and specifications can be prepared for estimating purposes. However, actual elec trical costs can be up to 100 percent higher than estimated costs, and so it is important to attempt to maintain the accuracy range within reasonable hmits. 

Factored electrical cost as a percentage of total installed plant cost for specific types of plant... 

TABLE 9-59 Electrical and Instrumentation as Percentage of Total Installed Plant Cost... 

In 1854, the Manchester Steam Users Association was formed to help with the prevention of explosions in steam boilers and to find efficient methods in their use. To achieve this, the Association employed the first boiler inspectors, whose services were then made available to the Association s members. Within a short space of time, the members became convinced that insurance to cover the high cost of repair or replacement of damaged boilers was desirable, and this resulted in the first boiler insurance company (The Steam Boiler Assurance Company) being formed in 1858. The scope of the services for inspection and insurance later extended to include pressure vessels, steam engines, cranes, lifts and electrical plant, the insurance protection in each case being supported by an inspection service carried out by qualified engineer surveyors. 

Emissions in excess of allotted levels are taxed. As an incentive to clean up emissions, companies that emit less than their allotted amounts are allowed to sell their unsued portions (so-called emission credits) to other companies. Several years ago, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which operates 11 coal-fired electricity plants, purchased emission credits from Wisconsin Power and Light. The TVA bought pollution rights for the emission of 1.00 X 10 tons of sulfur dioxide per year at a price of 275 per ton. How much will it cost to emit 1 mol of SO2 How many molecules can be emitted for 1.00 ... 

But nuclear energy has problems in the U.S.. Since the 1973 Arab oil boycott there has been a surplus of electrical capacity in the US. and no large base load electrical plants have been ordered. Indeed, some 100 nuclear plants and some 80 coal plants on order were canceled after 1973. The sixty nuclear plants put on the line since 1973 (providing 40% of new electricity capacity) were all ordered before 1973. And because there was no urgent need, bureaucratic licensing procedures and litigious court attacks by anti-nuclear groups have led to construction times of a dozen to twenty years, and uneconomic costs. This compares to the four to six year construction times ofthe U.S. reactors built abroad and indeed to the four to six year construction times in the U.S. priorto 1973. 

Hybrid plants are projected to cost 25% below comparably sized fuel cells and be capable of producing electricity at costs... 

The hybrid plants are projected to cost 25 % below comparably sized fuel cells, (69) and be capable of producing electricity at costs of 10 to 20 % below today s conventional plants (66). Operation of the plant is almost totally automatic. Therefore, it can be monitored and managed remotely with the possibility of controlling hundreds of the power plants from a single location (67). 

As turbine-driven plants generally cost 2-4 million Euro more than similar plants driven by electric motors the selection of drive will reflect the cost of the plant versus capacity as indicated on Figure 17 showing the regression line for LNG plant cost development versus time (year). Likewise, Figure 18 shows the cost development versus the development of LNG train size [10]. The investment may also reflect various requirements for the liquefaction train and necessary support facilities. 

It is necessary to include the full cost of auxiliary services, e.g. steam, water and electricity supply and distribution, roads, buildings, communications, etc., in the capital cost estimate for a new plant. If a chemical plant is to be constructed on an existing complex, then a proportion of the cost of existing services (based upon the estimated consumption) is usually charged. A very approximate estimate of the cost of auxiliaiy services can be obtained by taking 20-25% of the total installed (new) plant cost. However, in some situations a figure of 40-70% may be more appropriate. It must be emphasised that a more accurate estimate should be obtained during the preparation of the feasibility study. 

Therefore, even if an installed solar-hydrogen power plant costs 1 billion more than a regular solar plant, this is still under the costs of state-of-the-art nuclear or fossil power plants of the same size range. If the solar collector cost is estimated at 3,000/kW, the life expectancy of the equipment at 25 years, and the interest on investment at 5%, the unit cost of electricity generated will be about 12tf/kWh. This cost is already competitive with fossil-generated peak electricity costs and even with nonpeak electricity prices in some areas. (In June 2007, in Connecticut in my household, we paid 18.9 /kWh for our electricity.)... 

As of 2003 Toray is the only commercial user of this process. They have two plants (startups in 1963 and 1971) with a total production capacity of 174,000 tonnes. Since electric power consumption is high, this process is attractive only where electric power costs are low264,266. 

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