Efficiency and environmental impacts of electricity restructuring on coal-fired power plants |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, United Kingdom;2. Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, North Carolina State University, United States;3. Division of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines, United States;4. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, United States;1. Development Research Group, The World Bank, MC-3-333, 1818 H St. NW, Washington, DC 20433, United States;2. Department of Climate Policy, DIW Berlin, Germany;1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and NBER, United States;2. Ohio University, United States;1. Bureau of Economic Geology’s Center for Energy Economics, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, USA;2. Department of Business Administration, Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, University of Delaware, USA |
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| Abstract: | We investigate the efficiency and environmental impacts of electricity market restructuring by examining changes in fuel efficiency, cost of coal purchases, and utilization among coal-fired power plants based on a panel data set from 1991 to 2005. Our study focuses exclusively on coal-fired power plants and uses panel data covering several years after implementation of restructuring. The estimation compares how investor-owned (IOs) plants in states with restructuring changed their behavior relative to IOs in states without. Our analysis finds that restructuring led to: (1) a 1.4 percent improvement in fuel efficiency, (2) an 8 percent decrease in unit cost of heat input, and (3) a lower capacity factor even after adjusting for cross-plant generation re-allocation due to cost reductions. The estimates imply that restructuring has led to nearly 15 percent savings in operating expenses and up to 7.5 percent emissions reduction among these plants. |
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| Keywords: | Electricity restructuring Firm behavior Emissions |
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