I am confused by the terms used to describe electricity output and
pricing.  I read that a biomass facility will produce 10 megawatts and
that output cav be sold at $32 per megawatt, and that operating costs
will be $.09 per kilowatt hour.  If a kilowatt is 1/1000 of a
megawatt, then operating costs will be $90 per megawatt hour?? Or are
the units changed going from megawatt to kilowatt hour?  I need an
engineer to help me!

Greetings Chetxx,
I don't think you'll need an engineer. From what's explained in the
source websites below, kilowatt hours are used when determining
customer usage. Megawatt hours are used for measuring plant generating
capacity. But they can be converted.

Remember that:
Kilo = thousand
mega = million

1 kilowatt = 1000 watts
1 megawatt = 1,000,000 watts

In calculating the energy costs of the plant you've mentioned, your
$90 per megawatt-hour is correct.
.09c Kwh/hr x 1,000 (modifier to reach Mwh/hr cost) = $90 Mwh/hr
$90 x 10 Mwh/hrs total plant output = $900 Mwh plant production in an
hour.
$900 x 24 hrs day operation = $21,600 operation cost a day
$21,600 a day x 365 days a year = $7,884,000 yearly cost of operation
for the plant.
The plant must make more than this much money keep operating, and must
have a profit, so it can have funds to increase personnel salaries or
buy new equipment, for example.
That biomass facility is quite small compared to the large plants that
power the United States cities, giving out more than a gigawatt
(1,000,000,000 watts) in power. Power plants do reach millions,
sometimes billions in operation costs, so making electricity is an
expensive business.

For measuring house consumption, a different formula is used.
Let's say .09 Kwh/hr is the usage rate for the subscriber (it is not
necessarily the same as the cost of operation). A reading for one
month came in at 6,883 Kwh/hrs for the month. That means all devices
under the meter used up 6,883 Kwh/hrs for the month.
.09 Kwh/hrs x 6883 Kwh/hrs usage = $619.47 usage fee monthly bill (not
including other charges)

Sources:
How is energy defined?
http://www.nwrefest.org/energy.htm

Green-e - dictionary of energy terms
http://www.green-e.org/what_is/dictionary/dictionary.html


Example of figures used:

California Energy Crisis
http://www.solarbuzz.com/CaliforniaEnergyCrisis.htm

Power Economics by USA's FERC
http://www.cato.org/dailys/03-29-01.html

June 1998 WEPR
http://www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/wepr/1998/9806WEPR.HTM

5 Californian Energy Advisors Fired Over Conflicts
http://www.ramanet.net/page28.html


Electricity fee calculation:

GCSE Physics: reading electricity meters
http://www.gcse.com/energy/kWh4.htm

Bangor Hydro Electric Company - Energy Manager - has the formula
usually used for calculating electricity usage
http://www.bhe.com/residential/energymgr/calculating_elect.cfm


Google Search terms used:
megawatt kilowatt hour
megawatt hour operating costs
reading electricity meters
calculating electricity usage

I hope this has been a most helpful answer. If you have any problem
with it, do please post a Request for Clarification and I shall
respond as soon as I can. Thank you.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by chetxx-ga on 23 Jul 2003 13:38 PDT

So, the facility produces 10 Mwh/hrs at a cost of $900 which is sold
to the grid at a wholesale price of 10 X $32 per Mwh/hrs = $320,
thereby losing $580 for each hour of operation?  Doesn't seem like a
good idea to me!

---

Clarification of Answer by techtor-ga on 24 Jul 2003 03:13 PDT

Can you tell me what is the biomass facility you read about? Do they
have a website? If so, perhaps they have some online documentation
which I could look up. Or if you still have the text where you read
it, I wonder if you could copy the part which mentions that price.
Looking back, it's probable that the .09 per kilowatt hour is actually
what the biomass plant will charge end users, and they might have
written it down as operating costs. But that may be unlikely too.
Please allow me some time to research more on power pricing.

---

Clarification of Answer by techtor-ga on 24 Jul 2003 04:03 PDT

I think it is even more likely that the $32 price is per kilowatt
hour, not megawatt hour. Come to think of it, $32 for a megawatt-hour
does seem quite low for sales. I looked up other wholesale prices for
comparison, like this one in New Zealand:

NZ Electricity - Wholesale Market - Electricity Prices - Monthly
Electricity Prices Summary
http://www.nzelectricity.co.nz/C2dPricesMonth/030508.htm

At $32/Mwh hr., the price would be .032 per kilowatt hour, which would
seem too low compared to the rates in this website (the lowest rate
$.76/kwh would make $760/mwh hr, in New Zealand funds. Divided by
$1.72, that's US$441/mwh hr). But do please check to be sure. Any
further problem, just post another request for clarification. Thank
you.