IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v40y2012icp159-176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency assessment and benchmarking of thermal power plants in India

Author

Listed:
  • Shrivastava, Naveen
  • Sharma, Seema
  • Chauhan, Kavita

Abstract

Per capita consumption11Per capita consumption—average annual consumption of electricity by per person in a country. of electricity in India is many folds lesser than Canada, USA, Australia, Japan, Chaina and world average. Even though, total energy shortage22Energy shortage—difference between energy demand and energy supplied. and peaking shortage33Peaking shortage—difference between energy demand during peak and energy supplied. were recorded as 11.2% and 11.85%, respectively, in 2008–09 reflecting non-availability of sufficient supply of electricity. Performance improvement of very small amount can lead to large contribution in financial terms, which can be utilized for capacity addition to reduce demand supply gap. Coal fired thermal power plants are main sources of electricity in India. In this paper, relative technical efficiency of 60 coal fired power plants has been evaluated and compared using CCR and BCC models of data envelopment analysis. Target benchmark of input variables has also been evaluated. Performance comparison includes small versus medium versus large power plants and also state owned versus central owned versus private owned. Result indicates poor performance of few power plants due to over use of input resources. Finding reveals that efficiency of small power plants is lower in comparison to medium and large category and also performance of state owned power plants is comparatively lower than central and privately owned. Study also suggests different measures to improve technical efficiency of the plants.

Suggested Citation

  • Shrivastava, Naveen & Sharma, Seema & Chauhan, Kavita, 2012. "Efficiency assessment and benchmarking of thermal power plants in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 159-176.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:40:y:2012:i:c:p:159-176
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.09.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421511007099
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.09.020?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Al-Muhawesh, Tareq A. & Qamber, Isa S., 2008. "The prerequisite for competition in the restructured wholesale Saudi electricity market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 477-484, January.
    2. Jamasb, Tooraj & Nillesen, Paul & Pollitt, Michael, 2004. "Strategic behaviour under regulatory benchmarking," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 825-843, September.
    3. Yeoh, Boon-Siew & Rajaraman, Rajesh, 2004. "Electricity in China: The Latest Reforms," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 60-69, April.
    4. Arocena, Pablo & Waddams Price, Catherine, 2002. "Generating efficiency: economic and environmental regulation of public and private electricity generators in Spain," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 41-69, January.
    5. Pineau, Pierre-Olivier, 2008. "Electricity sector integration in West Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 210-223, January.
    6. Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2008. "Efficiency analysis of hydroelectric generating plants: A case study for Portugal," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 59-75, January.
    7. Antonio Estache & MartÌn A. Rossi & Christian A. Ruzzier, 2004. "The Case for International Coordination of Electricity Regulation: Evidence from the Measurement of Efficiency in South America," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 271-295, May.
    8. Mehdi Farsi & Massimo Filippini, 2004. "Regulation and Measuring Cost-Efficiency with Panel Data Models: Application to Electricity Distribution Utilities," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 25(1), pages 1-19, August.
    9. Rosenzweig, Michael B. & Voll, Sarah P. & Pabon-Agudelo, Carlos, 2004. "Power Sector Reform: Experiences from the Road," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 17(9), pages 16-28, November.
    10. Vaninsky, Alexander, 2006. "Efficiency of electric power generation in the United States: Analysis and forecast based on data envelopment analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 326-338, May.
    11. Asano, Hiroshi, 2006. "Regulatory reform of the electricity industry in Japan: What is the next step of deregulation?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(16), pages 2491-2497, November.
    12. Bhattacharyya, Subhes C., 2007. "Power sector reform in South Asia: Why slow and limited so far?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 317-332, January.
    13. L. Dean Hiebert, 2002. "The Determinants of the Cost Efficiency of Electric Generating Plants: A Stochastic Frontier Approach," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 68(4), pages 935-946, April.
    14. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    15. Muller, Ralf & Steinert, Martin & Teufel, Stephanie, 2008. "Successful diversification strategies of electricity companies: An explorative empirical study on the success of different diversification strategies of German electricity companies in the wake of the," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 398-412, January.
    16. Jamasb, T. & Mota, R. & Newbery, D. & Pollitt, M., 2004. "‘Electricity Sector Reform in Developing Countries: A Survey of Empirical Evidence on Determinants and Performance’," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0439, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    17. Jamasb, Tooraj & Pollitt, Michael, 2007. "Incentive regulation of electricity distribution networks: Lessons of experience from Britain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6163-6187, December.
    18. Fumagalli, Elena & Garrone, Paola & Grilli, Luca, 2007. "Service quality in the electricity industry: The role of privatization and managerial behavior," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6212-6224, December.
    19. Andrew N. Kleit & Dek Terrell, 2001. "Measuring Potential Efficiency Gains From Deregulation Of Electricity Generation: A Bayesian Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(3), pages 523-530, August.
    20. Estache, Antonio & Rossi, Martin A., 2005. "Do regulation and ownership drive the efficiency of electricity distribution? Evidence from Latin America," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 253-257, February.
    21. Xu, Shaofeng & Chen, Wenying, 2006. "The reform of electricity power sector in the PR of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(16), pages 2455-2465, November.
    22. Bhattacharyya, Subhes C., 2005. "The Electricity Act 2003: will it transform the Indian power sector?," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 260-272, September.
    23. Raczka, Jan, 2001. "Explaining the performance of heat plants in Poland," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 355-370, July.
    24. Nakano, Makiko & Managi, Shunsuke, 2008. "Regulatory reforms and productivity: An empirical analysis of the Japanese electricity industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 201-209, January.
    25. Sharma, D. Parameswara & Nair, P. S. Chandramohanan & Balasubramanian, R., 2005. "Performance of Indian power sector during a decade under restructuring: a critique," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 563-576, March.
    26. Boardman, Brenda & Palmer, Jane, 2007. "Electricity disclosure: The troubled birth of a new policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 4947-4958, October.
    27. Balachandra, P., 2006. "Implications of private sector participation in power generation--a case study from India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(16), pages 2466-2479, November.
    28. Liu, C.H. & Lin, Sue J. & Lewis, Charles, 2010. "Evaluation of thermal power plant operational performance in Taiwan by data envelopment analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 1049-1058, February.
    29. Singh, Anoop, 2006. "Power sector reform in India: current issues and prospects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(16), pages 2480-2490, November.
    30. Ulusoy, Ali & Oguz, Fuat, 2007. "The privatization of electricity distribution in Turkey: A legal and economic analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 5021-5034, October.
    31. Thakur, Tripta & Deshmukh, S. G. & Kaushik, S. C. & Kulshrestha, Mukul, 2005. "Impact assessment of the Electricity Act 2003 on the Indian power sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1187-1198, June.
    32. Surrey, John, 1987. "Electric power plant in India A strategy of self-reliance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 503-521, December.
    33. Abbott, Malcolm, 2005. "Determining Levels of Productivity and Efficiency in the Electricity Industry," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(9), pages 62-72, November.
    34. Førsund, Finn R. & Kittelsen, Sverre A. C., 1998. "Productivity development of Norwegian electricity distribution utilities," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 207-224, September.
    35. Sarıca, Kemal & Or, Ilhan, 2007. "Efficiency assessment of Turkish power plants using data envelopment analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1484-1499.
    36. Jamasb, Tooraj & Pollitt, Michael, 2003. "International benchmarking and regulation: an application to European electricity distribution utilities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(15), pages 1609-1622, December.
    37. Christopher R. Knittel, 2002. "Alternative Regulatory Methods And Firm Efficiency: Stochastic Frontier Evidence From The U.S. Electricity Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(3), pages 530-540, August.
    38. Thakur, Tripta & Deshmukh, S.G. & Kaushik, S.C., 2006. "Efficiency evaluation of the state owned electric utilities in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 2788-2804, November.
    39. Ranganathan, V, 1996. "Electricity privatization revisited : A commentary on the case for new initiatives in India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(9), pages 821-825, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pavala Malar Kannan & Govindan Marthandan & Rathimala Kannan, 2021. "Modelling Efficiency of Electric Utilities Using Three Stage Virtual Frontier Data Envelopment Analysis with Variable Selection by Loads Method," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-21, June.
    2. Yu, Bolin & Fang, Debin & Meng, Jingxuan, 2021. "Analysis of the generation efficiency of disaggregated renewable energy and its spatial heterogeneity influencing factors: A case study of China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    3. Abhinav Jindal & Rahul Nilakantan, 2022. "Regulatory independence and thermal power plant performance: evidence from India," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 32-47, February.
    4. Surender Kumar & Rakesh Kumar Jain, 2021. "Cost of CO2 emission mitigation and its decomposition: evidence from coal-fired thermal power sector in India," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 693-717, August.
    5. Jindal, Abhinav & Nilakantan, Rahul, 2021. "Falling efficiency levels of Indian coal-fired power plants: A slacks-based analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Sai, Rockson & Lin, Boqiang, 2022. "Productivity assessment of power generation in Kenya: What are the impacts?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(PA).
    7. Sugathan, Anish & Malghan, Deepak & Chandrashekar, S. & Sinha, Deepak K., 2019. "Downstream electric utility restructuring and upstream generation efficiency: Productivity dynamics of Indian coal and gas based electricity generators," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 832-852.
    8. Abdollah Hadi-Vencheh & Peter Wanke & Ali Jamshidi, 2020. "What Does Cost Structure Have to Say about Thermal Plant Energy Efficiency? The Case from Angola," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-25, May.
    9. Sahoo, Nihar R. & Mohapatra, Pratap K.J. & Sahoo, Biresh K. & Mahanty, Biswajit, 2017. "Rationality of energy efficiency improvement targets under the PAT scheme in India – A case of thermal power plants," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 279-289.
    10. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Goto, Mika, 2015. "Environmental assessment on coal-fired power plants in U.S. north-east region by DEA non-radial measurement," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 125-139.
    11. Massimo Filippini & Thomas Geissmann & William H. Greene, 2018. "Persistent and transient cost efficiency—an application to the Swiss hydropower sector," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 65-77, February.
    12. Ghosh, Ranjan & Kathuria, Vinish, 2016. "The effect of regulatory governance on efficiency of thermal power generation in India: A stochastic frontier analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 11-24.
    13. Kamalakanta Muduli & Simonov Kusi-Sarpong & Devendra K. Yadav & Himanshu Gupta & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour, 2021. "An original assessment of the influence of soft dimensions on implementation of sustainability practices: implications for the thermal energy sector in fast growing economies," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 337-358, December.
    14. Ratanakuakangwan, Sudlop & Morita, Hiroshi, 2022. "Multi-aspect efficiency measurement of multi-objective energy planning model dealing with uncertainties," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    15. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Goto, Mika, 2016. "Undesirable congestion under natural disposability and desirable congestion under managerial disposability in U.S. electric power industry measured by DEA environmental assessment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 173-188.
    16. Ke Wang & Jieming Zhang & Yi-Ming Wei, 2017. "Operational and environmental performance in China¡¯s thermal power industry: Taking an effectiveness measure as complement to an efficiency measure," CEEP-BIT Working Papers 100, Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research (CEEP), Beijing Institute of Technology.
    17. Alizadeh, Reza & Gharizadeh Beiragh, Ramin & Soltanisehat, Leili & Soltanzadeh, Elham & Lund, Peter D., 2020. "Performance evaluation of complex electricity generation systems: A dynamic network-based data envelopment analysis approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    18. Bonalumi, Davide & Giuffrida, Antonio, 2016. "Investigations of an air-blown integrated gasification combined cycle fired with high-sulphur coal with post-combustion carbon capture by aqueous ammonia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 117(P2), pages 439-449.
    19. Khoshnevisan, Benyamin & Rafiee, Shahin & Omid, Mahmoud & Mousazadeh, Hossein, 2013. "Reduction of CO2 emission by improving energy use efficiency of greenhouse cucumber production using DEA approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 676-682.
    20. Varun Mahajan & D. K. Nauriyal & S. P. Singh, 2020. "Domestic market competitiveness of Indian drug and pharmaceutical industry," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 519-559, June.
    21. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Wanke, Peter, 2017. "Efficiency in Angolan thermal power plants: Evidence from cost structure and pollutant emissions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 129-143.
    22. Fan, Jing-Li & Zhang, Hao & Zhang, Xian, 2020. "Unified efficiency measurement of coal-fired power plants in China considering group heterogeneity and technological gaps," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Assaf, A. George & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Managi, Shunsuke, 2011. "Cost efficiency of Japanese steam power generation companies: A Bayesian comparison of random and fixed frontier models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(4), pages 1441-1446, April.
    2. Barros, Carlos Pestana, 2008. "Efficiency analysis of hydroelectric generating plants: A case study for Portugal," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 59-75, January.
    3. Chen, Zhongfei & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Borges, Maria Rosa, 2015. "A Bayesian stochastic frontier analysis of Chinese fossil-fuel electricity generation companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 136-144.
    4. Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki & Yuan, Yan & Goto, Mika, 2017. "A literature study for DEA applied to energy and environment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 104-124.
    5. Sugathan, Anish & Malghan, Deepak & Chandrashekar, S. & Sinha, Deepak K., 2019. "Downstream electric utility restructuring and upstream generation efficiency: Productivity dynamics of Indian coal and gas based electricity generators," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 832-852.
    6. Jindal, Abhinav & Nilakantan, Rahul, 2021. "Falling efficiency levels of Indian coal-fired power plants: A slacks-based analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    7. See, Kok Fong & Coelli, Tim, 2014. "Total factor productivity analysis of a single vertically integrated electricity utility in Malaysia using a Törnqvist index method," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 62-72.
    8. Stefan Seifert & Astrid Cullmann & Christian von Hirschhausen, 2014. "Technical Efficiency and CO2 Reduction Potentials: An Analysis of the German Electricity Generating Sector," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1426, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Barros, Carlos P. & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2007. "The determinants of cost efficiency of hydroelectric generating plants: A random frontier approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 4463-4470, September.
    10. Briec, Walter & Peypoch, Nicolas & Ratsimbanierana, Hermann, 2011. "Productivity growth and biased technological change in hydroelectric dams," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 853-858, September.
    11. Kabir Malik, Maureen Cropper, Alexander Limonov and Anoop Singh, 2015. "The Impact of Electricity Sector Restructuring on Coal-fired Power Plants in India," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4).
    12. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2008. "A survey of data envelopment analysis in energy and environmental studies," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 189(1), pages 1-18, August.
    13. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Chen, Zhongfei & Managi, Shunsuke & Antunes, Olinda Sequeira, 2013. "Examining the cost efficiency of Chinese hydroelectric companies using a finite mixture model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 511-517.
    14. Ogunrinde, Olawale & Shittu, Ekundayo, 2023. "Efficiency and productivity of renewable energy technologies: Evidence from U.S. investor-owned utilities across regional markets," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    15. Lampe, Hannes W. & Hilgers, Dennis, 2015. "Trajectories of efficiency measurement: A bibliometric analysis of DEA and SFA," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 240(1), pages 1-21.
    16. Liu, C.H. & Lin, Sue J. & Lewis, Charles, 2010. "Evaluation of thermal power plant operational performance in Taiwan by data envelopment analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 1049-1058, February.
    17. Seifert, Stefan & Cullmann, Astrid & von Hirschhausen, Christian, 2016. "Technical efficiency and CO2 reduction potentials — An analysis of the German electricity and heat generating sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 9-19.
    18. See, Kok Fong & Coelli, Tim, 2012. "An analysis of factors that influence the technical efficiency of Malaysian thermal power plants," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 677-685.
    19. Fallahi, Alireza & Ebrahimi, Reza & Ghaderi, S.F., 2011. "Measuring efficiency and productivity change in power electric generation management companies by using data envelopment analysis: A case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 6398-6405.
    20. Erdogdu, Erkan, 2013. "Essays on Electricity Market Reforms: A Cross-Country Applied Approach," MPRA Paper 47139, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:40:y:2012:i:c:p:159-176. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.