Power Generation from Coal: Measuring and Reporting Efficiency Performance and Carbon Dioxide Emissions

This book explores how efficiency is measured and reported at coal-fired power plants. With many different methods used to express efficiency performance, it is often difficult to compare plants, even before accounting for any fixed constraints such as coal quality and cooling-water temperature. Practical guidelines are presented that allow the efficiency and emissions of any plant to be reported on a common basis and compared against best practice. A global database of plant performance is proposed, which would allow under-performing plants to be identified for improvement. Armed with this information, policymakers would be in a better position to monitor and, if necessary, regulate how coal is used for power generation.