Capacity Factor: Sample Calculations

Capacity factor 1
Capacity factor
The net capacity factor of a power plant is the ratio of its actual output over a period of time, to its potential output
if it were possible for it to operate at full nameplate capacity indefinitely. To calculate the capacity factor, take the
total amount of energy the plant produced during a period of time and divide by the amount of energy the plant
would have produced at full capacity. Capacity factors vary greatly depending on the type of fuel that is used and the
design of the plant. The capacity factor should not be confused with the availability factor, capacity credit (firm
capacity) or with efficiency.
Sample calculations
Baseload power plant

A base load power plant with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW) might produce 648,000 megawatt-hours (MWh)
in a 30-day month. The number of megawatt-hours that would have been produced had the plant been operating at
full capacity can be determined by multiplying the plant's maximum capacity by the number of hours in the time
period. 1,000MW 30days 24hours/day is 720,000MWh. The capacity factor is determined by dividing the
actual output with the maximum possible output. In this case, the capacity factor is 0.9 (90%).[1]
Wind farm
The Burton Wold Wind Farm consists of ten Enercon E70-E4 wind turbines @2MW nameplate capacity for a total
installed capacity of 20MW.[] In 2008 the wind farm generated 43,416MWh of electricity. (Note 2008 was a leap
year.) The capacity factor for this wind farm in 2008 was just under 25%:
As of April 2011, the Danish wind farm Horns Rev 2[2](the world's largest when it was inaugurated in September
2009[3] comprising 91 Siemens SWT-2.3-93 wind turbines each of 2.3 MW) with a nominal total capacity of 209
MW, has the best capacity factor of any offshore wind farm at 46.7% having produced over 1.5 years 1,278 GWh.[4]
The record for an onshore wind farm is held by Burradale, which reached an annual capacity factor of 57.9% for
2005.[5]
Hydroelectric dam
As of 2010, Three Gorges Dam is the largest power generating station in the world by nameplate capacity. In 2009,
not yet fully complete, it had 26 main generator units @700MW and two auxiliary generator units @50MW for a
total installed capacity of 18,300MW. Total generation in 2009 was 79.47TWh, for a capacity factor of just under
50%:
Hoover Dam has a nameplate capacity of 2080 MW[] and an annual generation averaging 4.2TWh.[] (The annual
generation has varied between a high of 10.348TWh in 1984, and a low of 2.648TWh in 1956.[]) Taking the
average figure for annual generation gives a capacity factor of:
Capacity factor 2
Reasons for reduced capacity factor

There are several reasons why a plant would have a capacity factor lower than 100%. The first reason is that it was
out of service or operating at reduced output for part of the time due to equipment failures or routine maintenance.
This accounts for most of the unused capacity of base load power plants. Base load plants have the lowest costs per
unit of electricity because they are designed for maximum efficiency and are operated continuously at high output.
Geothermal plants, nuclear plants, coal plants and bioenergy plants that burn solid material are almost always
operated as base load plants.
The second reason that a plant would have a capacity factor lower than 100% is that output is curtailed because the
electricity is not needed or because the price of electricity is too low to make production economical. This accounts
for most of the unused capacity of peaking power plants. Peaking plants may operate for only a few hours per year or
up to several hours per day. Their electricity is relatively expensive. It is uneconomical, even wasteful, to make a
peaking power plant as efficient as a base load plant because they do not operate enough to pay for the extra
equipment cost, and perhaps not enough to offset the embodied energy of the additional components.
A third reason is a variation on the second: the operators of a hydroelectric dam may uprate its nameplate capacity
by adding more generator units. Since the supply of fuel (i.e. water) remains unchanged, the uprated dam obtains a
higher peak output in exchange for a lower capacity factor. Because hydro plants are highly dispatchable, they are
able to act as load following power plants. Having a higher peak capacity allows a dam's operators to sell more of the
annual output of electricity during the hours of highest electricity demand (and thus the highest spot price). In
practical terms, uprating a dam allows it to balance a larger amount of variable renewable energy sources on the grid
such as wind farms and solar power plants, and to compensate for unscheduled shutdowns of baseload power plants,
or brief surges in demand for electricity.
Load following power plants

Load following power plants, also called intermediate power plants, are in between these extremes in terms of
capacity factor, efficiency and cost per unit of electricity. They produce most of their electricity during the day, when
prices and demand are highest. However, the demand and price of electricity is far lower during the night and
intermediate plants shutdown or reduce their output to low levels overnight.
Capacity factor and renewable energy

When it comes to several renewable energy sources such as solar power, wind power and hydroelectricity, there is a
fourth reason for unused capacity. The plant may be capable of producing electricity, but its "fuel" (wind, sunlight or
water) may not be available. A hydroelectric plant's production may also be affected by requirements to keep the
water level from getting too high or low and to provide water for fish downstream. However, solar, wind and
hydroelectric plants do have high availability factors, so when they have fuel available, they are almost always able
to produce electricity.[6]
When hydroelectric plants have water available, they are also useful for load following, because of their high
dispatchability. A typical hydroelectric plant's operators can bring it from a stopped condition to full power in just a
few minutes.
Wind farms are variable, due to the natural variability of the wind. For a wind farm, the capacity factor is mostly
determined by the availability of wind. Transmission line capacity and electricity demand also affect the capacity
factor.
Solar energy is variable because of the daily rotation of the earth, seasonal changes, and because of cloud cover.
However, according to the SolarPACES programme of the International Energy Agency (IEA), solar power plants
designed for solar-only generation are well matched to summer noon peak loads in areas with significant cooling
demands, such as Spain or the south-western United States,[7] although in some locations solar PV does not reduce
Capacity factor 3
the need for generation of network upgrades given that air conditioner peak demand often occurs in the late
afternoon or early evening when solar output is zero.[8][9] SolarPACES states that by using thermal energy storage
systems the operating periods of solar thermal power (CSP) stations can be extended to become dispatchable (load
following).[7] The IEA CSP Technology Roadmap (2010) suggests that "in the sunniest countries, CSP can be
expected to become a competitive source of bulk power in peak and intermediate loads by 2020, and of base-load
power by 2025 to 2030".[10] A dispatchable source is more valuable than baseload power.[11]
Geothermal has a higher capacity factor than many other power sources, and geothermal resources are available 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. While the carrier medium for geothermal electricity (water) must be properly managed,
the source of geothermal energy, the Earth's heat, will be available for the foreseeable future.[12] Geothermal power
can be looked at as a nuclear battery where the heat is produced via the decay of radioactive elements in the core and
mantle of the earth.
Typical capacity factors

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), in 2009 the capacity factors were as follows:[13]
Natural Gas Plant11.4%
Oil7.8%
Hydroelectric39.8%
Other renewables (Wind/Solar/Biomass)33.9%
Coal63.8%
Nuclear90.3%
However they do tend to vary.
Wind farms 20-40%.[][]
Photovoltaic solar in Massachusetts 13-15%.[14]
Photovoltaic solar in Arizona 19%.[][]
CSP solar in California 33%. []
CSP solar with storage in Spain 75%. []
Hydroelectricity, worldwide average 44%,[15] range of 10% - 99% depending on design (small plant in big river
will always have enough water to operate and vice versa), water availability (with or without regulation via
storage dam, where a storage dam is designed to store at least enough water to operate the plant at full capacity
for around half a year to allow full regulation of the annual flow of the river).
Nuclear power 70% (1971-2009 average of USA's plants).[]
Nuclear power 91.2% (2010 average of US's plants).[]
United Kingdom
The following figures were collected by the Department of Energy and Climate Change on the capacity factors for
various types of plants:[16][17]
Capacity factor 4
Plant type 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2007-2011

average
Combined cycle gas turbine stations 64.7% 71.0% 64.2% 61.6% 47.8% 61.9%
Nuclear power plants 59.6% 49.4% 65.6% 59.3% 66.4% 60.1%
Coal fired power plants 46.7% 45.0% 38.5% 40.2% 40.8% 42.2%
Hydroelectric power stations 38.2% 37.4% 36.7% 25.4% 39.1% 35.4%
Wind power plants 27.7% 27.5% 27.1% 23.7% 29.8% 27.1%
Photovoltaic power stations 9.9% 9.6% 9.3% 7.3% 5.5% 8.3%
References
[1] Glossary Capacity factor (net) (http:/ / www. nrc. gov/ reading-rm/ basic-ref/ glossary/ capacity-factor-net. html)
[6] How Does A Wind Turbine's Energy Production Differ from Its Power Production? (http:/ / www. awea. org/ faq/ basicen. html)
[7] Thomas R. Mancini and Michael Geyer (2006). Spain Pioneers Grid-Connected Solar-Tower Thermal Power (http:/ / www. iea. org/ impagr/
cip/ pdf/ issue36SolarP. pdf) SolarPACES, OECD/ IEA, p. 3.
[8] Muriel Watt Value of PV in summer peaks (http:/ / www. ergo. ee. unsw. edu. au/ value of PV in summer peaks. pdf)
[9] Government of South Australia (2007), p.13,14 South Australias Feed-In Mechanism for Residential Small-Scale Solar Photovoltaic
Installations (http:/ / www. climatechange. sa. gov. au/ uploads/ pdf/ Feed-in_Discussion_Paper_submissions_closed. pdf)
[10] International Energy Agency (2010). Technology Roadmap: Concentrating Solar Power (http:/ / www. iea. org/ papers/ 2010/ csp_roadmap.
pdf) p. 5.
[11] Why CSP Should Not Try to be Coal (http:/ / www. altenergystocks. com/ archives/ 2009/ 04/ why_csp_should_not_try_to_be_coal. html)
[12] A Guide to Geothermal Energy and the Environment (http:/ / geo-energy. org/ reports/ environmental guide. pdf)
[13] Electric Power Annual 2009 (http:/ / www. eia. gov/ electricity/ annual/ archive/ 03482009. pdf) Table 5.2 April 2011
[14] Massachusetts: a Good Solar Market (http:/ / www. remenergyco. com/ why-solar-now)
[15] Hydropower (http:/ / srren. ipcc-wg3. de/ report/ IPCC_SRREN_Ch05. pdf) p. 441
[16] Digest of United Kingdom energy statistics (DUKES) for 2012: chapter 5 - Electricity (http:/ / www. decc. gov. uk/ assets/ decc/ 11/ stats/
publications/ dukes/ 5955-dukes-2012-chapter-5-electricity. pdf)
[17] Digest of United Kingdom energy statistics (DUKES) for 2012: chapter 6 - Renewable sources of energy (http:/ / www. decc. gov. uk/
assets/ decc/ 11/ stats/ publications/ dukes/ 5956-dukes-2012-chapter-6-renewable. pdf)
Article Sources and Contributors 5
Article Sources and Contributors

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Capacity factor 1

Baseload power plant

Reasons for reduced capacity factor

Load following power plants

Capacity factor and renewable energy

Typical capacity factors

Plant type 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2007-2011

Nuclear power plants 59.6% 49.4% 65.6% 59.3% 66.4% 60.1%

Hydroelectric power stations 38.2% 37.4% 36.7% 25.4% 39.1% 35.4%

Wind power plants 27.7% 27.5% 27.1% 23.7% 29.8% 27.1%

Photovoltaic power stations 9.9% 9.6% 9.3% 7.3% 5.5% 8.3%

Article Sources and Contributors

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