VK Estimating Solutions

I have developed an open source benchmarking graph, using internet based data, for a typical power plant project. I have mostly used news articles giving the total value of the contract and capacity in Megawatt (MW) of the power plant and the type of fuel used. I have done it for only gas and coal fired power plants. This can be extended to other types as well.

Power Plant Benchmarking (Open Source)-Rev0 (free resource)

The data is tabulated (in the attached Excel file) with links to the various websites for cross-checking purposes. Within the file I have also escalated the contract values to the current year using a nominal escalation factor (which will vary depending on the market conditions). This can be modified to any future year when needed. This gives a feel of what the market has paid for a typical power plant. These are not out-turn costs but initial awarded values and thus should be treated as such. This is not exact, but gives an idea.

No two projects are similar in scope, but what this does is to give an opportunity to the reviewers to understand any special / specific requirements of a project which might make the current project estimate different (like additional fuel conditioning, remote location, additional transmission lines, additional fuel pipeline, piling requirement, etc.). The overall plant cost will also vary based on the technology used, quality of fuel used, efficiency of the plant etc.

Also to be noted is that this is only an EPC cost and any Pre-FEED, FEED, other Owner’s costs, service agreements, operation & maintenance costs are to be added separately as needed.

This can be used in addition to or in the absence of any in-house or any third party benchmarking data. This can be easily shared with anybody and can be used as a cross-check of the detailed power plant estimate at a $/MW level.

The graph is also suitable for coming up with quick order of magnitude estimates for bid / no-bid analysis, initial project sanctions, bid evaluations, etc.

The graph shows the typical trend of reducing unit cost for larger capacity plants.

I have just done some research to show what can be possible with freely available data and so the graph is not considered comprehensive and can be enhanced with more data points if further research is undertaken. Location / area specific graphs can also be generated if enough data points could be gathered.

Feel free to use this as you see fit with or without modifications.