IMPACT OF ELECTRICITY GENERATION SOURCE ON END USE RESIDENTIAL ELECTRICITY COST

摘要

As energy generation expands to meet the energy demanded by the public, energy policy makers must understand and anticipate the long term cost of investment in generation infrastructure. Energy sources have associated costs that pass through the generation utility to the consumer. These costs include, but are not limited to fuel, transportation, transmission, and overhead. This research focuses on the most prominent energy sources used in the United States, including coal, natural gas, petroleum, nuclear, renewables, and hydroelectric. The supplementary costs of operation to the utility, and the inherent fixed cost of operation, were isolated for each energy source, as components of an end user's unit energy cost. Using data on each state's energy generation and demand, a regression analysis was performed to determine the impact of each generation source on the consumer rate, separated by state. The overall results of the regression analysis provide a national index which defines the expected cost of each energy source in a utility's portfolio. This information can be used to identify value of new energy sources within an existing portfolio, or the decision to increase costs to a consumer to meet expected increase in portfolio costs.