A data envelopment analysis approach to evaluation of operationalinefficiencies in power generating units: a case study of Indian powerplants

摘要

A nonparametric approach to frontier analysis, data envelopmentnanalysis (DEA), is applied in this work to evaluate the operationalninefficiencies of generating units. Three parameters viz. generation pernunit of coal consumed, generation per unit of oil consumed andngeneration per unit of auxiliary power consumption have been considerednas indicators of performance. The DEA approach provides with a bestnpractice frontier for each of these parameters, which can then serve asna benchmark for efficiency. Also, the slack analysis indicates thencauses of inefficiency. A time series study of units' performance,nidentifies those units that need renovation and repowering and thosenunits where the performance could be improved by extensive training ofnoperating personnel. The analysis in this paper considers operationalnperformance statistics of all coal based generating units belonging tonNational Thermal Power Corporation of India over the period 1991 to 1995