Power Plant Economics- The Analysis of Social Cost Benefits at Power Plants

Abstract

Capital is the limited resource in a developing economy like India and must be invested with utmost care. It is a true fact that development of the financial sectors of our country must analyze the overall social cost benefit implication of their investment decisions. This Social cost benefit analysis accounts as a tool used to evaluate a project with respect to the overall society. It indicates the total costs as well as the benefits which the society may endure by the establishment of the proposed project. It governs the feasibility of a power project with respect to sum of economic cost and overall economic benefits. This review paper focuses on the application of Social Cost Benefit Analysis using UNIDO approach on thermal coal based power plant and a hydro power plant and motivates to emphasize on the overall social costs and benefits linked with eachpower project. It highlights the comparison in between the coal and hydro power projects. The paper suggests several steps that can be taken to make the projects more lucrative.