Impact of Independent Power Producers on Electricity Generation Expansion Planning and CO2 Emission

This paper presents the effects of IPPs generation on utility’s planning, environmental, and economic implications. An integrated resource planning (IRP) model is used for the analysis. In addition to the committed IPPs, the coal-based and gas-based power plants, the clean supply-side options are also considered as candidate plants. Results show that the clean supply-side options could reduce CO2 and other harmful emissions. However, the capital cost of the clean options is too expensive compared to conventional plants resulting in high total system cost. The marginal abatement cost of CO2 emission is also examined to identify options which could be implemented as clean development mechanism (CDM) projects.