Steam-electric plant construction cost and annual production expenses, 1978

This is the Thirty-First Annual Supplement to the initial publication Steam-Electric Plant Construction Cost and Annual Production Expenses, 1938 to 1947. This supplement covering calendar year 1978 is the latest addition to a continuous comprehensive published record of the operations of the more important steam-electric plants of the electric utility industry for the period, 1938-1978. During the period covered by this series the total installed steam-electric generating capacity has increased from 26,000 MW to 453,629 MW (includes 53,528 MW nuclear-fueled capacity) and the annual net generation from 68 billion kWh to 1890 billion kWh (includes 280 billion kWh nuclear-fueled net generation). This supplement contains the plant investment costs and the 1978 annual production expenses of 77 steam-electric plants in the United States and Puerto Rico. These data are included on the accompanying plant data sheets. Fifty of these are nuclear-fueled plants. Plants that produce both steam-electric power and process steam for industrial purposes are not included in this series of reports because the operations and annual production costs are not generally comparable with those of conventional steam-electric plants. Furthermore, the aggregate capacity of such plants owned by electric utilities is small. Also, new plants of less than 25 MW capacitymore » are not included in this report.« less