Other Technologies (EIA)

Base year and future cost and performance data (see above) are sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA's) Annual Energy Outlook 2023 (AEO2023) projections (EIA, 2023a). The ATB does not assess any scenarios of cost and performance advances in these technologies beyond what is captured in the AEO2023 Reference scenario. For all the technology types covered here, this page notes default procedures and assumptions, and the Notes and Adjustments table below notes exceptions to these defaults. Because the project team does not develop these projections, we include only a moderate cost projection.

Capital Expenditures (CAPEX)

Base year and future capital costs are from Table 55 of the AEO2023 Reference scenario (EIA, 2023a) and are adjusted to remove the material price index. Because the Base Year in the ATB begins before the projections in the Annual Energy Outlook, the base year value is backward-extrapolated from the Annual Energy Outlook projections.

Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Costs

O&M costs are from Table 3 of the AEO2023 assumptions report (EIA, 2023b) and are assumed to be constant over time. Because the EIA fixed O&M costs for new power plants do not include property tax or insurance costs as part of their reported costs, we increase the fixed O&M by 20%, which is approximately consistent with the internal property tax and insurance accounting that occurs within EIA's capacity expansion model. 

Capacity Factor

The average capacity factor is the fleetwide average reported by EIA for 2022. 

Other Default Assumptions

• Heat Rates: Heat rates are from Table 3 of the AEO2023 assumptions report (EIA, 2023b) and are assumed to be constant over time.
• Fuel Prices: Fuel prices are based on the AEO2023 Reference scenario.
• Financing: Default financial assumptions are used.

Notes and Adjustments

References

The following references are specific to this page; for all references in this ATB, see References.