A major fraction of the capital investment in the current small hydro power sector is due to the cost of equipment and construction process. The process of construction and cost administration is generally limited to analysis of capital cost of civil works, electromechanical works and equipment, neglecting the cost of plant outage, generation loss, operation and maintenance, replacement costs etc. Recent studies indicate that these costs form to-be significant fraction of the total capital investment. Consequently, for cost administration and decision making, small hydro power plant developers in the recent years are drawing more awareness towards performing life cycle costing studies which accounts for these neglected costs. In this regard, it is vital that research has to be conceded in understanding the philosophy of life cycle costing methodology and its applicability to small hydro power plants. In this study, characterization of levelized cost of electricity has been carried out using life cycle costing methodology on a range of high head run-of-river small hydro power plants and the results are analyzed.
Small Hydro power plant, cost components, life cycle costing, levelized cost of electricity, economics
