User manual for PACTOLUS: a code for computing power costs.
PACTOLUS is a computer code for calculating the cost of generating electricity. Through appropriate definition of the input data, PACTOLUS can calculate the cost of generating electricity from a wide variety of power plants, including nuclear, fossil, geothermal, solar, and other types of advanced energy systems. The purpose of PACTOLUS is to develop cash flows and calculate the unit busbar power cost (mills/kWh) over the entire life of a power plant. The cash flow information is calculated by two principal models: the Fuel Model and the Discounted Cash Flow Model. The Fuel Model is an engineering cost model which calculates the cash flow for the fuel cycle costs over the project lifetime based on input data defining the fuel material requirements, the unit costs of fuel materials and processes, the process lead and lag times, and the schedule of the capacity factor for the plant. For nuclear plants, the Fuel Model calculates the cash flow for the entire nuclear fuel cycle. For fossil plants, the Fuel Model calculates the cash flow for the fossil fuel purchases. The Discounted Cash Flow Model combines the fuel costs generated by the Fuel Model with input data on the capital costs, capital structure, licensing time, construction time, rates of return on capital, tax rates, operating costs, and depreciation method of the plant to calculate the cash flow for the entire lifetime of the project. The financial and tax structure for both investor-owned utilities and municipal utilities can be simulated through varying the rates of return on equity and debt, the debt-equity ratios, and tax rates. The Discounted Cash Flow Model uses the principal that the present worth of the revenues will be equal to the present worth of the expenses including the return on investment over the economic life of the project. This manual explains how to prepare the input data, execute cases, and interpret the output results. (RWR)
- Research Organization:
- Battelle Pacific Northwest Labs., Richland, WA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EY-76-C-06-1830
- OSTI ID:
- 6306020
- Report Number(s):
- PNL-2838; TRN: 79-010544
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Process design and economic evaluation of a 100,000-BBL/day Synthoil plant
Comparison of two procedures for evaluating the economics of industrial power plants
Related Subjects
POLICY AND ECONOMY
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
COMPUTER CODES
P CODES
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
ECONOMICS
CDC COMPUTERS
COST
ELECTRICITY
FORTRAN
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
FUEL CYCLE
IBM COMPUTERS
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
TAXES
UNIVAC COMPUTERS
COMPUTERS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
POWER PLANTS
PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
296000* - Energy Planning & Policy- Electric Power
210800 - Nuclear Power Plants- Economics
200106 - Fossil-Fueled Power Plants- Economics