What is the capacity factor of a power plant?
The capacity factor compares the plant’s actual production over a given period of time with the amount of power the plant would have produced if it had run at full capacity for the same amount of time. A baseload conventional coal or nuclear plant has a capacity factor of 70 to 90. That means the plant produced electricity energy for the grid, 70 to 90 percent over the year. The power output, the electricity an energy system generates, depends on its capacity factor. Because their cost to operate is higher than other conventional power plants, in an economic energy dispatch system, renewable energy systems would not be called on to deliver energy except at very high demand times, except as modified by state policies.
