Market Trends - Electricity

167.  Unless otherwise noted, the term “capacity” in the discussion of electricity generation indicates utility, nonutility, and combined heat and power capacity. Costs reflect the weighted average of regional costs. 

168.  Does not include off-grid photovoltaics (PV). Based on annual PV shipments from 1989 through 2004, EIA estimates that as much as 167 megawatts of remote PV applications for electricity generation (off-grid power systems) was in service in 2004, plus an additional 447 megawatts in communications, transportation, and assorted other non-grid-connected, specialized applications. See Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Review 2005, DOE/EIA-0384(2005) (Washington, DC, July 2006), Table 10.6 (annual PV shipments, 1989-2004). The approach used to develop the estimate, based on shipment data, provides an upper estimate of the size of the PV stock, including both grid-based and off-grid PV. It overestimates the size of the stock, because shipments include a substantial number of units that are exported, and each year some of the PV units installed earlier are retired from service or abandoned. 

169.  Avoided cost estimates the incremental cost of fuel and capacity displaced by a unit of the specified resource and more accurately reflects its as-dispatched energy value than comparison to the levelized cost of other individual technologies. It does not reflect system reliability cost, nor does it necessarily indicate the lowest cost alternative for meeting system energy and capacity needs.