This presentation is part of Economics for Wholesale Electricity Markets, a curriculum on the theory and application of economic-engineering concepts underlying competitive electricity markets. The Language of Costs aims to develop a common understanding of capital costs, operation and maintenance costs, average cost, and variable cost. It also illustrates how costs vary depending on the type of plant and its capacity utilization.

The presentation accompanies Module 1 in this series:

• Module 1: The Language of Costs
• Module 2: Services of Different Plants
• Module 3: Costs of Different Plants
• Module 4: Existing Plant Decision-making
• Module 5: New Plant Decision-making
• Module 6: Contracts, Auctions, and Exchanges
• Module 7: System Management

The materials are based on a series of workshops hosted by the Power Systems Operation Corporation of India (POSOCO) in 2017. Ranjit Bharvirkar from the Regulatory Assistance Project, Dr. William Shobe from the University of Virginia, and Dallas Burtraw from Resources for the Future led these workshops using this curriculum.