Evaluation of Technical and Environmental Efficiency of Selected Thermal Power Plants of Iran

In this study, the technical and environmental efficiency of 16 selected thermal power plants of Iran during 2011-2015 were evaluated using Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) approach. The inputs of this model include labor, installed capacity and fuel consumption, and its outputs are electricity generation, CO2 and SO2 emissions. The results show that the average technical efficiency of the sample power plants range from 84.7% to 88.4%. The environmental efficiency of power plants was between 85.7% and 90.1 % . Environmental productivity of power plants based on Malmquist Index has fluctuated during the past 5 years and has finally increased To increase the efficiency of power plants, it is recommended that the scale of power plants to be increased, gas turbine and combined cycle power plants to get higher shares, natural gas to be the dominant primary energy used as fuel, and the power plant technologies to be modernized and standardized