Marginal costs of Commodity Production

[dlmccollum]

Which parameter in VEDA-BE represents the marginal cost of a particular commodity (say, electricity, or gasoline)?  Is it the "EQ_CombalM" parameter ("Commodity Slack/Levels - Marginals), which shows up when I move to a commodity in VEDA-BE?  Or should I think of this parameter more as the shadow price of the commodity - i.e., in the sense that the objective function would decrease by this value if I relaxed the constraint on the commodity by one unit (for electricity, this might mean reducing the demand for electricity by one unit or allowing for one additional unit of generation capacity in a given year).

What I'd really like to get from VEDA-BE is the actual marginal cost of producing each commodity - e.g., the cost of electricity from the last power plant type that is brought on to supply the commodity. 

Alternately, is it possible to show the cost of a commodity for each process that is used to produce it (e.g., all the different types of power plants that are used to generate electricity)?  If I could get these costs, then I would be able to line them up and create some sort of supply curve for electricity production, or gasoline, or whatever fuel I'm interested in?

I recognize that I may be mixing my terms here, and if I have said anything incorrectly, I apologize.

David Mc.

[AKanudia]

Under equilibrium conditions, the two values you have described are the same, and they are reported in the parameter you have identified.

At the moment the second information (production cost from each process) is not generated in a systematic way. But it will likely be, soon.

[Tanzeel]

Under equilibrium conditions, the two values you have described are the same, and they are reported in the parameter you have identified.

At the moment the second information (production cost from each process) is not generated in a systematic way. But it will likely be, soon.

Any information for the production cost from each process?

[Antti-L]

In case you would consider the levelised costs concept useful, see the following document:

http://iea-etsap.org/docs/TIMES-Levelized-Cost.pdf

Concerning costs results in general, all the costs and surplus changes included in the objective function are reported by TIMES, both in terms of annualized costs and in terms of cumulative present values. Value flows of each process are also optionally reported. Lump-sum investment costs are also reported, optionally with and without hurdle rate impact. Therefore, I think all the information is available for doing production cost calculations with methods customized according to your tailored requirements, taking into account e.g. fuel switching, revenues from various by-products, partial load efficiencies, power plant cycling and ramping, emission permit prices, taxes, subsidies, external costs etc.

For some additional information on the cost reporting attributes and switches, see:

http://www.iea-etsap.org/docs/Documentation_for_the_TIMES_Model-Part-II_July-2016.pdf
http://www.iea-etsap.org/docs/Documentation_for_the_TIMES_Model-Part-III_July-2016.pdf