Power Plants

Large gas-fired or coal-fired power plants (thermal power projects > $100M) typically generate hundreds of megawatts of electricity.

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A 500 MW gas plant can produce ~12,000 MWh per day; at say $50/MWh, that’s about $600,000 in electricity sales per day (a 1 GW plant would be double).

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Delays in power projects tend to be shorter than upstream projects, but still significant (e.g.grid connection issues, contractor delays, etc. can push schedules out by months).

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With the global power sector commissioning on the order of dozens of large gas/thermal plants per year (for example, >40 GW of new gas power capacity added in 2020 alone ), even a few months’ delay for each can aggregate to a sizable loss.

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We assume an average delay of ~6 months per project. The annual opportunity cost (generation not delivered) would be in the low-single-digit billions USD range globally – notable, though smaller than upstream project losses, given the lower revenue per project.

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Daily Opportunity Loss (USD)

≈ $0.5–1.0 million per day (per plant, e.g. a 500–800 MW plant running at full capacity and typical power prices)

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Projects per Year (global)

~30 projects/year (rough global count of large gas/thermal power plant projects >$100M)

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Average Delay per Project

~6 months (≈ 180 days on average; many power projects face moderate delays in construction)

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Annual Opportunity Loss (USD)

≈ $5 billion/year (lost electricity revenue from delayed power generation projects worldwide)

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