An efficiency analysis on Italian thermopower plants

This paper deals with the efficiency of electrical energy generation in the thermopower plants in Italy. A method based on the principles of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to assess the conversion efficiency of each power plant based on a set of input data. The analysis was conducted over a period of six years (1993?1998), before the power generation plants were privatised by the Thermopower Generation Directorates (DPT) of the Italian Electricity Board (ENEL). The results of the analysis enabled us to distinguish the DPTs implementing the Best Practices (BP DPTs) from those failing to do so (NBP DPTs) on the strength of an efficiency score. A global score was obtained for each DPT to enable their comparison and the performance shortfalls of the NBP DPTs were attributed values indicative of the gap between the BP and NBP DPTs in relation to the various contributions to the efficiency score.