Improvement of financial efficiency and cost effectiveness in energy sector: A case study from Indian thermal power plant

Electricity is generated based on potential resources like coal, crude oil, water, wind, solar and nuclear energy. India depends largely on thermal power using coal as raw material despite the reality that indigenous stock of this raw material is depleting fast. At the same time coal based thermal stations are losing out financial viability gradually in terms of deteoriating efficiency, transmission & distribution loss as well as auxiliary consumption of power. In order to maintain financial viability and ensure steady supply of thermal power within available limited resources, only option left for India is to minimize wastage of electricity at the source of generation & supply line and maximize sales & profit. This hypothesis has been tasted on the basis of analysis of secondary data of a coal based thermal power plant at West Bengal, India by using Multi-objective Fuzzy Non-linear Goal Programming. In case the resources are optimally utilized, wastage and auxiliary consumption are controlled; thermal station will be able to generate electricity at a controlled cost which in turn can maximize its sales & profit.