How much does it cost to build a Simple Cycle or Combined Cycle plant?
In fixed 2024 US dollars, natural gas-fired power plants continue to be the least expensive to build in costs per KW, when compared to Utility Scale Solar, onshore and offshore Wind Farms, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), and Nuclear power.
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Gas turbine equipment-only prices
In Simple Cycle configuration, equipment-only gas turbine costs ($/KW) range from $1150/KW for 1-MW power output, down to $171/KW for the largest high-efficiency gas turbines with almost 600MW power output.
For units under 100MW output capacity, prices tracked are shown here in Figure 1.
Gas turbine Combined Cycle Plant (installed prices)
For Combined Cycle plants, benchmark prices including EPC installation project scope (installed), we are seeing a range from $1,579/KW for 34MW plant output to as low as $670/KW for 1,680MW power output.
Both equipment-only Genset prices, and complete plant installed prices, decrease dramatically with scale, with the largest and most efficient gas turbines producing electricity at the lowest cost per KW.
Benchmark Budget prices are based on single-fuel (gas-only) no-frills standard reference-design, built under an Engineer, Procure and Construct (EPC) contract. Prices represent so-called “overnight” costs, which exclude escalation and interest during construction, and other time-dependent cost adders. They also exclude owner’s costs such as those related to project development, land acquisition, permitting, utility interconnects, etc.
For gas turbine costs $/KW and installed plant estimates, see the 2024 Gas Turbine World Handbook. Now in its 39th year, the annual Handbook is the industry’s most reliable source of new gas turbine unit and full plant price estimates for industrial scale power generation. CLICK HERE TO ORDER
2024 Market and price update
Stiff competition among major gas turbine OEMs and engineering construction companies, as well as comparatively low construction cost, has kept new combined cycle plant prices relatively low.
As confirmed by an almost flat change in the Engineering News Record’s Industrial Construction Cost Index for 2023, we expect little increase in construction cost levels for 2024.
Estimated combined cycle plant price levels for 2024 show an across-the-board increase of 2.5% over 2023 price levels. That is based on a projected 2%-3% increase in major equipment price levels and project-specific feedback from field surveys. (2025 update: we are seeing much higher equipment prices, by as much as 10%, as OEMs are reaching capacity output.)
$/KW comparative pricing from 2024 Gas Turbine World Handbook
For complete details, order your copy of the 2024 Gas Turbine World Handbook edition. Capital Cost Case Studies section looks at a “bottom-up” cost estimate for a number of gas-turbine based power plant configurations, both simple cycle and combined cycle, and tabulates a summary cost-breakdown for each case.
Readers will find specific cost-items listed include the main plant equipment, BOP equipment, construction labor and material and engineering. For reference and comparison, we also compare installed costs of utility-scale Solar Photovoltaic, offshore and onshore Wind Farms, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), and Nuclear plants.
There are also estimates of owner costs in each case, but it should be noted that these Capital Cost Estimates are limited to total “overnight” project costs, and do not include time-dependent costs, such as escalation and interest during construction.
From data gathered from participating owner-operators, analysts, and OEMs for combined cycle plants, we surprisingly did not see much in the way of year-to-year price escalation for the scope of supply covered by those figures.
Sample gas turbine costs $/KW
Aeroderivative 100 MW Simple Cycle Genset
Twin gas turbine genset rated at 105 MW and 41.5% efficiency, $123.5 million total (1,175 $/kW installed) and 16.30 $/kW fixed O&M cost
F-Class 240 MW Simple Cycle Genset
Single F-Class genset rated at 237 MW and 38.2% efficiency, $165.8 million total (713 $/kW installed) and 7.00 $/kW fixed O&M cost
H-Class 430 MW Single-Shaft Combined Cycle
Single-shaft configuration rated 418 MW and 58.9% efficiency, $453.2 million total (1,084 $/kW installed) and 13.10 $/kW fixed O&M cost
H-Class 1100 MW Multi-Shaft Combined Cycle
Multi-shaft configuration rated 1,083MW and 59.4% efficiency, $958 million total (950 $/kW installed) and 12.20 $/kW fixed O&M cost.
For benchmark estimates on plant pricing in both Simple Cycle and Combined Cycle configurations, please order your copy of the Gas Turbine World 2024 Handbook. The 2024 Gas Turbine Handbook is used for project planning, model evaluation, and project cost estimating. CLICK HERE
