Question

If a town has a power plant with a capacity of 12 megawatts (MW), how many kilowatt hours of electricity can be produced by the plant in a year (assuming it can operate at full capacity for 8,000 hours per year)?

a) 96,000 kWh
b) 12,000 kWh
c) 800,000 kWh
d) 1,000 kWh

Answer 1

A power plant with a capacity of 12 MW, operating for 8,000 hours a year, can produce 96,000,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. The monetary value of this energy, at a cost of 10 cents per kWh, would be $9,600,000.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate how many kilowatt hours of electricity a power plant with a capacity of 12 megawatts (MW) can produce in a year when operating at full capacity for 8,000 hours, we use the following relationship:

1 megawatt (MW) = 1,000 kilowatts (kW)

Therefore, a power plant with a capacity of 12 MW is equivalent to 12,000 kW. The total energy in kilowatt hours (kWh) produced by the power plant in a year can be calculated by multiplying the capacity in kilowatts by the number of hours it operates:

12,000 kW × 8,000 hours = 96,000,000 kWh

To determine the monetary value of this energy at a cost of 10 cents per kWh, we can multiply the total amount of energy by the cost per unit:

96,000,000 kWh × $0.10 per kWh = $9,600,000

Thus, the correct answer is (a) 96,000,000 kWh, and this amount of electricity would have a monetary value of $9,600,000 at 10 cents per kWh.