← Business Metric: Operational (all topics)
Capacity factor & plant load factor
What it is
Actual output over a period divided by the output if the asset ran continuously at rated capacity. It is the standard utilisation measure for power generation and other continuous-process assets
For renewables it is set largely by the resource rather than by operations
Impact on industries
- Directly determines the economics of any asset priced per unit of output, since fixed costs are spread over actual generation
- For thermal and process plants it is a genuine management variable, reflecting maintenance and reliability
- For wind and solar it is set by resource quality and grid curtailment, so a low figure may reflect siting rather than performance
- It should be read with availability - an asset can be available but not dispatched, which is a market rather than operating outcome