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COST EVALUATION STRATEGIES FOR TECHNOLOGIES TESTED UNDER THE ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION PROGRAM
Citation:
Gavaskar, A. AND L. Cumming. COST EVALUATION STRATEGIES FOR TECHNOLOGIES TESTED UNDER THE ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION PROGRAM. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-99/100, 2001.
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Description:
This document provides a general set of guidelines that may be consistently applied for collecting, evaluation, and reporting the costs of technologies tested under the ETV Program. Because of the diverse nature of the technologies and industries covered in this program, each ETV pilot has the flexibility for any of the following options to be used: 1) No cost evaluation; 2) Itemization of costs; 3) Estimation of capital investment and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs; 4) Calculation of total annualized cost, simple payback period, or present value. The four cost options are incremental; each successive option builds on and incorporates all of the elements of the previous options to provide a comprehensive cost evaluation. One option for pilots with limited resources or other restrictions is to not evaluate costs. In the second option, all cost items are identified and quantified, without assigning monetary values. The cost items are reported in two categories, capital investment and O&M costs. In the third option, the cost evaluation process is taken one step further. All the capital and O&M items are identified, quantified, and assigned dollar values. In the fourth option, the total impact of the technology on the user is calculated. The fourth option also facilitates the comparison of the ETV technology with a baseline or competing technology. Assessing the total impact of a technology typically involves the calculation of either total annualized cost, simple payback period, or present value. A comprehensive reporting format, which includes cost evaluation objectives and data collection methods, estimates of capital investment and O&M costs, cost analysis, list of assumptions, technical factors affecting costs, and intangible benefits and/or disadvantages of the technology, is recommended.