Kni, multiplied by the interest cost of holding capital sn. The coefficients βv and βκ
indicate how the firm weights capital costs and variable operating costs respectively
in the compliance decision.
When comparing the costs and benefits across compliance alternatives, any terms
that do not differ across alternatives will not come to bear on the compliance decision.
I assume that the manager chooses vni to minimize the following levelized annual
compliance cost function (substituting for the constraint):
min ZnCni βnvniQn T βn snZnKn(vni) ↑ (2)
Qn
where
z rn(l + ∣n)τ
(3)
n - (l + rn)τn - l.
The Qn denotes the quantity of electricity (in kWh) that the manager expects
the nth unit to produce in an average ozone season.13 The levelized annual cost factor
Zn is a function of the firm’s discount rate (rn) and investment time horizon Tn.
Minimization of the above constrained optimization problem implies :
K' (v ■) -__βnQn
(4)
Kn(Vni) β κ z
βn snzn
The manager will want to choose the point on the compliance curve where the
(negative) slope is equal to the ratio of the cost of an incremental change in variable
compliance costs and the cost of an incremental change in fixed compliance costs. A
relative increase in θυn(θκ) will cause the firm to choose a point on the compliance
frontier where the slope is more (less) steep. Similarly, an increase in the cost of
capital or levelized cost factor will, ceteris paribus, be associated with a less capital
intensive compliance choice.
10