A tutor, or anyone else, might be interested in power plant efficiency.  Here’s a handy starting place for anyone facing the question.

 
In my continuing quest of information about energy, I’ve found numbers about power plant efficiency. Once again, the folks at the US Energy Information Administration come through.

As they explain it, they give numbers called “heat rates” for fuel-consuming modes (coal, petroleum, natural gas, nuclear) of electricity generation. The heat rate is the number of Btu spent to produce 1 kWh. (The higher the heat rate, the lower the efficiency.) You take the number of Btu in a kWh (3412 Btu), then divide it by the heat rate to get the efficiency (afterwards multiplying by 100 to get the percent).

The numbers on nuclear generation are very interesting (the table is here). Apparently, petroleum is the least efficient, with coal and nuclear in the middle, while natural gas is the most efficient of the fuel-consuming generation modes.

The table gives yearly averages for heat rates from 2002 to 2012. The numbers seem to suggest that efficiency rates have trended slightly downward for coal, petroleum, and nuclear generation, while natural gas generation has grown significantly more efficient:

One wonders why natural gas, in particular, has improved so much. The question sounds like the basis for another post:)

Source:

www.eia.gov

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.