The Technical Efficiency of Rice Husk Power Generation in Thailand: Comparing Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Analysis

Abstract

© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Since the efficiency of rice husk biomass power plants in Thailand has never been reliably assessed, this study undertook the task of measuring the technical efficiency of Very Small Power Productions (VSPPs). The secondary data recorded in 2012 were collected from the power policy bureau in Thailand. Two concepts of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) were adopted to analyze a group of 57 biomass power plants. The results indicated that a SFA model exhibited the highest score of 0.877, followed by a Constant Return to Scale-DEA (CRS-DEA) and Variable Return to Scale-DEA (VRS-DEA) at 0.841 and 0.722, respectively. Input surpluses of capacity and rice husks were highlighted to improve unit efficiency. Moreover, we found that the efficiency scores derived from the VRS-DEA and SFA models were more consistent than those computed by the CRS-DEA and SFA models. Accomplishing the Thai government's goal of sustainable, renewable energy will encourage more utility plants to use rice husk for electricity generation.