Abstract
A considerable cost gap between three major power generation technologies, namely nuclear, coal, and combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT), has been a well-established fact in the Korean electricity market. Alternatively, this paper analyzes the levelized costs of electricity (LCOE) of the three technologies reflecting overall social costs of electricity generation including accident risk, $CO_2$ emission, and air pollution damage. The paper unveils to what extent current discriminative subsidies on fuels regarding the social costs, mostly through tax exemptions, affect economic competitiveness of the technologies. In particular, it finds relative positions of coal and CCGT could be altered depending on appreciation level of the social costs. It has limits in analyzing fixed costs of the technologies, however, due to limited data availability of nuclear power, and suggests further studies on the issue.
