Power plant efficiency

The efficiency of a power plant is the percentage of the total energy content of its fuel that is converted into electricity, with the remainder typically dissipated as heat to the environment unless it is captured for district heating. Measuring this figure is complicated by two different conventions for the fuel's own energy content: the lower calorific value, which excludes the thermal energy that could be recovered by condensing water vapor in the exhaust, and the higher calorific value, which includes it; the choice of convention can shift the apparent efficiency of a gas fired plant by around 10 percent, so knowing which one is in use matters for comparing figures. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/