> There are three costs for a powerplant (Capital costs, Fuel costs, Operations and Maintenance) In which category should be put the cost of negative pricing f

> There are three costs for a powerplant (Capital costs, Fuel costs, Operations and Maintenance) In which category should be put the cost of negative pricing from oversupply? We also have costs associated with policy. A hydro plant can't just dump water with no regard to downstream or they cause flooding. They can also not just drop water levels in lake or rivers with no regard to the environment. Power plants need to cooperate and that cooperation is a kind of cost which is hard to covert to fuel costs. In the case that a government operate a powerplant we also have the liability cost of making sure that demand is meet. The article talk about the energy Germany produce and cost associated with it, not individual plants. Germany as a nation has costs associated with meeting energy demands, including importing/exporting energy to balance the grid. Not sure external costs like those can be combined in one of the above three categories.