Analysing the financial viability of WASP expansion plans using the FINPLAN model

The National Electricity Board of Malaysia recently acquired the Financial Planning (FINPLAN) Model from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) under an IAEA technical co-operation project. The project represents a first attempt by the IAEA to validate the suitability of FINPLAN to address the financial viability of a power investment programme under real utility environment. The FINPLAN model is a micro-computer program based on spreadsheets. An important feature of FINPLAN is that it utilizes techniques similar to those used by financial institutions to analyse the financing of large investment programmes. Another advantage of FINPLAN is that it only requires readily available commercial spreadsheet software and relatively inexpensive micro-computer systems. It is therefore very portable and could be easily transferred to other interested users. FINPLAN is intended to be used in conjunction with the WASP model in an iterative way. Firstly, WASP is used to determine the economically optimal expansion plan for a power generating system, and then FINPLAN is applied to determine whether this plan is financially viable; otherwise new WASP solutions may become necessary before an overall feasible solution is found for the system under study. This paper reports some of the main features of FINPLAN and the modifications introduced to the program to suit NEB's financial practice. Results from preliminary analyses of two hypothetical case studies using the ''modified'' FINPLAN are presented. (author). 1 ref., 16 figs