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 ScaleDEA
(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.
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of ICAE
Keywords: data envelopment analysis, rice husk, stochastic frontiers analysis, technical efficiency, very small power productions
1. Introduction
There has been an increasing trend in using rice husk biomass for electricity generation year by year as
a result of government promotion programs and increased environmental awareness. Rice husk has a high
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E-mail address:add.a@hotmail.com
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© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the C