Subject The paper reviews the possibilities of applying the data envelopment analysis (DEA) methodology to optimize environmental performance of companies operating in the electric power industry. Objectives Recently, DEA has been successfully used in practice to evaluate the potential of energy saving and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The Environmental DEA term refers to the method of data envelopment analysis specifically designed to optimize the operations of regional and national energy systems. The specifics of the method are the impossibility to fully eliminate negative effects of energy systems (i.e. emissions) as energy generation inevitably involves emissions. The study aims to analyze different approaches to modelling the irremovable undesirable effects of production process that exist in literature worldwide, to select and test the most successful approaches to evaluate environmental efficiency of generating companies. Methods To compare the ecological efficiency of generating companies, we used the basic output-oriented data envelopment analysis model. Results We computed the efficiency coefficients of 20 companies. We made the calculations using the DEA-Frontier software. We have determined effective and ineffective companies (from the perspective of environmental impact). For ineffective companies, we identified optimal ways to improve the efficiency. Conclusions The paper shows the possibility of using the basic input-oriented CCR DEA model to perform a comparative analysis of ecological efficiency of large generating companies in Russia. The findings may be useful for evaluating the practicability of investment programs of generating companies from the ecological perspective, developing ecological standards, energy-saving programs, and government programs for modernization processes in the electric power industry.
Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis, electric power industry, generating companies, ecology, optimization
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