The total cost of an energy system is not the same as the price of any single technology. The LCOE (Levelized Cost of Energy) is widely used as a benchmark for comparing power plants under idealized conditions, but it does not reflect how an electricity system actually operates as a whole.

This category examines the real cost of electricity once all the elements required to keep the system running are taken into account: backup, storage, transmission and distribution networks, system losses, overcapacity, and the management of variability.