Case: Coal and Variance
INTRODUCTION
Background of Company
Luotang Power is a coal-fired power plant located in central China. This company is a subsidiary of China Hua Tong Power (HT Power). The main activity of this company is to generate electricity. Luotang Power operates using a 600 MW coal-fired power plant and sells the generated power to their primary customer, the Hubei Provincial Power Company (HPPC). HPPC was the only company in Hubei Province that owned all the power transmission and distribution facilities and independently owned power plants operating in the province. The coal is supply by Pingdingshan and according to the contract, it is required to supply low sulfur bituminous coal that met certain quality specifications.
Main Issue and Problems
Based on this case, the main issue is regarding to the company performance that not shows the positive performance of the company in the financial results. The issue is related on how Mr. Tan have to do in order to show that the company is still in a good performance. There is also an issue regarding to their supplier, Pingdingshan that supply a low quality coal but in a higher price than the prior year. Therefore, in our case study, we conclude that we need to do a variance analysis to better understand the plant performance compared to the previous year. The main problem in related to this case is about the falling in revenues, the performance of coal-plant, the price of coal and the quality of coal. All of this problem will be answered in the next sections in the qualitative analysis of Luotang Power.
VARIANCE ANALYSIS
QUANTITY VARIANCE
The variance analysis is defined as the difference between the expected amount and the actual amount of costs or revenues. Variance analysis uses this standard or expected amount versus the actual amount to judge performance. The analysis includes an explanation of the difference between actual and expected figures as well as an evaluation as to why the variance may have occurred.
Background of Company
Luotang Power is a coal-fired power plant located in central China. This company is a subsidiary of China Hua Tong Power (HT Power). The main activity of this company is to generate electricity. Luotang Power operates using a 600 MW coal-fired power plant and sells the generated power to their primary customer, the Hubei Provincial Power Company (HPPC). HPPC was the only company in Hubei Province that owned all the power transmission and distribution facilities and independently owned power plants operating in the province. The coal is supply by Pingdingshan and according to the contract, it is required to supply low sulfur bituminous coal that met certain quality specifications.
Main Issue and Problems
Based on this case, the main issue is regarding to the company performance that not shows the positive performance of the company in the financial results. The issue is related on how Mr. Tan have to do in order to show that the company is still in a good performance. There is also an issue regarding to their supplier, Pingdingshan that supply a low quality coal but in a higher price than the prior year. Therefore, in our case study, we conclude that we need to do a variance analysis to better understand the plant performance compared to the previous year. The main problem in related to this case is about the falling in revenues, the performance of coal-plant, the price of coal and the quality of coal. All of this problem will be answered in the next sections in the qualitative analysis of Luotang Power.
VARIANCE ANALYSIS
QUANTITY VARIANCE
The variance analysis is defined as the difference between the expected amount and the actual amount of costs or revenues. Variance analysis uses this standard or expected amount versus the actual amount to judge performance. The analysis includes an explanation of the difference between actual and expected figures as well as an evaluation as to why the variance may have occurred.