The spark spread is the theoretical gross margin of a gas-fired power plant from selling a unit of electricity, having bought the fuel required to produce this unit of electricity. All other costs (operation and maintenance, capital and other financial costs) must be covered from the spark spread.
The term dark spread refers to the similarly defined difference between cash streams (spread) for coal-fired power plants. These indicators of power plant economics are useful for tracing energy markets. For operating or investment decisions published "spread" data are not applicable. Local market conditions, actual plant efficiencies and other plant costs have to be considered. The higher the dark spread the better, for the generator; an IPP with a dark spread of €15/MWh will be more profitable than a competitor with a dark spread of only €10/MWh.
Further definition of clean spread indicators include the price of carbon dioxide emission allowances (see: Emission trading).
Read more about Spark Spread: Definition of Spark Spread, Clean Spread
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