1.Introduction.- 2.Continuous time methodology and mathematical models in search of optimum investment strategy in thermal plants and combined heat and power plants.- 3.Continuous time methodology and mathematical model for analysis of technical and economic effectiveness of modernizing a thermal plant and combined heat and power plant.- 4.Continuous time methodology and mathematical models for the analysis of the market value of thermal plant and heat and power plant and the value of the market supplied by them.- 5.Summary and final conclusions.
About the Author:

Professor Ryszard Bartnik is a power engineering researcher and scientist very well known in the academic and industrial sectors, thanks to his international publications and books. His fields of specialization are heat and power generating technologies, and power management. Further, his work explores the technical and economical problems of coal fired and natural gas fired heat and power generating plants. He worked at the Silesian University of Technology as academic teacher, then in design offices making some projects, and a few years ago he became a professor at the Opole University of Technology. He is the author or co-author of seven books, including Conversion of Coal-Fired Power Plants to Cogeneration and Combined-Cycle; Thermal and Economic Effectiveness, Springer, London 2011; The Modernization Potential of Gas Turbines in the Coal-Fired Power Industry. Thermal and Economic Effectiveness, Springer, London 2013; Combined cycle power plants. Thermal and economic effectiveness, WNT, Warszawa 2009, 2012, (in Polish); Economic Account in the Power Industry, Wydawnictwo WNT, Warszawa 2014 (in Polish); and Optimum Investment Strategy in the Power Industry. Mathematical Models, Springer-Verlag, New York 2016.

Dr eng. Zbigniew Buryn holds a Ph.D. degree from Opole University of Technology Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and an M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Opole University of Technology. He is currently an assistant professor in the Faculty of Production Engineering and Logistics there and also works as a power analysis specialist at a power plant. He is the author of several dozen articles on the power industry and co-author of two books: Conversion of Coal-Fired Power Plants to Cogeneration and Combined-Cycle: Thermal and Economic Effectiveness, Springer, London 2011 and Quasi-unsteady CHP Operation of Power Plants: Thermal and Economic Effectiveness, Springer, London 2016. He is also a member of the Energy Commission at the Katowice Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN).

Dr eng. Anna Hnydiuk-Stefan is a lecturer at Opole University of Technology. She has extensive experience in cooperation with the major Polish power groups in the field of carbon emissions trading schemes. She has an MBA in Finance and Insurance from Illinois State University and the Technical University of Lodz. She is a licensed commodity broker in Poland and a member of the Energy Commission at the Katowice Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN). She is the author of several articles on oxy-fuel combustion technology and environmental charge impact on a power plant operation, including "Thermodynamic analysis of annual operation of a 370 MW power unit operating in CHP-mode" Applied Thermal Engineering, Elsevier, 2016, "Analysis of supercritical coal fired oxy combustion power plant with cryogenic oxygen unit and turbo-compressor", Energy, Elsevier, 2017, and the book Optimum Investment Strategy in the Power Industry. Mathematical Models, Springer-Verlag, New York 2016.