Overnight cost

Overnight cost is the cost of a construction project if no interest was incurred during construction, as if the project was completed "overnight."

The overnight cost is frequently used when describing power plants. The unit of measure typically used when citing the overnight cost of a power plant is $/kW. For example, the overnight cost of a nuclear plant might be $5,000/kW, so a 1000 MW plant would have an overnight cost $5 billion. (Interest on the $5 billion spent during construction would be extra.)