Economic Load Dispatch problems in electrical power networks have been investigated over the years and several calculation methods were introduced. In order to determine the work state of power network, it is often necessary to solve a large system of non-linear transcendent equations. Therefore, the program routines are complex to develop, while specialized commercial software packages are expensive and not easily available. On the other hand, Microsoft Excel as a part of Microsoft office software package is widely spread in the world and relatively easily available. This paper presents the design and development of Microsoft Excel based economic load dispatch analysis tool and its application for system planning and operation. Three different economic load dispatch methods, namely, Merit Order, Lambda-Iteration and Dynamic Programming methods have been implemented to provide wider choice for the users. The emphasis of this paper is on the educational value of spreadsheets in the analysis of power system.