An optimal electricity allocation model for sustainable resource use in India

Energy demand is increasing rapidly because of developments in the agricultural, industrial, commercial and transportation sectors. Improved lifestyle and population rise are other reasons for the increase in energy demand. The development of an electricity allocation model will help in the proper allocation of the energy sources to meet the future electricity demand in India. In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop a fuzzy‐based linear programming, optimal electricity allocation model (OEAM) that minimizes the cost and determines the optimum allocation of different energy sources to the centralized and decentralized power generation in India. The potential of energy sources, energy demand, efficiency of the energy systems, emission released by the energy systems and carbon tax for the emissions released by each system are the main factors that influence the pattern of electricity distribution and are used as constraints in the model. Executing this model results in an optimal electricity distribution pattern. The results indicate that the commercial energy sources such as coal, nuclear and hydro would meet nearly 68% of total electricity demand and that the remaining 32% of the electricity demand will be met by the renewable energy sources, namely, wind, biomass, biogas, solid waste, cogeneration and mini hydel for the year 2020. Various scenarios are also developed by varying the demand, potential, emission and carbon tax. This study will help in the formation of strategies for effective utilization of energy sources in India. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Joint electricity and carbon market for Northeast Asia energy interconnection

Decarbonization of the electricity sector is crucial to mitigate the impacts of climate change and global warming over the coming decades. The key challenges for achieving this goal are carbon emission trading and electricity sector regulation, which are also the major components of the carbon and electricity markets, respectively. In this paper, a joint electricity and carbon market model is proposed to investigate the relationships between electricity price, carbon price, and electricity generation capacity, thereby identifying pathways toward a renewable energy transition under the transactional energy interconnection framework. The proposed model is a dynamically iterative optimization model consisting of upper- level and lower-level models. The upper-level model optimizes power generation and obtains the electricity price, which drives the lower-level model to update the carbon price and electricity generation capacity. The proposed model is verified using the Northeast Asia power grid. The results show that increasing carbon price will result in increased electricity price, along with further increases in renewable energy generation capacity in the following period. This increase in renewable energy generation will reduce reliance on carbon-emitting energy sources, and hence the carbon price will decline. Moreover, the interconnection among zones in the Northeast Asia power grid will enable reasonable allocation of zonal power generation. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be an effective technology to reduce the carbon emissions and further realize the emission reduction targets in 2030-2050. It eases the stress of realizing the energy transition because of the less urgency to install additional renewable energy capacity.     

Study on electrical energy and prospective electricity generation from renewable sources in Australia

Nowadays renewable sources are being used as clean sources to generate electricity and to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. The uses of renewable sources are being increased in electricity generation and contributed to reduce the greenhouse gas emission. The function of any electrical power system is to connect everyone sufficiently, clean electric power anywhere and anytime of the country. This can be achieved through a modern power system by integrating electrical energy from clean renewable sources into the nation's electric grid to enhance reliability, efficiency and security of the power system. The paper on the status of review the driving force of the generation of renewable energy and proposing electrical energy generation from renewable sources to be ensured at least 20% of total energy of Australia. This paper has been studied the existing electricity generation capacity of Australia from renewable and non-renewable sources. Optimal electricity generation from renewable sources has been examined. The environmental impact of electricity generation from renewable sources has been considered. Under this paper the yearly average wind data of past 20 years and above for some meteorological stations of Australia have been used. The prospective electricity generation from wind turbines and solar photovoltaic panels has been proposed in the paper that will increase electrical energy of the power grid of Australia. It was estimated the capital cost of prospective electricity generation farms from wind and solar PV sources.     

Investigation of biomass gasification hydrogen and electricity co-production with carbon dioxide capture and storage

Biomass is one of the renewable energy resources which can be used instead of fossil fuels to diminish environment pollution and emission of greenhouse gases. Hydrogen as a biomass is considered as an alternative fuel which can be derived from a variety of domestically available primary sources. In this paper, a hydrogen and electricity co-generation plant with rice husk is proposed. Rice husk with water vapor and oxygen produces syngas in gasifier. In this design, electricity is generated by using two Rankine cycles. The Results show that the net electric efficiency and hydrogen production efficiency are 1.5% and 40.0%, respectively. Hydrogen production is 1.316 kg/s in case which carbon dioxide is gathered and stored. The electricity generation is 5.923 MW_e. The main propose of implementing Rankine cycle is to eliminate hydrogen combustion for generating electricity and to reduce NO_x production. Furthermore, three kinds of membranes are studied in this paper.     

A review on the pattern of electricity generation and emission in Iran from 1967 to 2008

The electricity consumption growth in Iran requires a rapid development of power plant construction. Like many other countries, most of the power plants in Iran are using fossil fuel. In the past decade, thermal power plants generated about 94% of electricity and about 6% was generated by renewable sources such as hydro-power. This study is to show a clear view of 42 years an evolutionary trend of Iran's electricity generation industry. The capacity of power generation installed and electricity generation from the years 1967 to 2008 has been gathered. The total pollutant emissions and emission per unit electricity generation for each type of power plants have also been calculated using emission factors and the pattern of electricity generation and emission has been presented. The results shown that encouraging of using renewable energy sources and increasing the contribution of the combined cycle as a best type of thermal power plants and use more natural gas is recommended to reduce emission.     

The impact of carbon sequestration on the production cost of electricity and hydrogen from coal and natural-gas technologies in Europe in the medium term

Carbon sequestration is a distinct technological option with a potential for controlling carbon emissions; it complements other measures, such as improvements in energy efficiency and utilization of renewable energy sources. The deployment of carbon sequestration technologies in electricity generation and hydrogen production will increase the production costs of these energy carriers. Our economic assessment has shown that the introduction of carbon sequestration technologies in Europe in 2020, will result in an increase in the production cost of electricity by coal and natural gas technologies of 30–55% depending on the electricity-generation technology used; gas turbines will remain the most competitive option for generating electricity; and integrated gasification combined cycle technology will become competitive. When carbon sequestration is coupled with natural-gas steam reforming or coal gasification for hydrogen production, the production cost of hydrogen will increase by 14–16%. Furthermore, natural-gas steam reforming with carbon sequestration is far more economically competitive than coal gasification.     

Greenhouse gas emission intensity factors for marginal electricity generation in Canada

In Canada, each province has its own electric utility system, and each system is responsible for meeting the demand of its customer base. Electricity demand in all provinces is highly variable throughout the day, as well as during the year. In order to achieve a good match between electricity demand and generation, a mix of base, intermediate and peaking load power plants is used, which uses different fuel sources. When a renewable energy technology or an energy efficiency measure that results in electricity savings is implemented on a regional, provincial and national scale, the electricity savings reflect in the peak (marginal) electricity generation. Thus, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction due to the reduction in electricity generation corresponds to the fuel used to generate the electricity at the margin. In Canada, the fuel used for marginal electricity generation varies from province to province and from hour to hour. To estimate the reduction in GHG emissions due to reducing electricity generation at the margin, it is necessary to have information on the fuel mix used to generate the marginal electricity for each province on a suitable time scale. With such information, it is possible to estimate a marginal GHG emission intensity factor for each province, which would provide the amount of GHG emissions produced as result of producing 1 kWh of electricity on the margin. However, such information is regarded confidential by most electric utilities and is not made public. In this paper, methodologies are presented to estimate the GHG intensity factors (GHGIFs) for marginal electricity generation for each province of Canada based on the information available in the public domain. The GHGIFs developed for each province are also presented, which are expected to be valid within the next 5‐year horizon. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

DES/CCHP系统和区域能源利用效率计算方法及影响因素分析

天然气分布式冷热电联供(DES/CCHP)是中国“十二五”期间提高能效、保障经济发展的重要战略举措,其评价指标是能源利用效率、经济效益、碳排放.DES/CCHP实现高效的技术关键包括:把所有终端用能集成为一个“总能源系统”;科学用能,核心是尽可能减小每一级用能的(火用)损耗;尽可能安排多个冷、热、电、汽终端用户时空分布的最优组合;需要较大的系统规模.新区DES/CCHP系统能效是决定区域总能效的最主要因素,两者的区别在于交通用能、其他用能和外来电力,可在取得相应数据基础上计算得出.计算能源利用效率的一般公式是:能效=终端耗用各种能源总量之和/耗用的一次能源总量,CCHP能效计算的分子必须是全部终端用能,必须按照8650h/a不同负荷逐时累加求和计算,不能取设计工况数据;分母必须全部折算成一次能源.在计算出区域规划的能效、总能耗和一次能源构成后,便可按照规划目标年度的GDP数据,推算出能源强度、碳强度和二氧化碳排放量等低碳发展指标.影响区域能源利用效率的因素包括外部因素——天然气价格与上网电价,客观因素——产业格局、气候条件和实际进展与规划格局的差异,以及主观因素等,其中外部、客观因素是决定能效的硬性约束.     

Interactions between electricity-saving measures and carbon emissions from power generation in England and Wales

The relationship between electricity demand reduction and the consequent change in carbon emissions is central to greenhouse gas emissions policy. This paper examines this relationship for the power system of England and Wales. Previous analysis showed that the commonly used conversion factor based on the system average emission factor significantly underestimates these savings (Hitchin and Pout, 2002. The carbon intensity of electricity: how many kgC per kWhe?. Building Serv. Eng. Res. Technol. 23(4)). Thus any policy analysis based on the system-average emission factor will under-estimate the potential for carbon savings from reductions in electricity demand. The present paper extends the previous analysis by using more detailed modelling to explore differences between demand reductions of differing load shape and magnitude; and the sensitivity of these figures to changes of the fuel mix of the generation system.     

Examining the driving forces for improving China’s CO2 emission intensity using the decomposing method

This paper examines the driving forces for reducing China’s CO₂ emission intensity between 1998 and 2008, utilizing the logarithmic mean divisia index (LMDI) technique. By first grouping the CO₂ emissions into two categories, those arising from activities related to the electric power industry and those from other sources, emission intensity is further broken down into the effects of the CO₂ emission coefficient, energy intensity of power generation, power generation and consumption ratio, electricity intensity of the gross domestic product (GDP), provincial structural change, and the energy intensity of the GDP for other activities. The decomposition results show that improvements in the energy intensity of power generation, electricity intensity of GDP, and energy intensity of GDP for other activities were mainly responsible for the success in reducing China’s CO₂ emission intensity and that activities related to the electric power industry played a key role. It is also revealed that performance varied significantly at the individual province level. The provinces with higher emission levels contributed the most to China’s improvements in CO₂ emission intensity.     

The decline of the world’s energy intensity

Energy intensity of the total primary energy supply (TPES), total final energy consumption (TFC) and LOSSES in the conversion from TPES to TFC were analyzed for the World, OECD and Rest of the World (ROW) countries. LOSSES increased significantly for all groups of countries due to the increase of electricity production from coal in the period studied (1971–2008). Electricity share final consumption almost doubled, increasing from 8.8% to 17.2% in the period studied. However the energy intensity of LOSSES remained practically constant, which reflects the fact that the efficiency of electricity generation from coal (the main source of electricity) remained practically constant in that period. Despite the attractiveness of end-use devices running on electricity such as computers, which is typical of modern societies, the CO₂ emissions are bound to increase unless coal is replaced by less carbon emitting sources such as natural gas, renewables and nuclear energy.     

Carbon black and hydrogen production process analysis

The adoption of new environmentally responsible technologies, as well as, energy efficiency improvements in equipment and processes help to reduce CO2 rate emission into the atmosphere, contributing in delaying the consequences of intensive use of fossil fuels. For more effective actions, it is necessary to make the transition from the fossil-based to the renewable source economy. In this context, hydrogen fuel has a special role as clean vector of energy. Hydrogen has the potential to be decisive in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, but fossil fuels high profitability due to global energy dependency actually drives the global economy.While renewable energy sources are not worldwide fully established, new technologies should be developed and used for the recovery of energetic streams nowadays wasted, to decarbonize hydrocarbons and to improve systems efficiency creating a path that can help nations and industries in the needed energy economy transition. Hydrogen gas can be generated by various methods from different sources such as coal and water. Currently, almost all of the hydrogen production is for industrial purpose and comes from the Steam Reforming, while the use of hydrogen in fuel cells is only incipient.The article analysis the plasma pyrolysis of hydrocarbons as a decarbonization option to contribute as a step towards hydrogen economy. It presents the Carbon Black and Hydrogen Process (CB&H Process) as an alternative option for hydrogen generation at large scale facility, suitable for supplying large amounts of high-purity carbon in elemental form. CB&H Process refers to a plant with hydrogen thermal plasma reactor able to decompose Hydrocarbons (HC's) into Hydrogen (H2) and Carbon Black (CB), a cleaner technology than its competing processes, capable of generating two products with high added value. Considering the Brazilian context in which more than 80% of the generated electricity comes from renewable sources, the use of electricity as one of the inputs in the process does not compromise the objective of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It is important to consider that the use of renewable energy to produce two products derived from fossil fuels in a clean way represents integration of technologies into a more efficient system and an arrangement that contributes to the transition from fossil fuels to renewables.The economic viability of the CB&H process as a hydrogen generation unit (centralized) for refining applications also depends on the cost of hydrogen production by competing processes. Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) is a widespread method that produces twice the amount of hydrogen generated by natural gas plasma pyrolysis, but it emits CO2 gas and consumes water, while CB&H process produces solid carbon. For this reason, the paper seeks the carbon production cost by plasma pyrolysis as a breakeven point for large-scale hydrogen generation without water consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.     

Potential of Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism in transfer of clean energy technologies to Small Island Developing States: case study of Cape Verde

The developed countries committed to greenhouse gases reductions under the aegis of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will, in order to reduce the cost of meeting their commitments, depend on cheaper reductions elsewhere. The reductions will be materialised through several mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol: the Emission Trade, Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanisms. The Mechanisms will carry a strong financial incentive for the dissemination of clean energy technologies, including renewable energy technologies and especially technologies that increase the efficiency of energy transformation and consume. This paper concentrates on the case typical of more than 30 Small Island Developing States, that all have a common situation of relatively low carbon intensity and high price of fossil fuel based economies, and on how the Clean Development Mechanism is expected to influence the transfer of clean energy technologies under the aegis of the Kyoto Protocol. The paper shows, by assessing a case of a small island, that although the emission reduction on global scale is small, there is great potential for establishing a strong market presence of renewable energy technologies in developing countries. A typical small island electricity generation is heavily dependent on Diesel engines, expensive and polluting, but still the most appropriate on such a small scale. This paper studies implications of different scenaria of development of electrical energy system on the island of Santiago, Cape Verde. An estimate of electricity demand for the period until 2030 is given. Baseline scenarium based on Diesel capacity is compared to a renewable energy scenario envisaging 30% of the electricity generated by the wind power, and the other supply side efficiency scenario replacing Diesel capacity with combined cycle. The declining price of clean energy technologies is taken into account. The possible influence of the Clean Development Mechanism is assessed. The potential for financing the technology transfer is quantified and its influence on different electricity system planning scenarios estimated.     

A review on the pattern of electricity generation and emission in Indonesia from 1987 to 2009

The level of energy demand plays a fundamental role in today's society. It is a vital input in supporting the physical and social development of a country, as well as national economic growth. Looking at the energy demand scenario in present time, the global energy consumption is likely to grow faster than the population growth across the world. Like any other energy sectors, electricity demand has significantly increased in Indonesia over the past years. Currently, there are six types of power plants in the country. The main sources of electrical energy are generated using the gas turbines, steam turbines, combined cycles, geothermal, diesel engine and hydro-powers. Most of Indonesia's power plants are using fossil fuel for electricity generation. Substantial growth in domestic energy demand, however, would be a major challenge for Indonesia's energy supply sector in the future. Over the past decade, thermal power plants generated about 86.69% of electricity and about 13.31% was generated by renewable energy such as hydro-power and geothermal in 2009. The purpose of this study is to chronicle and show a clear view of 23 years trend of Indonesia's electricity generation industry. Furthermore, the capacity of power generation installed and electricity generation from 1987 to 2009 has been gathered for this study. The total pollutant emissions and emission per unit electricity generation for each type of power plants have been also calculated using emission factors. Also, the pattern of electricity generation and emission has been presented. The results show that the implementation and contribution of combined cycle power plants should be increased together with renewable energy and natural gas which are recommended to reduce greenhouse gas emission.     

CO2 emissions from electricity generation in seven Asia-Pacific and North American countries: A decomposition analysis

The Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method of complete decomposition is used to examine the role of three factors (electricity production, electricity generation structure and energy intensity of electricity generation) affecting the evolution of CO₂ emissions from electricity generation in seven countries. These seven countries together generated 58% of global electricity and they are responsible for more than two-thirds of global CO₂ emissions from electricity generation in 2005. The analysis shows production effect as the major factor responsible for rise in CO₂ emissions during the period 1990–2005. The generation structure effect also contributed in CO₂ emissions increase, although at a slower rate. In contrary, the energy intensity effect is responsible for modest reduction in CO₂ emissions during this period. Over the 2005–2030 period, production effect remains the key factor responsible for increase in emissions and energy intensity effect is responsible for decrease in emissions. Unlike in the past, generation structure effect contributes significant decrease in emissions. However, the degree of influence of these factors affecting changes in CO₂ emissions vary from country to country. The analysis also shows that there is a potential of efficiency improvement of fossil-fuel-fired power plants and its associated co-benefits among these countries.     

Study on China's low carbon development in an Economy–Energy–Electricity–Environment framework

Emissions mitigation is a major challenge for China's sustainable development. We summarize China's successful experiences on energy efficiency in past 30 years as the contributions of Energy Usage Management and Integrated Resource Strategic Planning, which are essential for low-carbon economy. In an Economy–Energy–Electricity–Environment (E4) framework, the paper studies the low-carbon development of China and gives an outlook of China's economy growth, energy–electricity demand, renewable power generation and energy conservation and emissions mitigation until 2030. A business-as-usual scenario is projected as baseline for comparison while low carbon energy and electricity development path is studied. It is defined as low carbon energy/electricity when an economy body manages to realize its potential economic growth fueled by less energy/electricity consumption, which can be characterized by indexes of energy/electricity intensity and emissions per-unit of energy consumption (electricity generation). Results show that, with EUM, China, could save energy by 4.38 billion ton oil equivalences (toes) and reduce CO₂ emission by 16.55 billion tons; with IRSP, China, could save energy by 1.5 Btoes and reduce CO₂ emission by 5.7 Btons, during 2010–2030. To realize the massive potential, China has to reshape its economic structure and rely much on technology innovation in the future.     

Will Swedish biomass be sufficient for future transportation-fuel demands?

There is a potential to increase the annual use of biomass in Sweden by 125 TWh between 1994 and 2015. 125 TWh of biomass would satisfy most of the transportation-fuel demand in Sweden in 2015. Even if the biomass is primarily used for heat and electricity production, a significant fraction will be available for transportation-fuel production, if other non-fossil energy sources are utilized for electricity production and/or substantial energy-efficiency improvements are realized. Improved energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources will be required in all sectors to achieve CO₂ emission reductions greater than 50%.     

A regional analysis of carbon intensities of electricity generation in China

Index decomposition analysis (IDA) has been widely applied to study CO₂ emissions from electricity generation. However, most have focused on emissions at the country level, less attention has been given to emissions at the regional level. To fill the gap, this study firstly utilized a Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method to analyze the driving forces of aggregate carbon intensity (ACI) of electricity generation in China from 2000 to 2014. A regional attribution analysis was introduced to look into the contributions from 30 provinces to the driving forces. Then, a multi-regional spatial-IDA was further adopted to assess the emission performance of electricity generation in 30 provinces. The results of temporal-IDA and regional attribution analysis show that the ACI in China dropped notably by 14.5% from 2000 to 2014. Thermal efficiency improvement was a major driver for the decrease, due largely to the significant improvement in thermal generation efficiency in the eastern coastal regions. Clean power penetration reduced ACI remarkably as well, of which the western regions were the main contributors. The spatial-IDA results indicate that the emission performance of electricity generation in different regions varied significantly. While the western regions performed better in clean power penetration, the eastern regions performed better in thermal generation efficiency. Based on the findings, several regional policy strategies were recommended to further lower down ACI of electricity in China.     

Life-cycle energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for electricity generation and supply in China

The Well-to-Meter (WTM) analysis module in the Tsinghua-CA3EM model has been used to examine the primary fossil energy consumption (PFEC) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for electricity generation and supply in China. The results show that (1) the WTM PFEC and GHG emission intensities for the 2007 Chinese electricity mix are 3.247 MJ/MJ and 297.688 g carbon dioxide of equivalent (gCO_2,e)/MJ, respectively; (2) power generation is the main contributing sub-stage; (3) the coal-power pathway is the only major contributor of PFEC (96.23%) and GHG emissions (97.08%) in the 2007 mix; and (4) GHG emissions intensity in 2020 will be reduced to 220.470 gCO_2,e/MJ with the development of nuclear and renewable energy and to 169.014 gCO_2,e/MJ if carbon dioxide capture and storage (CCS) technology is employed. It is concluded that (1) the current high levels of PFEC and GHG emission for electricity in China are largely due to the dominant role of coal in the power-generation sector and the relatively low efficiencies during all the sub-stages from resource extraction to final energy consumption and (2) the development of nuclear and renewable energy as well as low carbon technologies such as CCS can significantly reduce GHG emissions from electricity.     

美国碳强度指标走势及其对中国的启示

碳强度作为衡量二氧化碳排放量与GDP关系的指标,将成为中国减排工作的一个约束性指标。它不仅受能源效率影响,更受能源结构的影响,与能源强度相比,其实质上是一个能源质量的问题。美国早已建立了全面的碳强度指标系统及完善的数据收集系统,并出台了众多相关政策。美国二氧化碳排放强度从2000年的521t二氧化碳当量/百万美元(2005年价)下降到2009年的416t二氧化碳当量/百万美元(2005年价),9年间下降了20.15%。在能源供应相关碳强度方面,自2000年以来也呈逐年下降趋势,且2008~2009年间下降尤为突出,可见碳强度指标真实地反映了美国经济发展的趋势及强弱。美国信息产业不仅GDP贡献值远高于传统工业,且碳排放量也远小于传统工业。新能源已被赋予了改变美国命运的重要使命,特别是风能已成为美国非化石能源发展的主力军。我国除应对气候变化外,还面临着扶贫、就业、区域差距等一系列发展问题,实现碳强度指标降低任务非常艰巨。建议政府首先应在中央层面建立一个全面而又公开的碳强度信息数据系统,这是所有工作的起点和基础,并将碳强度指标纳入地方经济发展考核目标;借助"十二五"发展契机,推动国内能源结构调整,促进经济结构转型,加速低碳城市创建,注重节能技术的创新开发和应用;逐步应用新的清洁能源取代化石能源,推动新能源的应用和产业发展。