Challenges of Iran's energy conversion agreements in future competitive market

Extensive need for electricity and lack of enough governmental resources for the development of related infrastructures forced the Iranian Government to invite private investors and to sign Energy Conversion Agreement (ECA) in the form of build–operate–transfer (BOT) and build–operate–own (BOO) contracts with them. Accordingly, electricity purchase would be based on a guaranteed price. Changes in some laws in 2007 caused the management of the ECAs and electricity purchase based on guaranteed price to face challenges. Shortening the commercial operation period of the earlier ECAs and signing some new short-term ECAs were the steps taken by the authorities to resolve the problems.     

Core business concentration vs. corporate diversification in the US electric utility industry: Synergy and deregulation effects

Many economists such as Wilson (2002) [Wilson, R., 2002. Architecture of power market, Econometrica, 70, 1299–1340] have considered that there are similarities between electricity and gas services in the US electric utility industry. Hence, they expect a synergy effect between them. However, the two businesses do not have technology similarities at the level that the gas service produces a synergy effect with electricity. To examine whether there is a synergy effect of corporate diversification in the industry, we compare electricity-specialized firms with diversified utility firms in terms of their financial performance and corporate value. The comparison indicates that core business concentration is more effective for electric utility firms than corporate diversification under the current US deregulation policy.     

Value of hydro power flexibility for hydrogen production in constrained transmission grids

The cost of large scale hydrogen production from electrolysis is dominated by the cost of electricity, representing 77–89% of the total costs. The integration of low-cost renewable energy is thus essential to affordable and clean hydrogen production from electrolysis. Flexible operation of electrolysis and hydro power can facilitate integration of remote energy resources by providing the flexibility that is needed in systems with large amounts of variable renewable energy. The flexibility from hydro power is limited by the physical complexities of the river systems and ecological concerns which makes the flexibility not easily quantifiable. In this work we investigate how different levels of flexibility from hydro power affects the cost of hydrogen production.We develop a two-stage stochastic model in a rolling horizon framework that enables us to consider the uncertainty in wind power production, energy storage and the structure of the energy market when simulating power system operation. This model is used for studying hydrogen production from electrolysis in a future scenario of a remote region in Norway with large wind power potential. A constant demand of hydrogen is assumed and flexibility in the electrolysis operation is enabled by hydrogen storage. Different levels of hydro power flexibility are considered by following a reservoir guiding curve every hour, 6 h or 24 h.Results from the case study show that hydrogen can be produced at a cost of 1.89 €/kg in the future if hydro power production is flexible within a period of 24 h, fulfilling industry targets. Flexible hydrogen production also contributes to significantly reducing wasted energy from spillage from reservoirs or wind power curtailment by up to 56% for 24 h of flexibility. The results also show that less hydro power flexibility results in increased flexible operation of the electrolysis plant where it delivers 39–46% more regulating power, operates more on higher power levels and stores more hydrogen.     

Operational synergy in the US electric utility industry under an influence of deregulation policy: A linkage to financial performance and corporate value

Sueyoshi et al. (2009) have examined a synergy effect between electricity and gas services in the US electric utility industry. They have compared electricity-specialized firms with diversified utility firms in their financial performance and corporate value. A problem of their study is that it has not empirically measured the operational performance of the electric utility firms. As an extension of the preceding study, this research investigates the operational performance of 104 US electric utility firms (1990–2004) by fully utilizing DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis). This study finds the three new policy implications. First, the synergy effect has not existed in the operational performance of diversified utility firms before and after the deregulation on the US electricity markets. Thus, core business concentration is more effective for electric utility firms than corporate diversification to enhance their operational performance under the current US deregulation policy. Second, the operational performance has had an increasing trend until 1996 and a decreasing trend after 1996. Thus, the US deregulation policy has been influential on their operational performance. Third, the enhancement in operational performance of electric utility firms has improved their financial performance. The improvement in financial performance has increased their corporate value. Thus, this study finds the business causality among operational performance, financial performance and corporate value in the US electric utility industry.     

Broken dreams: Unmet expectations of investors in the Philippine electricity restructuring and privatization

Over the last three decades, privatization and restructuring of electricity sectors has been a hot topic. The expectation was that prices would fall due to increased competition and that generators would become more innovative and efficient. However, the enthusiasm for deregulation wavered after events such as the debacle in California, the fall of Enron and the setbacks of Ontario. In the Philippines, comprehensive legislation was passed in 2001 but the implementation has been rather slow and controversial. This paper looked at the allegation of politicizing power rates and found a logical alternative to the perceived conspiracy angle. Based on market data, it is highly probable that depressed market rates was a result of coping mechanisms of new players trying to adjust to the restructured industry.     

A decision support tool for the analysis of pricing,investment and regulatory processes in a decentralized electricity market

After the liberalization of the electricity generation industry, capacity expansion decisions are made by multiple self-oriented power companies. Unlike the centralized environment, decision-making of market participants is now guided by price signal feedbacks and by an imperfect foresight of the future market conditions (and competitor actions) that they will face. In such an environment, decision makers need to better understand long-term dynamics of the supply and demand sides of the power market. In this study, a system dynamics model is developed, to better understand and analyze the decentralized and competitive electricity market dynamics in the long run. The developed simulation model oversees a 20-year planning horizon; it includes a demand module, a capacity expansion module, a power generation module, an accounting and finance module, various competitors, a regulatory body and a bidding mechanism. Many features, singularities and tools of decentralized markets, such as; capacity withholding, enforced divestment, long-term contracts, price-elastic demands, incentives/disincentives, are also incorporated into the model. Public regulators and power companies are potential users of the model, for learning and decision support in policy design and strategic planning. Results of scenario analysis are presented to illustrate potential use of the model.     

Prospects of gas supply until 2020 in Europe and its relevance for the power sector in the context of emission trading

With the liberalization of energy markets and the introduction of an emission trading system, electricity production by gas combined cycle power plants has significantly increased in the European Union in recent years. Reasons for the significant increase include the short construction time for gas power plants and the favourable investment costs. One further advantage is the relatively low CO₂ emissions of gas power plants. Thus, a key option for reducing emissions is seen in the increased use of gas for power production. Model calculations from various models show that an increase of gas power production is expected. In general, however, the interdependencies of the different markets (gas, electricity and CO₂) as well as the country-specific gas supply options, determined by pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG), are neglected. As the competitiveness of gas power plants mainly depends on the availability of gas and the gas price, a novel model that integrates electricity, gas, and CO₂- emission markets assuming perfect competition will be presented. The objective of this paper is to analyse the long-term relevance of the gas market for the electricity sector in the European Union in the context of CO₂-emission reduction targets.     

Evolution of China’s power dispatch principle and the new energy saving power dispatch policy

With social economic reform in the past decades, the power industry of China is gradually evolving from a highly integrated one toward an electricity market, which can be characterized based on the transition of the power dispatch principle. To attract investment in the power generating industry, China introduced non-state-owned power plants to the original system of a highly vertically integrated power industry with annual power generation quota guarantees, which makes the traditional economic dispatch principle not applicable. The newly debuted energy saving power dispatch (ESPD) is an attempt to fully exploit the maximum energy savings and was implemented by an administrative code. Starting in August 2007, the pilot operation of the ESPD was implemented in five provinces, but after two years, it is still not widely applied all over the country. This paper details the transition of China’s power dispatch principle with particular attention to its origin and content. Moreover, the factors that influence the ESPD’s actual energy saving effect are discussed, as well as the sustainability of the policy.     

“Energy Tower” combined with pumped storage and desalination: Optimal design and analysis

The “Energy Tower” (ET) is a power plant project which uses hot dry air and seawater to produce electricity. An optimized design of a system that is a combination of an ET, pumped storage and seawater desalination plant is considered. A model set covering each subsystem, and results of the optimized design for a project in the area of Eilat are presented. The additional benefit from combining the systems comes from an efficient use of the energy in the brine water coming from the desalination process, and from using pumped storage in an unconventional way. The benefits of the combined system lead to an increase of 14% in the annual net profit, compared to the sum of profits from optimally designed stand-alone systems.     

储能技术及其在电力系统中的应用与发展

针对目前储能技术,介绍了储能技术的定义及分类方式,详尽阐述了储能技术在电力系统中的应用,同时基于我国电力系统现状,对相应储能技术的发展进行了重点研究。储能技术作为一类充满前景的节能方式,在未来电力工业发展进程中将起到重要作用。     

Convergence of rule-of-thumb sizing and allocating rules of distributed generation in meshed power networks

This paper presents different approaches to find out and address some rules for distributed generation (DG) integrated mesh type networks, which can be used in the management of future power systems. There are so many influencing factors of efficiency in the integration of DG that we need to analyze these influencing factors obviously. Hence, carefully planning plays a key role in tackling these challenges in the future power systems. In contrast to the majority of existing observations, we focus on the case where the underlying states are multiple and single DG allocations with changing conditions. In several previous studies, the best single bus has been investigated under the specified conditions. However, it follows from the results of this study that all issues concerning DG strongly depend on power network structure and DG locations, and it is worth to note that the best location changes with penetration levels. Also, it is observed that the all buses show different characteristics in terms of DG integrations under the different cases, moreover their optimum size and power factor are different. It means that optimum bus in a network changes with the conditions. On the other hand, the problematic buses can be occurred in voltage profile after the DG integration. As a result, an investigation of rule of thumb approach is performed for evaluation of performance enhancement of DG integrated meshed networks. The results are also used to discuss the integration of DG management strategies under various operating conditions.     

China's large-scale power shortages of 2004 and 2011 after the electricity market reforms of 2002: Explanations and differences

Since the electricity market reforms of 2002, two large-scale power shortages, one occurring in 2004 and one in 2011, exerted a tremendous impact on the economic development of China and also gave rise to a fierce discussion regarding electricity system reforms. In this paper, the background and the influence scale of the two power shortages are described. Second, reasons for these two large-scale power shortages are analyzed from the perspectives of power generation, power consumption and coordination of power sources and grid network construction investments. Characteristics of these two large-scale power shortages are then summarized by comparatively analyzing the performance and the formation of the reasons behind these two large-scale power shortages. Finally, some effective measures that take into account the current status of electricity market reforms in China are suggested. This paper concludes that to eliminate power shortages in China, both the supply and the demand should be considered, and these considerations should be accompanied by supervisory policies and incentive mechanisms.     

Investment in wind power and pumped storage in a real options model

Promoting renewable energy has been a key ingredient in energy policy seeking to de-carbonize the energy mix and will continue to do so in the future given the European Union's high ambitions to further curb carbon emissions. A wide range of instruments has been suggested and implemented in various countries of the EU. A prominent policy promoting investment in renewable technologies is the use of feed-in tariffs, which has worked well at large scale in, e.g. Germany, but which has only been implemented in a very limited way in countries such as the UK.Being subject to environmental uncertainties, however, renewables cannot be seen in isolation: while renewables-based technologies such as wind and solar energy, for example, suffer from uncertain loads depending on environmental conditions, hydropower allows for the storage of water for release at peak prices, which can be treated as a premium (partially) offsetting higher upfront investment costs. In addition, electricity prices will respond to changes in electric capacity in the market, which is often neglected in standard investment models of the electricity sector.This paper contributes to the existing literature in two ways: it provides a review of a renewables-based technology in a specific policy context and provides additional insight by employing a real options approach to investigate the specific characteristics of renewables and their associated uncertainties in a stylized setting taking explicitly into account market effects of investment decisions. The prices of the model are determined endogenously by the supply of electricity in the market and by exogenous electricity price uncertainty. The inclusion of market effects allows us to capture the full impact of public incentives for companies to invest into wind power and hydro pumped storage installations.     

A particle swarm optimization based power dispatch algorithm with roulette wheel re-distribution mechanism for equality constraint

In this paper, a particle swarm optimization (PSO)-based power dispatch algorithm is proposed to deal with the energy management problem of the hybrid generation system (HGS). For conventional PSO method, the search space is only defined by inequality constraints. However, as for power dispatch problems, it is vital to maintain power balance, which can be represented as an equality constraint. To address this issue, a roulette wheel re-distribution mechanism is proposed. With this re-distribution mechanism, unbalanced power can be reallocated to more superior element and the searching diversity can be preserved. In addition, the effect of depth of discharge on the life cycle of the battery bank is also taken into account by developing a penalty mechanism. The proposed method is then applied to a HGS consisting of photovoltaic array, wind turbine, microturbine, battery banks, utility grid and residential load. To validate the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed method, simulation results for a whole day will also be provided. Comparing with three other power dispatching methods, the proposed method can achieve the lowest accumulated cost.     

Households’ access to electricity and energy consumption pattern in Nigeria

Access to substantial quantity and quality energy infrastructures is essential to rapid and sustainable economic development. Access to modern energy services directly contributes to economic growth and poverty reduction through the creation of wealth. No country can develop and sustain beyond subsistence means without having at least minimum access to energy services for the larger portion of its population. The present study examines the households’ access to modern energy (electricity) services and pattern of energy consumption in Nigeria. It was found that the access to modern form of energy in the country is very low despite the country's abundant energy endowment. Greater proportions (over 40%) of Nigerian households do not have access to electricity and still depend largely on traditional forms of energy (e.g., firewood and kerosene) as energy sources.     

Experimental study of sand control in a natural gas hydrate reservoir in the South China sea

Gas hydrate is considered to be one of the most promising energy sources of the 21st century, however, with the deepening of research on hydrate resources and the acceleration of trial exploitation processes, it has become apparent that sand production is one of the key factors restricting hydrate exploitation. Here we focus on the key issues of sand production in natural gas hydrate reservoirs in the Liwan Sea area in the northern part of the South China Sea. Innovative systematic studies of the mode of hydrate sand production using a multi-channel hydration acoustic wave monitoring system were conducted. The results show that a hydrate formation composed of very fine silt is prone to excessive sand production requirement. When the production pressure difference is only 1 MPa, the sand output already accounts for 19% of total liquid production, making sand production an important issue under these conditions. Finally, using filter screens with different pore sizes, hydrate reservoir sand control simulations were carried out. The results were analysed to determine properties such as: sand yield, permeability, sand content, and productivity. The design criterion for the filter screen of the fine sand particles in hydrate formations was finally obtained as D₅₀ = 11d₅₀ (where D₅₀ is median grain size of the gravel, and d₅₀ is the median grain size of the formation).     

Electricity and heating system in Kazakhstan: Exploring energy efficiency improvement paths

The Kazakh energy system is less efficient than most other national energy systems. The electricity and heat sub-systems account for about one half of the difference between the primary energy supply and the final consumption. After reviewing the technology chains of electricity and heat generation, transmission and distribution and their organisation, this paper presents scenario studies on the possible evolutions of these sub-systems to 2030. It describes the representation of the heat and electricity chains in the MARKAL–TIMES-Kazakhstan model, with focus on the residential and commercial sectors, and some key input data assumptions. The main scenario drivers are the need to improve the efficiency of electricity and heat in the residential and commercial sectors and to reduce GHG emissions from the energy system as a whole. The model results point to the possibility of achieving cost effective energy efficiency improvement of more than 2% per annum and it would entail a net economic advantage to the country.     

Transmission network-based energy and environmental assessment of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles

The introduction of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) is expected to have a significant impact on regional power systems and pollutant emissions. This paper analyzes the effects of various penetrations of PHEVs on the marginal fuel dispatch of coal, natural gas and oil, and on pollutant emissions of CO₂, NO_x, SO₂ in the New York Metropolitan Area for two battery charging scenarios in a typical summer and winter day. A model of the AC transmission network of the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) region with 693 generators is used to realistically incorporate network constraints into an economic dispatch model. A data-based transportation model of approximately 1 million commuters in NYMA is used to determine battery charging pattern. Results show that for all penetrations of PHEVs network-constrained economic dispatch of generation is significantly more realistic than unconstrained cases. Coal, natural gas and oil units are on the margin in the winter, and only natural gas and oil units are on the margin in the summer. Hourly changes in emissions from transportation and power production are dominated by vehicular activity with significant overall emissions reductions for CO₂ and NO_x, and a slight increase for SO₂. Nighttime regulated charging produces less overall emissions than unregulated charging from when vehicles arrive home for the summer and vice versa for the winter. As PHEVs are poised to link the power and transportation sectors, data-based models combining network constraints and economic dispatch have been shown to improve understanding and facilitate control of this link.     

The case for combined heat and power in the U.K.

Most analyses of the potential for combined heat and power (CHP) in parallel with a central electricity generating industry value the electrical output by means of an assessment of the marginal benefit to the central supply of units and capacity provided by the local system. This approach has defects, especially when applied to a growing system with a choice of investments. This paper suggests an alternative approach without these defects. It concludes that CHP is extremely attractive if load factors on the local plant are high, as in industry. This conclusion is insensitive to future costs of fuel and plant. If there were enough sites of this nature then there would be no case for CHP from district heating loads. If, however, high-load-factor sites are not available then CHP from district heating could be a second best alternative. the paper investigates this hypothesis and concludes that this may be so, but that in this case the answer is very sensitive to future costs of fuel and plant.     

Allocation of energy resources for power generation in India: Business as usual and energy efficiency

This paper deals with MARKAL allocations for various energy sources, in India, for Business As Usual (BAU) scenario and for the case of exploitation of energy saving potential in various sectors of economy. In the BAU scenario, the electrical energy requirement will raise up to 5000 bKwh units per year or 752 GW of installed capacity with major consumers being in the industry, domestic and service sectors. This demand can be met by a mix of coal, hydro, nuclear and wind technologies. Other reneawbles i.e. solar and biomass will start contributing from the year 2040 onwards. By full exploitation of energy saving potential, the annual electrical energy demand gets reduced to 3061 bKwh (or 458 GW), a reduction of 38.9%.The green house gas emissions reduce correspondingly. In this scenario, market allocations for coal, gas and large hydro become stagnant after the year 2015.