The Japanese energy sector: Current situation,and future paths

As the world’s third leading economy and a major importer of fuels, the choice of future energy paths and policies that Japan makes in the next few years will have a significant influence on the energy security of the world as a whole, and of the Northeast Asia region in particular. In this article we describe the current status of and recent trends in the Japanese energy sector, including energy demand and supply by fuel and by sector. We then discuss the current energy policy situation in Japan, focusing on policies related to climate change targets, renewable energy development and deployment, liberalization of energy markets, and the evolution of the Japanese nuclear power sector. The final section of the article presents the structure of the Japan LEAP (long-range energy alternatives planning software system) dataset, describes several alternative energy paths for Japan – with an emphasis on alternative paths for nuclear power development and GHG emission abatement – and touches upon key current issues of energy policy facing Japan, as reflected in the modeling inputs and results.     

Energy demand and supply,energy policies,and energy security in the Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea (ROK) has enjoyed rapid economic growth and development over the last 30 years. Rapid increases in energy use—especially petroleum, natural gas, and electricity, and especially in the industrial and transport sectors—have fueled the ROK's economic growth, but with limited fossil fuel resources of its own, the result has been that the ROK is almost entirely dependent on energy imports. The article that follows summarizes the recent trends in the ROK energy sector, including trends in energy demand and supply, and trends in economic, demographic, and other activities that underlie trends in energy use. The ROK has been experiencing drastic changes in its energy system, mainly induced by industrial, supply security, and environmental concerns, and energy policies in the ROK have evolved over the years to address such challenges through measures such as privatization of energy-sector activities, emphases on enhancing energy security through development of energy efficiency, nuclear power, and renewable energy, and a related focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The assembly of a model for evaluating energy futures in the ROK (ROK2010 LEAP) is described, and results of several policy-based scenarios focused on different levels of nuclear energy utilization are described, and their impacts on of energy supply and demand in the ROK through the year 2030 are explored, along with their implications for national energy security and long-term policy plans. Nuclear power continues to hold a crucial position in the ROK's energy policy, but aggressive expansion of nuclear power alone, even if possible given post-Fukushima global concerns, will not be sufficient to attain the ROK's “green economy” and greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.     

Analysis of the market penetration of clean coal technologies and its impacts in China's electricity sector

This paper discusses policy instruments for promoting the market penetration of clean coal technologies (CCTs) into China's electricity sector and the evaluation of corresponding effects. Based on the reality that coal will remain the predominant fuel to generate electricity and conventional pulverized coal boiler power plants have serious impacts on environment degradation, development of clean coal technologies could be one alternative to meet China's fast growing demand of electricity as well as protect the already fragile environment. A multi-period market equilibrium model is applied and an electricity model of China is established to forecast changes in the electricity system up to 2030s. Three policy instruments: SO₂ emission charge, CO₂ emission charge and implementing subsidies are considered in this research. The results show that all instruments cause a significant shift in China's electricity structure, promote CCTs’ competitiveness and lead China to gain great benefit in both resource saving and environment improvement. Since resource security and environment degradation are becoming primary concerns in China, policies that could help to gain generations’ market share of advanced coal-based technologies such as CCTs’ is suitable for the current situation of China's electricity sector.     

Energy efficiency and renewables policies: Promoting efficiency or facilitating monopsony?

The cliché in the electricity sector, the “cheapest power plant is the one we don’t build,” neglects the benefits of the energy that plant would generate. That economy-wide perspective need not apply in considering benefits to only consumers if not building that plant was the exercise of monopsony power. A regulator maximizing consumer welfare may need to avoid rationing demand at monopsony prices. Subsidizing energy efficiency to reduce electricity demand at the margin can solve that problem, if energy efficiency and electricity use are substitutes. Renewable energy subsidies, percentage use standards, or feed in tariffs may also serve monopsony as well with sufficient inelasticity in fossil fuel electricity supply. We may not observe these effects if the regulator can set price as well as quantity, lacks buyer-side market power, or is legally precluded from denying generators a reasonable return on capital. Nevertheless, the possibility of monopsony remains significant in light of the debate as to whether antitrust enforcement should maximize consumer welfare or total welfare.     

Interactions and implications of renewable and climate change policy on UK energy scenarios

As a response to the twin challenges of climate change mitigation and energy security, the UK government has set a groundbreaking target of reducing the UK’s economy-wide carbon emissions by 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. A second key UK energy policy is to increase the share of final energy consumption from renewables sources to 15% by 2020, as part of the wider EU Renewable Directive. The UK’s principle mechanisms to meet this renewable target are the Renewable Obligation (RO) in the electricity sector, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), and most recently the Renewable Heat Programme (RHP) for buildings. This study quantifies a range of policies, energy pathways, and sectoral trade-offs when combining mid- and long-term UK renewables and CO₂ reduction policies. Stringent renewable policies are the binding constraints through 2020. Furthermore, the interactions between RO, RTFO, and RHP policies drive trade-offs between low carbon electricity, bio-fuels, high efficiency natural gas, and demand reductions as well as resulting 2020 welfare costs. In the longer term, CO₂ reduction constraints drive the costs and characteristics of the UK energy system through 2050.     

Households’ willingness to pay for safeguarding security of natural gas supply in electricity generation

Security of energy supply is a major issue for all EU Member States due to Europe's increasing dependence on imported fossil-fuel sources and the continuous rise in energy demand. The latter is of particular importance in electricity sector given the continuously increasing use of gas for electricity generation. In order to properly tackle with the problem, concerted actions are required by the EU Member States in several levels, i.e. legislative, political, etc. Nevertheless, these actions will come at an additional cost paid by the society either through increased electricity bills or through public financing for energy security investments. Thus, such policies should be justified on the basis of cost-benefit analysis. Towards this direction, it may be necessary to take into account non-market costs and benefits, i.e. the value that consumers place on interruptions avoided. In order to explore households’ perceptions and willingness to pay for securing gas supply for electricity production, an empirical study was conducted by means of the contingent valuation method. The results indicate that consumers are willing to pay a premium on their electricity bills in order to internalize the external costs of electricity production, in terms of energy security, which are caused from imported fuels.     

Assessment of demand for natural gas from the electricity sector in India

Electricity sector is among the key users of natural gas. The sustained electricity deficit and environment policies have added to an already rising demand for gas. This paper tries to understand gas demand in future from electricity sector. This paper models the future demand for gas in India from the electricity sector under alternative scenarios for the period 2005–2025, using bottom-up ANSWER MARKAL model. The scenarios are differentiated by alternate economic growth projections and policies related to coal reforms, infrastructure choices and local environment. The results across scenarios show that gas competes with coal as a base-load option if price difference is below US $ 4 per MBtu. At higher price difference gas penetrates only the peak power market. Gas demand is lower in the high economic growth scenario, since electricity sector is more flexible in substitution of primary energy. Gas demand reduces also in cases when coal supply curve shifts rightwards such as under coal reforms and coal-by-wire scenarios. Local environmental (SO₂ emissions) control promotes end of pipe solutions flue gas de-sulfurisation (FGD) initially, though in the longer term mitigation happens by fuel substitution (coal by gas) and introduction of clean coal technologies integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC).     

Assessing of energy policies based on Turkish agriculture:: current status and some implications

In this study, the current energy status of Turkey and the effects of national energy policies on Turkish agricultural support policies are discussed for both current and future requirements. Turkey is an energy-importing country producing 30 mtoe (million tons of oil equivalent) energy but consuming 80 mtoe. The energy import ratio of Turkey is 65–70% and the majority of this import is based on petroleum and natural gas. Furthermore, while world energy demand increases by 1.8% annually, Turkey’s energy demand increases by about 8%. Although energy consumption in agriculture is much lower than the other sectors in Turkey, energy use as both input and output of agricultural sector is a very important issue due to its large agricultural potential and rural area. Total agricultural land area is 27.8 million hectares and about 66.5% of this area is devoted for cereal production. On the other hand, Turkey has over 4 million agricultural farm holdings of which 70–75% is engaged in cereal production. Machinery expenses, mainly diesel, constitute 30–50% of total variable expenses in cereal production costs. It is observed that energy policies pursued in agriculture have been directly affected by diesel prices in Turkey. Therefore, support policy tools for using diesel and electricity in agriculture are being pursued by the Turkish government.     

A framework for reviewing the trade-offs between, renewable energy, food, feed and wood production at a local level

High fuel prices and concerns about energy security and anthropogenic climate change are encouraging a transition towards a low carbon economy. Although energy policy is typically set at a national level, tools are needed for people to engage with energy policy at regional and local levels, and to guide decisions regarding land use, distributed generation and energy supply and demand. The aim of this paper is to develop a per-capita approach to renewable energy demand and supply within a landscape and to illustrate the key trade-offs between renewable energy, food, (animal) feed and wood production. The chosen case study area (16,000 ha) of Marston Vale, England is anticipated to have a population density midway between that for England and the UK. The daily per capita demand for energy for heat (31 kWh), transport (34 kWh) and electricity (15 kWh) when combined (80 kWh) was seven-fold higher than the combined demand for food (2 kWh), animal feed (6 kWh), and wood (4 kWh). Using described algorithms, the combined potential energy supply from domestic wind and photovoltaic panels, solar heating, ground-source heat, and municipal waste was limited (<10 kWh p⁻¹ d⁻¹). Additional electricity could be generated from landfill gas and commercial wind turbines, but these have temporal implications. Using a geographical information system and the Yield-SAFE tree and crop yield model, the capacity to supply bioethanol, biodiesel, and biomass, food, feed and wood was calculated and illustrated for three land-use scenarios. These scenarios highlight the limits on meeting energy demands for transport (33%) and heat (53%), even if all of the arable and grassland area was planted to a high yielding crop like wheat. The described framework therefore highlights the major constraints faced in meeting current UK energy demands from land-based renewable energy and the stark choices faced by decision makers.     

China's energy-water nexus – assessment of the energy sector's compliance with the “3 Red Lines” industrial water policy

Increasing population and economic growth continue to drive China's demand for energy and water resources. The interaction of these resources is particularly important in China, where water resources are unevenly distributed, with limited availability in coal-rich regions. The “3 Red Lines” water policies were introduced in 2011; one of their aims is to reduce industrial water use, of which the energy sector is a part. This paper analyses current water withdrawals and consumption for all energy processes and assesses the sector's compliance with the industrial water policy under different scenarios, considering potential future policy and technological changes. The results show that future energy plans could conflict with the industrial water policy, but the amount of water used in the energy sector is highly dependant on technology choices, especially for power plant cooling. High electricity demand in the future is expected to be met mainly by coal and nuclear power, and planned inland development of nuclear power presents a new source of freshwater demand. Taking a holistic view of energy and water-for-energy enables the identification of co-benefits and trade-offs between energy and water policies that can facilitate the development of more compatible and sustainable energy and water plans.     

Strategies for a road transport system based on renewable resources – The case of an import-independent Sweden in 2025

When discussing how society can decrease greenhouse gas emissions, the transport sector is often seen as posing one of the most difficult problems. In addition, the transport sector faces problems related to security of supply. The aim of this paper is to present possible strategies for a road transport system based on renewable energy sources and to illustrate how such a system could be designed to avoid dependency on imports, using Sweden as an example. The demand-side strategies considered include measures for decreasing the demand for transport, as well as various technical and non-technical means of improving vehicle fuel economy. On the supply side, biofuels and synthetic fuels produced from renewable electricity are discussed. Calculations are performed to ascertain the possible impact of these measures on the future Swedish road transport sector. The results underline the importance of powerful demand-side measures and show that although biofuels can certainly contribute significantly to an import-independent road transport sector, they are far from enough even in a biomass-rich country like Sweden. Instead, according to this study, fuels based on renewable electricity will have to cover more than half of the road transport sector’s energy demand.     

Red light for Green Paper: The EU policy on energy efficiency

The EU Green Paper on energy efficiency calls for action to decrease energy use and thus achieve increased competitiveness, fulfil the environmental targets and increase security of supply. In this comment, we examine the role the EU Commission suggest that energy efficiency, and policies supporting energy efficiency, takes. The policies and the suggestions are qualitatively elaborated upon in the light of the goal of a common European electricity market. We suggest that the rationales for the energy efficiency measures are weak, and that the suggested goals of increased competitiveness, environmental targets, and security of supply are best reached with the direct measures especially designed for each goal. Some of the energy efficiency measures may counter-act other direct policies. Further, The Green Paper measures may prove detrimental to the European Electricity market insofar as the policies suggested could lead to a policy fatigue among the electricity consumers.     

Global energy security and the implications for the EU

The following article will analyse the global and geopolitical dimensions of the future international energy security and its implications for Europe and the EU-27. In this context, I will discuss to which extent the EU's newly proclaimed “Energy Action Plan” of the EU Spring summit of 2007 and its declared common energy (foreign) policy are a sufficient strategy to cope with the new global and geopolitical challenges. The article concludes the following: (1) The interlinkage between globally designed traditional energy security concepts – that rely just on economic factors and “market-strategies” – and domestic as well as regional political stability demands new thinking with regard to both energy supply security and foreign and security policies. (2) Although after the Russian–Ukrainian gas conflict in January 2006, energy security has forced its way up the European energy and foreign policy agendas, the EU-27 member states have largely failed to forge a coherent European energy security and energy foreign policy strategy after their Spring summit of 2007 because its declared political solidarity has been still lacking. But the 2nd Strategic Energy Review of November 2008 has recommended new initiatives to overcome this lack by promoting concrete infrastructure and other projects for enhancing Europe's supply security and its political solidarity as part of a common energy (foreign) policy. If the EU is able to implement the March 2007 and November 2008 decisions, the EU oil and gas demand will drastically reduce and freeze at current levels. In this case, Putin's energy policies by using Russia's energy resources and pipeline monopolies as a political instrument to enforce its economic and geopolitical interests will be proved as self-defeating in Russia's long-term strategic interests. It will reduce Gazprom's gas exports to a much smaller EU gas market than originally forecasted as the result of a deliberate EU policy of decreasing its overall gas demand and by diversifying its gas imports.     

Assessing the sustainability challenges for electricity industries in ASEAN newly industrialising countries

Rapid social and economic progress in fast developing countries such that among the countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have driven substantial growth in electricity consumption in this region. Whilst this represents significant societal and economic development, it has potentially growing adverse environmental impacts. This raises a concern on sustainable development in the electricity sector in this region. This study evaluates key sustainability challenges in the electricity industries in the five largest energy consumers in ASEAN: Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. The 3A's energy sustainability objectives: Accessibility, Availability and Acceptability are used as the sustainability analytical framework. This study also draws together a set of associated indicators and criteria within the analytical framework to analyse the status of the electricity industries in these countries. The analysis shows that key sustainability challenges in the ASEAN-5 are attributable to satisfying rapid demand growth; enhancing security of electricity supply; and mitigating the increase in CO₂ emissions from electricity generation. Given the promising resource and technical potential in this region, renewable energy emerges as a favourable option to address these challenges; however, increasing the share of renewable energy in electricity generation requires considerable policy support. This study suggests that there is an opportunity for the ASEAN countries to strengthen regional collaborations through experience and resource sharing to enhance sustainability in the electricity industries. This study also highlights some of the key issues facing the electricity industry, and the need for new generation investment decision support tools which can address these issues.     

Liberalising European electricity markets: opportunities and risks for a sustainable power sector

The process of liberalising European electricity markets, encompassing a wide range of restructuring activities, has mainly been spurred by the attempt to increase the economic efficiency of the whole sector. This process might be used to trigger a development towards a sustainable power sector by increasing the use of renewable energy sources and enhancing energy efficiency on the supply and demand side. However, by taking a closer look at the current trends of the European electricity markets, it becomes obvious that the liberalisation not only implies opportunities but also risks for the creation of a sustainable power sector. Many of these risks are due to market distortions and imperfections caused by the delay in creating a fully functional single European market. Thus, in the short-term, the market liberalisation tends to constitute more risks than opportunities without government actions to prevent these risks. In the long run, though, the efficiency gains of the sector and the appearance of new market factors are likely to bring forth the opportunities of liberalisation and actively foster a transformation towards a sustainable electricity sector.     

Energy pricing policies in developing countries

Government energy pricing policies have multiple and often conflicting objectives: economic efficiency, government revenues (for both parastatal supply companies and the treasury), maintenance or improvement of income distribution, promotion of particular sectors (such as industrial exporters and local resource development) demand management and security of supply. It is important to examine the impacts on and the trade-offs between these objectives resulting from alternative policies in order to assist in policy selection. This article discusses the more important objectives and their conflicts and outlines an approach for the quantitative examination of alternative policies.     

Revisiting CO2 mitigation potential and costs in China’s electricity sector

To improve the reliability of sectoral mitigation potential and cost analysis, this paper made an in-depth exploration into China’s electricity sector’s thermal efficiency and inner structure. It is found that unlike what many literatures portray, China is actually among the world’s leaders in coal-fired power plants’ generating efficiencies; besides, although there are still numerous small and inefficient generating units in the current generation fleet, many of them are in fact playing important roles in supporting local economic development, meeting peak load needs, balancing heat and electricity supply and providing job opportunities to the local economy, therefore their existence does not necessarily mean low-cost mitigation potential. Given the efficiency and structural characteristics of China’s electricity sector, it is pointed out that some other mitigation options, such as demand side management, IGCC and renewable energy as well as the break-through of CCS technology may play an even more important role in emission reduction. Considering the significant lock-in effects in electricity sector, it is warned that China, if continues putting majority investment in large and advanced coal-fired generating units, will face another round of chasing-after for the new and advanced renewable generation technologies. Therefore China should put more efforts in renewable generation technologies now.     

Electricity generation development of Eastern Europe: A carbon technology management case study for Poland

Energy and electricity in particular, are of unquestionable value for the welfare of all modern societies. The electricity sectors of Eastern European countries have undergone several phases of development between the post-WWII days within the CEMA and USSR frameworks and today's EU and global energy and environmental regimes. The present paper examines the progress of the Polish electricity sector throughout the last decades, providing useful information regarding not only the technical generation and distribution infrastructure but also the policies that have been and are currently implemented. The results are discussed in the context of indicators such as the electricity intensity and per capita consumption, and show that although the Polish electricity sector has gone a long way, there still are several necessary technology management steps to be taken if Poland is to adequately address the challenges of international competition, electricity supply security and environmental sustainability.     

Price,environment and security: Exploring multi-modal motivation in voluntary residential peak demand response

Peak demand on electricity grids is a growing problem that increases costs and risks to supply security. Residential sector loads often contribute significantly to seasonal and daily peak demand. Demand response projects aim to manage peak demand by applying price signals and automated load shedding technologies. This research investigates voluntary load shedding in response to information about the security of supply, the emission profile and the cost of meeting critical peak demand in the customers’ network. Customer willingness to change behaviour in response to this information was explored through mail-back survey. The diversified demand modelling method was used along with energy audit data to estimate the potential peak load reduction resulting from the voluntary demand response. A case study was conducted in a suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand, where electricity is the main source for water and space heating. On this network, all water heating cylinders have ripple-control technology and about 50% of the households subscribe to differential day/night pricing plan. The survey results show that the sensitivity to supply security is on par with price, with the emission sensitivity being slightly weaker. The modelling results show potential 10% reduction in critical peak load for aggregate voluntary demand response.