An assessment of energy storage requirements in the strategic Indian electricity sector

In order to achieve improved power quality and grid reliability, the Indian electricity sector will requires a cumulative energy storage capacity of 270?GW by 2047, at a cumulative capital outlay of US$ 200 billion in pumped hydro storage and US$ 120 billion in electrochemical-based systems.     

Optimization of Lebanon's power generation scenarios to meet the electricity demand by 2030

Presently, Lebanon provides 95 % of the primary energy electricity power generation by using fuel-oil used in thermal power plants. To meet the population needs, private generators are also used in all the country and they represent the third of total electricity production. The challenges over the future development of the Lebanese electric sector are economic and environmental. This is why currently, the energy policy makers aim to diversify the national electricity generation mix in the energy planning strategy and to introduce low-carbon technologies. The complexity of these challenges in the particular Lebanese context has motivated our study which aims to recommend policies to develop the optimal electricity generation scenario by 2030. This paper presents a methodology to evaluate different scenarios reflecting different combinations of technologies by 2030. This is achieved by using an excel tool “Excel Solver Optimization Calculator” which makes possible the interaction of various inputs to produce a least-cost generation mix. The main results focus on the least-cost electricity generation portfolio, total investment required to generate electricity, level of energy independence and carbon emissions. Many policy choices could be feasible and very advantageous for Lebanon if renewable energies are deployed massively. However, this requires policies that support the massive use of renewable energy technologies in the mix.     

Analysis of the effect of voltage level requirements on an electricity market equilibrium model

This paper presents a conjectural-variation-based equilibrium model of a single-price electricity market. The main characteristic of the model is that the market equilibrium equations incorporate the effect of the voltage constraints on the companies’ strategic behavior. A two-stage optimization model is used to solve the market equilibrium. In the first stage, an equivalent optimization problem is used to compute the day-ahead market clearing process. In the second stage, some generation units have to modify their active and reactive power in order to meet the technical constraints of the transmission network. These generation changes are determined by computing an AC optimal power flow.     

The death and life of retail electricity

While electricity restructuring held the promise, inter alia, of customer choice but has not delivered, the coming return of Edison’s system, based on local generation and DC distribution, does open up opportunities for genuine choice. The current regulatory model does not represent an adequate framework for the new challenges. We propose that distributors be empowered to offer a menu of choices from which consumers can choose, including the upfront sharing of capital costs. Those who desire greater security or better power quality would have the choice to pay for these enhanced levels of service     

The democratization of electricity in Nigeria

Nigeria’s aspiration towards universal access to electricity has been hindered by a centralized and closed grid system. The country took steps in the right direction by recently unbundling and privatizing the state-owned electric power utility and introducing a renewable energy feed-in tariff and mini-grid regulations. The author advocates a full-scale democratization of the electricity sector to empower local communities and small, stand-alone producers to participate in solving the electricity crisis.     

中国电池进出口现状与展望(英)

1 The Status of Battery Production in China China's battery industry is boasting of the largest quantity of battery production and its structure of battery varieties is rapidly developed toward the rationlization. Currently the dominant products are     

The future of electricity generation in Australia: A case study of New South Wales

The Australian electricity industry has found itself the subject of an intense political debate. At the center is the role of coal-fired generation. The most economic form of new generation technology in Australia is wind on a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) basis. However, new wind generation must be ‘firmed’ to address variability in output. The analysis in this article finds the optimal plant mix will need to be increasingly ‘flexible’ to complement variable renewables.     

The effects of cross-border electricity trade on power production from different energy sources

In this study, we provide empirical evidence to emphasize the crucial role of cross-border electricity trade for decreasing the use of fossil fuels in power industries and attaining higher electricity supply from solar and wind energy sources. We collected data for 48 countries across three continents (Americas, Europe and Asia) from 1991 to 2018 to create a world sample that would reflect the diversity of various energy mixes in different electricity markets. We showed the existence of long-term relationships between power production from natural gas, solar, wind and the level of cross-border electricity trade. Later on, we conducted panel data analyses that utilize the fixed-effect approach with interactive variables. The empirical evidence reveals that when electricity production from solar and wind energy sources interacts with cross-border electricity trade, the rate of power production from natural gas decreases statistically significantly. Furthermore, we created efficiency indices for solar and wind energy sources and to provide evidence for the increased utilization of solar and wind electricity production in the presence of cross-border electricity trade. The resulting empirical evidence reveals that for countries with positive economic growth, a rise in the levels of cross-border electricity trade leads to more efficient electricity production from solar and wind energy sources.     

Going viral: The impacts of covid19 on retail electricity

The response of governments to the covid19 health crisis has highlighted the key points of our earlier article. The covid19 crisis has made it clear that: secure electricity is vital to the modern World; and, the loss of business and commercial load during the crisis dramatizes the need to unbundle remuneration from load. The electricity sector is undergoing an epochal transformation from the Bulk Grid (BG) to the Distributed Generation and Storage (DGS) model in which the role of distributors will change. We suggest pilot projects that will help regulators to understand the needs of systems that emphasize the tiered values of reliable consumer services and new ways of paying for them.     

The effect of wind generation and weekday on Spanish electricity spot price forecasting

This paper empirically compares the predictive accuracy of a set of methods for day-ahead spot price forecasting in the Spanish electricity market. The methods come from time series analysis and artificial intelligence disciplines, and include univariate, multivariate, linear and nonlinear. Within the univariate methods, the double seasonal ARIMA and the recently proposed exponential smoothing for double seasonality are compared and used as benchmarks. They allow us to quantify the improvement on price forecasting when including explanatory variables or using more complex models. Dynamic regression models including the electricity load forecast are then considered. Their good performance in price forecasting has been pointed out by many authors. However, we find evidences of their predictive accuracy can be significantly outperformed by accounting the wind generation forecast provided by the System Operator. Moreover, these forecasts can be even more accurate if changes of price's behavior according with the day of the week are taken into account by means of periodic models. The last of the tested methods are feed-forward neural networks used as multivariate nonlinear regression methods with universal function approximation capabilities. The influence of the wind generation forecast on price prediction is also proved with this approach. Detailed out-of-sample results of the tested methods are given.     

Causal relationships among electricity consumption,foreign direct investment and economic growth in India

An empirical analysis of the causal relationship among gross domestic product, foreign direct investment and electricity consumption in India suggests that consumption plays a vital role in GDP and high GDP attracts more FDI into India.     

Portfolio optimization of electricity generating resources in Kenya

Affordable and reliable electricity is a development priority, but many people in low-income countries continue to live without it. The main challenge to ensuring universal access to electricity is the energy trilemma: striking a balance between costs, security, and environmental sustainability. Kenya is one of the countries that face energy trilemma as the electricity demand expands. We use modern portfolio theory (MPT) from the finance sector to address this challenge by deriving a theoretical efficient frontier for electricity generation in Kenya. The study finds that although the current portfolio of electricity generation in Kenya is not optimal, it is possible to shift to an efficient portfolio that has lower costs, is diversified, and environmentally sustainable. We conclude that MPT addresses the energy trilemma and therefore, it can help in the planning of electricity generation in countries whose electricity sectors are still developing. Our study adds to the literature about the applicability of MPT in the electricity sector and proposes ways for Kenya to improve the electricity-generating portfolio. We anticipate that the results will encourage electricity sector planners to consider portfolio planning for electricity generation.     

Demand in the dark: Estimating the true scale of unmet electricity demand in Sub-Saharan Africa

Understanding the scale of energy poverty remains elusive. It is, however, a key metric in the global effort to eradicate poverty. The analysis presented in this paper provides insights into the true scale and impacts of unreliable electricity service provision. The paper introduces a simple and novel approach to quantifying the difference between electricity supply and demand, accounting for both met and unmet demand in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). To assess unmet demand, generator use, reduced utilization due to unreliable electricity service, unrealized demand from unelectrified households, and the effect of tariff reductions are considered. We find that at 2018 prices, SSA (excluding South Africa) on-grid power networks had annual unmet demand of 8.83 TWh for on-grid users and 42.9 TWh with the inclusion of the off-grid sector. With a 50% reduction in tariff by country, the on-grid power sector would face a 21.46 TWh of unmet demand in the region, rising to 55.53 TWh with the inclusion of off-grid.     

An approach to calibrate incentives for continuity of supply in the Spanish electricity distribution system

This paper proposes an approach to calibrate incentives for continuity of supply in electricity distribution in Spain. This approach consists on the estimation of the impact of continuity of supply improvements on distribution network costs. For this purpose, distribution costs resulting from different continuity of supply requirements are computed by a reference network model (RNM). The results obtained from the RNM are used to estimate a cost-function that considers continuity of supply a cost driver for distribution costs. This methodology is applied to three Spanish areas of service (an urban one, a semi-urban one and a rural one) in such a way that differences in distribution costs caused by the characteristics of the area type can be taken into account. The analysis indicated that distribution costs are more sensitive to continuity of supply improvements in rural areas of service. It also demonstrated that the incentive for reducing number of service interruptions should be higher than the incentive for reducing duration of service interruptions. Finally, the current Spanish incentive scheme for continuity of supply was analyzed under the perspective of the proposed approach.     

Classifying the variation in estimates of electricity consumption due to vehicle electrification

Electrification of light-duty vehicles (LDVs) is one means of reducing transportation-sector CO₂ emissions. A broad range of incremental electric consumption requirements is found in prior studies. We propose that there is value in classifying the variance in estimated increases in electricity consumption into two distinct sources: modeling decisions (choices) and forecasts (uncertainties). We show that the addition of probabilistic uncertainty reveals a level of complexity that should inform the design of policy.     

Stationarity of electricity series in MENA countries

This paper investigates the stationary properties of electric power consumption in 18 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by using yearly data over the period 1971–2013. After having controlled for the presence of cross-section dependence, the ‘second generation’ panel unit root tests reveal mixed results. In fact, the conclusions depend on the choice of the deterministic component (constant vs. constant and trend).     

Power supply to electric vehicle charging stations in India:Justification of a framework for a dynamic and adaptive electricity tariff policy

Given the steady growth in the use of electric vehicles in India, and the need to locate charging stations in various places to fulfill the corresponding demand, this paper focuses on an applicable Electricity Tariff Policy Framework in the context of power supply to Electric Vehicle Charging Stations(EVCSs). The framework is conceptualized by a theoretical foundation, an operational/functional foundation, and a transactional foundation. The theoretical foundation incorporates justice risk across the Energy Lifecycle stages by classifying the relevant international, regional, and national issues within the legal layers of Energy Law while examining the core ideas of the 'Energy Trilemma'. The paper identifies two basic dimensions, (a) the target sets of end-users, and (b) EVCSs settings and the applicable tariff schemes, as the foundation of the framework. The operational/functional foundation consists of techno-economic and social criteria, and the transactional foundation involves the consideration of different target sets of end-users. The proposed framework will benefit policymakers in general and those, especially in India. Adaptation and use of the framework in other countries should consider their basic economic, geographic and political structures.     

The implication of the European inter-TSO compensation mechanism for cross-border electricity transmission investments

An efficient cross-border investment and well-designed markets and regulatory instruments are crucial prerequisites to the creation of a fully functional European internal electricity market. One of the prominent regulatory measures taken to speed up the creation of the internal market was to abolish tariff pancaking by replacing cross-border tariffs with an Inter-Transmission System Operators Compensation (ITC) mechanism through which transmission system operators (TSOs) can compensate each other. In this study, the implication of introducing such mechanism on the cross-border investment outcome is explored. The results indicate that the current ITC mechanism is loosely linked to the cross-border investment decisions of TSOs. In addition, the study concludes that factors such as the ITC fund size and the number of participating TSOs can influence the investment outcome.     

Relation between electricity consumption and economic growth in Karnataka,India: An aggregate and sector-wise analysis

Karnataka is a highly progressive and rapidly growing state in India, with huge potential for industrial growth, however, it grapples with power deficits and other problems in electricity sector, which make it a good case study for Indian electricity sector. Given the importance of electricity in the urbanisation and growth process, the paper analyses the electricity consumption trend in Karnataka, examine its causality with economic growth at aggregate and sectoral levels using Granger causality test, and forecast the future electricity consumption applying Holt-Winters smoothening (no seasonality) technique. The general trend reflects higher consumption by the agricultural consumers, compared to the revenue-generating 'Industries' and 'Commercial' categories, mainly due to the policy of de-metering and providing 'free' power to agricultural consumers since late 1980s. The Granger causality tests reveal that there is no causality relation (neutrality hypothesis) between electricity consumption and economic growth in Karnataka, for total, agricultural and industrial consumption. This basically stems from the inaccurate measurements of agricultural consumption, higher dependence on captive generation, and poor quality grid supply. Finally, electricity consumption is predicted to be around 69,347 GW h by 2019−20. Future policies should focus on universal metering, reducing cross-subsidization, supplying good quality and reliable power to all sectors, and economical planning of resource-mix to achieve adequate, productive and efficient electricity consumption.     

Investigating the effect of competitiveness power in estimating the average weighted price in electricity market

This paper aims at evaluating the impact of power extent on price in the electricity market. The competitiveness extent of electricity market during specific times in a day is considered to achieve this. Then, the effect of competitiveness extent on forecasting preciseness of daily power price is assessed. A price forecasting model based on multi-layer perception via back propagation with the Levenberg-Marquardt mechanism is used. Residual Supply Index (RSI) and other variables that affect prices are used as inputs to the model to evaluate market competitiveness. Results show that using market power indices as an input helps to increase forecasting accuracy. Thus, the competitiveness extent of market power in different daily time periods is a notable variable in price formation. Moreover, market players cannot ignore the explanatory power of market power in price forecasting. In this research, real data of electricity market from 2013 is used and the main source of data is the Grid Management Company in Iran.