Saving gas through cross-border renewable and nuclear electricity generation

The latest estimate of the United State Energy Information Administration (US-EIA) shows that Nigeria is the largest producer of oil in Africa with largest natural gas reserves on the continent and the fifth–largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the World. In 2017, Nigeria's generation capacity was 12,664 megawatts (MW), with 10,522 MW representing 83% from fossil fuels, 2,110 MW representing 17% from hydropower, and 32 MW accounting for 1% coming from solar, wind, biomass, and other sources. The fossil power plants constitutes the major driver in greenhouse gas emission, therefore reduction in its operation will reduce the rate of carbon emission. To achieve carbon neutrality in line with the Paris agreement of 2015, the need for nuclear and other low carbon emission renewable electricity generation technologies is vital. This study utilizes the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Model for Energy Supply Strategy Alternatives and their General Environmental Impact (MESSAGE) code in modelling energy supply needs for Nigeria using various electricity generation technologies. By placing the upper limit on carbon emission constraints, discount rate of 11.5% and other electricity generation data obtained from EIA. Using the modelling period of forty-five (45) years with a base year of 2015 the results shows that the contribution of fossil is bound below the upper limit while that of hydro continue to increase from 2016 to the end of the modelling year. Contribution from nuclear power plant starts from 2029, and continue to increase throughout the modeling period which suppressing contribution from fossil below the upper limit of CO2, The negligible contribution from solar and wind been suppressed by nuclear and hydro power plants. The results shows that nuclear and other low carbon energy technologies are the preeminent alternative for future electricity production in achieving carbon neutrality target.

Effects of California's Climate Policy in Facilitating CCUS

Real-Time Pricing in the Nordic Power markets

With the cost of renewable electricity generation like solar and wind decreasing, the share of total generation provided by such sources is growing. This leads to questions of how utilities should deal with integrating renewables into the grid. An interesting and not commonly studied case of this is when firms consume significant amounts of electricity in order to serve their customers (e.g., electric vehicle charging stations) and can get it either from the grid or through renewable generation they install themselves. Furthermore, if they have more renewable generation than needed to serve their customers they can sell it back to the grid. Therefore, the cost of electricity and value of excess generation affects firm’s interest in renewable generation, and has impacts on both the grid (by affecting how much renewable generation firms will provide) as well as the downstream market (by affecting the cost structure at both firms and how they compete).We study this though a two stage oligopolistic model. In the first stage, two differentiated firms choose a level of investment in renewable generation. In the second stage, they compete over prices to serve customers. We show equilibria always exist, and the difference between price of electricity and the feed-in tariff has potentially large implications for the number and type of equilibria as well as aggregate outcomes.

A simulation and optimisation study: Towards a decentralised microgrid, using real world fluctuation data

This study presents a novel method for robust transmission network expansion planning (RTNEP) considering intermittent renewable energy generation and loads. The investment cost of transmission line and operating cost are considered as the objective function of the planning. This study proposes to select the suitable scenarios to make the robust expansion plan for all possible scenarios based on intermittent renewable energy generation and loads data in a year. Meta‐heuristic algorithm called adaptive tabu search (ATS) is employed in the proposed RTNEP. ATS iterates between the main problem, which minimises the investment cost and operation cost and the subproblem, which minimises the total power generation of conventional generators and curtailments of renewable energy generation and loads. This study uses AC load flow based on Newton–Raphson method and non‐linear programming (NLP) based on interior point method for solving the main problem and the subproblem, respectively. IEEE Reliability Test System 79 (RTS 79) is used for testing the proposed method. The results show that the proposed expansion plan is more robust than the solutions from other research works.

Our company has been selling the peak-cut & shift type ice storage packaged air conditioner on sale since 1994. Since this system can largely reduce the power consumption without running the compressor during the power peak demand hours, the system is the most suitable for the buildings, factories where the demand control is of concern.The system features are the following : 1. Power consumption cut ratio of 90% or more during the peak demand hoursAt the peak hours, the compressor is stopped, the operation mode is switched to the refrigerant pump mode of the low power consumption (one tenth of that of the compressor power), and the cooling is carried out only by the thermal radiation of the ice accumulated by the electric power at nighttime.2. 20% cut power consumption except during the peak demand hoursThough the compressor is running, the thermal radiation of the ice accumulated by the electric power during nighttime increases the supercool in order to achieve the economical operation. Thus. even the outdoor unit equivalent to the 10-horsepower class can achieve the capacity of the 13-horsepower class, and this can cut the power consumption by 20%.3. The ice packing factor is as high as 70%, and the ice storage unit is compact.In the general use office building, the power consumption is compared between the ordinary package type air conditioner and the ice storage type air conditioner, The test is carried out on two systems of the 10-horsepower class at the same floor : The power consumption and its utility cost of May thru October are compared. As the result, the utility cost of the ice storage system is about two thirds of that of the standard multipurpose building type, total savings is about 166, 000 yen. As shown by the result, the peak-cut & shift type package air conditioner of our company will be the most attractive method to smoothen the electric load. As a manufacturer, our company will try to improve the performance and reduce the cost.

A survey-based electricity demand profiling method for developing countries: The case of urban households in Bangladesh

Optimal energy transition with variable and intermittent renewable electricity generation

In this paper the German congestion management regime is analyzed and future congestion management costs are assessed given a higher share of intermittent renewable generation. In this context, cost-based re-dispatching of power plants and technical flexibility through topology optimization are considered as market-based and technical congestion management methods. To replicate the current market regime in Germany a two-step procedure is chosen consisting of a transactional spot market model and a congestion management model. This uniform pricing model is compared to a nodal pricing regime. The results show that currently congestion can mainly be managed by re-dispatching power plants and optimizing the network topology. However, congestion management costs tend to increase significantly in future years if the developments of transmission as well as generation infrastructure diverge. It is concluded that there is a need for improving the current congestion management regime to achieve an efficient longterm development of the German electricity system.

Current electric power systems are experiencing a steady growth in renewable electricity generation and in energy consumption from electric vehicles (EV), involving a number of impacts on the system that increase with the penetration level and the system weakness. As conventional synchronous generation is being displaced by renewable generators, they must take their share in the ancillary services provision and supplementary equipment has to be installed, with its associated cost. This chapter describes how EVs, already connected to the grid with appropriate electronic converters and controls, can be used for contributing to the provision of frequency and voltage control, thus avoiding additional investment in supplementary equipment. The chapter also presents innovative approaches for both ancillary services, based on previous developments in electricity generation from wind and wave energies.

ABSTRACTThe interest in energy storage systems is increasing, since it provides an excellent solution to store the low-cost excess energy from the energy sources, which are available at peak demand hours. This paper presents a new compressed-air storage system that combines ambient air and hydraulic oil, in order to store energy in compressed-air form and benefit from the advantages of both pneumatic and hydraulic systems. The process consists of charging and discharging cycles, however, this paper investigates the discharging cycle, where a new technique of Small-Scale Compressed Air Energy Storage (SS-CAES) system is realised. The new idea in RC-CAHES is to obtain higher efficiency in energy conversion machines during charging and discharging processes with numerous advantages over conventional types of energy storage systems. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of this technique by proving that it has higher efficiency than a similar Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) systems.

A demand response based solution for LMP management in power markets

In India one of every three rural households depends on kerosene based lighting systems that are characterized by low illumination and hazardous smoke. Given the existing and foreseeable gap between demand and supply, universal modern energy access can only be achieved in the short to medium term through a combination of grid and off-grid approaches. The paper presents a case study of solar photovoltaic based micro-grids (generating 75 W–1 kW) used to meet basic lighting requirements of 30 rural communities during peak demand hours (6–10 pm). The communities have adopted micro-level solar-based off-grid systems, which are owned and managed by local entrepreneurs with a 45% equity stake. Case study analysis of this project, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India shows that: 1. Grid-connected (and even unconnected) rural communities without assured lighting offer a latent market for decentralized alternatives. 2. Access to finance networks at the local level facilitates private investments in off-grid solutions. 3. Technology innovation and customization is necessary for customer satisfaction and management efficiency. 4. Affordable off-grid solutions based on solar energy can be an economically viable and socially acceptable alternative to fossil fuel systems. Analysis of the project output concludes that decentralized solutions and private investments can play a major role not only in providing universal modern energy access but also in enhancing livelihood options at the village level.

In this paper, a practical methodological framework is proposed for the optimal planning of an isolated rural microgrid considering distributed energy resources (DERs) such as photovoltaic systems (PV), run-of-river micro-hydro (MH) systems, battery energy storage systems (BESS) to supply energy to isolated rural microgrids. The methodology considers the formulation of a stochastic optimization problem (SOP) that requires a previous evaluation of the renewable energy sources available in the area and the demand load profile of the community. In addition, to estimate the daily demand load curve of the rural community, the household classifier based on a Self-Organizing Map (SOM) method is used, that provides demand patterns by the use of the socio-economic characteristics of the community obtained in a survey. The methodology is applied in a community located on the banks of the Aguarico river. Three scenarios are evaluated, in which scenario I and II, only renewable energy sources are considered, scenario II is modelled including a budget constraint, that is not included in scenario I, and scenario III incorporates the implementation of gas generator set (GGS) unit in order to obtain a technical and economical viable solution, based on the renewable energy sources assessment. The results showed that a microgrid based only on renewable energy sources available in the community was not feasible because it leads to prohibitive costs. Therefore, a GGS unit was required to supply energy during the peak demand hours in the months where the hydro sources are not available, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.KeywordsDistributed energy resourcesIsolated rural microgridsLoad profile generatorOptimal planningStochastic optimization