Market and Economic Modelling of the Intelligent Grid: End of Year Report 2009

The overall goal of Project 2 has been to provide a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of distributed energy (DG) on the Australian Electricity System. The research team at the UQ Energy Economics and Management Group (EEMG) has constructed a variety of sophisticated models to analyse the various impacts of significant increases in DG. These models stress that the spatial configuration of the grid really matters - this has tended to be neglected in economic discussions of the costs of DG relative to conventional, centralized power generation. The modelling also makes it clear that efficient storage systems will often be critical in solving transient stability problems on the grid as we move to the greater provision of renewable DG. We show that DG can help to defer of transmission investments in certain conditions. The existing grid structure was constructed with different priorities in mind and we show that its replacement can come at a prohibitive cost unless the capability of the local grid to accommodate DG is assessed very carefully.Distributed Generation. Energy Economics, Electricity Markets, Renewable Energy

Applications of Contemporary Management Approaches in Supply Chains

In today's rapidly changing business environment, strong influence of globalization and information technologies drives practitioners and researchers of modern supply chain management, who are interested in applying different contemporary management paradigms and approaches, to supply chain process. This book intends to provide a guide to researchers, graduate students and practitioners by incorporating every aspect of management paradigms into overall supply chain functions such as procurement, warehousing, manufacturing, transportation and disposal. More specifically, this book aims to present recent approaches and ideas including experiences and applications in the field of supply chains, which may give a reference point and useful information for new research and to those allied, affiliated with and peripheral to the field of supply chains and its management

Regulatory strategies for selected Member States (Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, the UK):IMPROGRES project

Research Project supported by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Energy and Transport, under the Energy Intelligent Europe (EIE) programmeThis Work Package 6 report of the IMPROGRES project provides an overview of regulatory strategies and incentives, conducive to (i) network integration of increasing levels of distributed generation including notably intermittent renewable technology such as wind power and solar photovoltaics (PV) as well as (ii) options for reducing impacts on surging network integration costs. Similar to the IMPROGRES project in general, this report focuses on European distribution networks. It includes specific country studies of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. This summary presents the main findings of this report

Development of a multi-energy residential service demand model for evaluation of prosumers’ effects on current and future residential load profiles for heat and electricity

The motivation of this thesis is to develop a multi-energy residential service demand (MESD) model. The approach is based on earlier modelling concepts. Electricity is simu- lated by the help of a first-order Markov-chain approach simulating pseudorandom solar irradiation data as well as occupancy patterns, which are matched to stochastically deter- mined electric appliance activities (McKenna et al., 2015; Richardson & Thomson, 2012). A lumped-parameter model simulating indoor temperatures is utilized to estimate space heating (SH) demand (Nielsen, 2005). Measurement data on domestic hot water (DHW) consumption in dwellings is analysed in order to implement a DHW model. The model generates output in 1-minute resolution. It features various possibilities of dwelling customization: Among others, number of residents, building physics, electric appliances and heating regime may be adjusted. An interface providing a link to the Cambridge Housing Model (DECC, 2012) is implemented, which supports automated re- trieval of relevant building parameters. Electricity and DHW demand values may also be extracted to be used for model calibration. The added value of this work is the implementation of a DHW model and the combination of above named approaches to an integrated multi-energy service demand model. The electricity model is enhanced by improving the calibration mechanism and increasing electric appliance variety. The SH model is extended by random heating regime genera- tion based on field data. The model features full year simulations incorporating seasonal effects on DHW and SH demand. In addition, seven representative archetypes have been developed, which allow for detailed investigation of load profiles for heat and electricity of representative UK dwellings. The model has a wide scope of application. It can be used to explore the impact of differ- ent dwelling configurations on load matching and grid interaction throughout the seasons. Synthetic energy service demand profiles may support research on the optimal configura- tion of on-site supply appliances such as mCHP, PV and heat pumps. Furthermore, the model allows for drawing conclusions on the net carbon emissions of a dwelling and for assessing energy-efficiency measures

Yritysten uusiutuvan energian hankinnan kehittymisestä ja tuntikohtaisten vihreän sähkön sertifikaattimarkkinoiden taloudellisesta mallintamisesta

Sähkö on nopeimmin kasvava lopullinen energiamuoto, ja sen kysynnän odotetaan kasvavan nopeasti tulevina vuosikymmeninä. Markkinoille tarvitaan läpinäkyvämpää ja tarkempaa päästölaskentaa, vihreän siirtymän ja kansallisten hiilidioksidipäästötavoitteiden nopeammaksi saavuttamiseksi. Monet organisaatiot kehittävät parhaillaan strategioita tuntitason hiilineutraaliuuteen, sillä monien yksityisten uusiutuvan energian hankintojen kunnianhimo ylittää olemassa olevan sääntelyn tavoitteet. Yritysten kestävyysjohtamisen korkeat standardit ohjaavat siirtymistä kohti uusiutuvan energian ajallista täsmäytystä tai "24/7-täsmäytystä", mikä voisi myös lisätä uskottavuutta hiilineutraaliusväitteisiin sekä vähentää päästöoikeuksien kaksinkertaista laskemista ja viherpesua. Toistaiseksi sähkön alkuperää on seurattu markkinapohjaisilla vihreillä sertifikaateilla; Euroopassa Guarantees of Origin, jotka mahdollistavat sähkön vuosittaisen tai kuukausittaisen kulutuksen yhdistämisen uusiutuvaan energiaan. Vihreän sähkön osuuden kasvaessa sähköntuotannossa, sähköntuotanto kuitenkin siirtyy aiempaa ajoittaisemmaksi ja vaihtelevammaksi. Kaikilla uusiutuvan energian teknologioilla on omanlaisensa tuotantoprofiilit sekä kausittaiset ja päivänsisäiset vaihtelut. Täten vihreän sähkön kulutus ei aina vastaa sen tuntikohtaista saatavuutta. Lisäksi nykyiset vihreät sertifikaattijärjestelmät eivät heijasta riittävästi uusiutuvan energian oikea-aikaista saatavuutta eivätkä näin ollen edistä investointeja, jotka voisivat tarjota järjestelmän joustavuutta ja vihreän energian ympärivuorokautista saatavuutta. Tämän ongelman ratkaisemiseksi on parhaillaan kehitteillä pilottiversioita vihreän sähkön sertifikaattijärjestelmästä, joka mahdollistaisi sähkön tuotannon ja kulutuksen tuntikohtaisen täsmäytyksen, sillä siirtyminen kohti vihreän energian 24/7-täsmäytystä herättää yhä enemmän kiinnostusta. Ennen uusien instrumenttien ottamista mukaan markkinoille on kuitenkin välttämätöntä selvittää niiden mahdolliset markkinavaikutukset. Tässä tutkielmassa esittelemme tuntisertifikaattimarkkinoiden taloustieteellisen mallin ja vertaamme 24/7-täsmäytyksen volyymi- ja hintavaikutuksia vihreän sähkön sertifikaateilla perinteisiin sertifikaattimarkkinoihin, joissa sähkönkulutusta täsmäytetään uusiutuvan energian kanssa vuosittain. Analysoimme myös, kuinka kuluttajan hyöty tuntikohtaisista vihreistä sertifikaateista vaihtelee eri ajankohtien välillä, kun uusiutuvan energian saatavuus vaihtelee. Havaitsemme, että kuluttajien hyöty tuntikohtaisten sertifikaattien hankinnasta laskee uusiutuvan energian tuotannon kasvaessa. Näin ollen kuluttajan hyöty sertifikaateista on suurin silloin, kun myös korkeapäästöisen energian osuus on korkea. Tuntikohtaiset vihreät sertifikaatit voisivat siis tarjota eniten hyötyä sekä kuluttajille että tuottajille niinä tunteina, jolloin uusiutuvaa energiaa on tarjolla vähemmän. Havaitsemme myös, että tuntikohtainen täsmäytys voisi joko lisätä tai vähentää kuluttajan uusiutuvan energian hankintakustannuksia ja tuottajan tuloja yksittäisten tuntien sisällä verrattuna vuosittaiseen tai kuukausittaiseen täsmäyttämiseen. Näin ollen tuntikohtainen sertifiointi voisi tarjota lisähyötyä teknologioille, joita tarvitaan täydelliseen järjestelmän laajuiseen hiilidioksidipäästöjen nollaamiseen, kuten energian varastointiratkaisuille. Näin ollen tuntikohtaisen sertifikaattijärjestelmän kehittämisessä tulisi keskittyä tämän vaikutuksen korostamiseen, mikä voisi edelleen kannustaa investointeja sähkömarkkinajärjestelmän joustavuuteen. Tarvitaan kuitenkin lisätutkimusta mahdollisten vaikutusten selvittämiseksi erityisesti sähkömarkkina-alueilla, joissa uusiutuvan energian osuus on jo korkea. Lisäksi täytyy vielä selvittää, onko tällaiselle järjestelmälle kysyntää yksityissektorilla ja johtaisiko tuntikohtainen täsmäytys yhteiskunnan kannalta optimaalisesti korkeampiin päästövähennyksiin kuin perinteiset sertifikaattijärjestelmät.Electricity is the fastest-growing final form of energy, and its demand is expected to increase rapidly in the coming decades. More transparent and accurate emission accounting is needed to accelerate green transition and achieve national decarbonization targets. Many organizations are currently developing strategies to reach carbon neutrality on an hourly basis as private renewable energy procurement is outpacing regulatory targets. The high standards of corporate sustainability management are driving the movement towards temporal matching or “24/7 matching” of renewable energy, which could also provide more credibility to net zero claims as well as decrease double-counting and greenwashing. Thus far, electricity has been tracked with tradable green certificates, Guarantees of Origin in Europe, which enable matching electricity consumption on an annual or monthly basis with renewable energy. However, while the share of green power grows in the electricity generation mix, it also comes with problems of intermittent and variable production. All renewable energy technologies have unique resource profiles and seasonal and intra-day fluctuations. Thus, supply from green energy is unlikely to always align with the actual timing of consumption. In addition, the current green certificate systems do not adequately reflect the timely availability of renewable energy and hence do not drive investments that could provide system flexibility and around-the-clock availability of green energy. To address this issue, pilot versions of tradable certification instrument that would enable hourly or sub-hourly tracking of electricity are currently under development as the movement towards 24/7 matching of green energy is gaining more interest. However, before introducing new instruments to the existing markets, it is essential to study the possible market effects. In this thesis, we introduce an economic model for the hourly certificate market and compare the volume and price effects of 24/7 matching with hourly renewable energy certificates with traditional certificate markets, where electricity consumption is matched on an annual basis. We also analyze how the consumer’s utility from hourly green certificates varies between times with more available renewable energy generation and when green power is less abundant. We find that consumers utility from purchasing hourly certificates decreases when the share of renewable energy surges. Accordingly, the consumer’s utility from hourly certificates is the highest when also the share of emitting energy is high. Therefore, hourly green certificates could provide the most benefit to both, consumers, and producers, in hours when renewable energy is less abundant. We also find that hourly matching could either increase or decrease the consumer’s procurement costs and the revenues of the producer within single hours or sub-hours than matching with an annual or monthly goal. Consequently, hourly certification could provide additionality to technologies needed for complete system-wide decarbonization, such as energy storage solutions. Thus, the scheme’s development should focus on accentuating this effect that could further spur investments into system flexibility. However, more research is needed to examine the possible system effects especially in grids with already high renewable energy penetration, whether there is demand for such a system from the residential sector, and whether hourly certificates would lead to higher grid decarbonization than traditional schemes in a socially optimal way

Green Principles, Parametric Analysis, and Optimization for Guiding Environmental and Economic Performance of Grid-scale Energy Storage Systems

The development and deployment of grid-scale energy storage technologies have increased recently and are expected to grow due to technology improvements and supporting policies. While energy storage can help increase the penetration of renewables, reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, and increase the grid sustainability, its integration into the electric grid poses unique sustainability challenges that need to be investigated through systematic sustainability assessment frameworks. The main objective of this dissertation is to develop principles and models to assess the environmental and economic impacts of grid-scale energy storage and guide its development and deployment. The first study of this dissertation is an initial case study of energy storage to examine the role of cost-effective energy storage in supporting high penetration of wind energy and achieving emissions targets in an off-grid configuration. In this study, the micro-grid system includes wind energy integrated with vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) as energy storage, and natural gas engine. Life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and total cost of delivered electricity are evaluated and generation mixes are optimized to meet emissions targets at the minimum cost. The results demonstrate that while incorporating energy storage consistently reduces life cycle GHG emissions in the system by integrating more wind energy, its integration is cost-effective only under very ambitious emission targets. The insights from this case study and additional literature review led to the development of a set of twelve principles for green energy storage, presented in the second study. These principles are applicable to the wide range of energy storage technologies and grid applications, and are developed to guide the design, maintenance, and operation of energy storage systems for grid applications. The robustness of principles was tested through a comprehensive literature review and also through in-depth quantitative analyses of the VRFB off-grid system. An in-depth parametric analysis is developed in the third study to evaluate the impacts of six key parameters (e.g. energy storage service-life) that influence the environmental performance of six energy storage technologies within three specific grid applications (including time-shifting, frequency regulation, and power reliability). This study reveals that round-trip efficiency and heat rate of charging and displaced generation technologies are dominant parameters in time-shifting and regulation applications, whereas energy storage service life and production burden dominate in power reliability. Finally, an optimization model is developed in the fourth study to examine the real-world application of energy storage in bulk energy time-shifting in California grid under varying renewable penetration levels. The objective was to find the optimal operation and size of energy storage in order to minimize the system total costs (including monetized GHG emissions), while meeting the electricity load and systems constraints. Simulations were run to investigate how the operation of nine distinct storage technologies impacted system cost, given each technology’s characteristics. The results show that increasing the renewable capacity and the emissions tax would make it more cost-effective for energy storage deployment. Among storage technologies, pumped-hydro and compressed-air energy storage with lower capital costs, are deployed in more scenarios. Overall, this research demonstrates how sustainability performance is influenced by storage technology characteristics and the electric grid conditions. The systematic principles, model equations, and optimizations developed in this dissertation provide specific guidance to industry stakeholders on design and deployment choices. The targeted audience ranges from energy storage designers and manufacturers to electric power utilities.PHDNatural Resources & EnvironmentUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/143942/1/marbab_1.pd

Gender and the Green Economy

The Green Economy is supposed to be sustainable but is it? Being sustainable would entail being equitable. Feminist scholarship shows that the mainstream economy is thoroughly organized by gender, is inequitable, and facilitated by the marginalization of reproductive labor or care work. Ecofeminist theory broadens feminist analysis by situating human social relations in the broader context of our relationship with the environment. In this dissertation I begin from the standpoint of women to explore the degree to which gender inequality is organizing the green economy in the U.S. I argue that a key mechanism reproducing gender inequality is the privileging of green jobs in industries dominated by men and the marginalization and devaluation of environmental care work. I do this by analyzing the organization of the green labor market in the US and through observing the organization and implementation of a program to foster green economic development in an urban area in the Midwest. Understanding the gendered nature of the green economy is important for advancing knowledge about gender segregation and integration of labor markets, gender equality in employment, and gendered opportunities in growing green sector of the economy. This research contributes to scholarship on gender and work, the green economy, ecofeminism, and care work

The Future of Swiss Hydropower A Review on Drivers and Uncertainties

Swiss Hydropower (HP) is currently facing a wide range of challenges that have initiated a debate about future prospects and its role within the envisioned energy transition. Building on this debate, this paper provides an overview of the status and prospects of Swiss HP by identifying and evaluating the different drivers and uncertainties that Swiss HP faces. Based on a review and the perceptions held by some of the main Swiss HP stakeholders the two main topics that need to be addressed are the market driven impacts and the political, legal and social aspects. While the market dynamics cannot directly be influenced by Swiss companies or authorities, the regulatory framework can and needs to be adjusted. However, this requires a comprehensive stakeholder process and is at least a medium-term process