Energy transition in the Austrian Climate and Energy model regions: a multi-risk participatory governance perspective on regional resilience

The Austrian Climate and Energy (CEM) model regions are facing energy transition towards a greater share of renewable energy sources in the final electricity mix. To guarantee the resilience of the CEM socio-economic and regional systems, an integrated approach towards electricity generation and transmission is necessary. The changing architecture of electricity generation is causing new challenges to the transmission grids to adapt. The cascading risks of existing and emerging risks for electricity transmission grids can lead to power outages and even blackouts. This paper argues about the need of a multi-risk approach towards risk assessment and risk governance for resilience of CEM regional electricity systems. It also discusses a multi-risk governance perspective as a tool to strengthen resilience of urban socio-economic systems against electricity blackouts. Based on extensive dialogue with stakeholders from the CEM regions over the last two years the paper develops recommendations for inclusive and participatory risk governance process. The data collection included contributions of stakeholders from public and private sector, as well as academia and civil society. The analysis of data was done in light of possible stakeholders and public engagement into decision-making processes on risk mitigation measures and strengthening of electricity infrastructure of the CEM regions in Austria for resilience in the process of energy transition

Impacts Of Geophysical Hazards On Critical Infrastructure: Case Study Of Electricity Transmission Networks

Geophysical hazards such as earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and storms affect electricity transmission infrastructure by destroying its elements including grids, masts, interconnectors and other elements of the electricity transmission system. Extreme temperatures also have negative impacts on transmission capacities of electricity networks. This paper discusses historical evidence of impacts of geophysical hazards and how they lead to major blackouts, which took place during the last decades in France, in the Balkans region and in China. In 1999 France experienced the storms Lothar and Martin, which had the wind speed of 200 km/h and had severe impacts on electricity transmission infrastructure. For instance 0.5% of the total number of towers were affected, 10% of circuits and 180 substations were out of order (Eurelectric, 2006). In the middle of 2015 the heavy rainfall resulted in extensive flooding in the Balkan region, which affected Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as Croatia. This was a real multi-risk event, which was followed by landslides, which damaged overhead lines and underground infrastructure as well as transformer stations, customer connections and metering equipment. This resulted in an interruption of power supply, which affected more than 250,000 customers. The Wenchuan earthquake, which happened in May 2008, was one of the most devastating earthquakes in the history of China for the last 60 years. It had the magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale and severely damaged regional infrastructure, including electricity systems, such as regional high voltage power transmission lines and distribution lines. The earthquake damaged three 500 kV electricity transmission lines, fifty six 220 kV transmission lines, one hundred and ten 35 kV lines and seven hundred ninety five 10kV lines. The lines tripped mainly because of the broken poles, fallen pylons and damages to transformers and circuit breakers (Eidinger, 2009). The destruction of electricity transmission infrastructure resulted in a blackout, which affected 2.5 million people. Based on the analysis of the reports about these blackouts, lessons learned as well as elicitations from stakeholders from different sectors such as transmission systems operations, NGOs, academia and international organizations, this paper provides recommendations on risk management and short and medium term response and recovery measures. References 1. Eidinger, J. (2009). Wenchuan earthquake impact to power systems. In Proceedings of the 2009 technical council on lifeline earthquake engineering (TCLEE) conference: lifeline earthquake engineering in a multihazard environment, Oakland, June. 2. Eurelectric, (2006). Impacts of Severe Storms on Electric Grids. Union of the Electricity Industry – Eurelectric

BESTGRID best practices background document: Evidence of five guiding principles in Infrastructure projects

Based on existing practices and experience, BESTGRID foresees the development of action plans individually tailored to the needs of TSOs. Using the review of historical cases of infrastructure projects in different areas, IIASA will provide advice on actions dealing with the five guiding principles need, transparency, engagement, environment and benefit. This deliverable contains a review of actions which lead to success by dealing with public awareness and acceptance issues in infrastructure projects that before their realization, faced public opposition. Successful experiences from other projects, outside (the realm) of transmission infrastructure, will also provide creative ideas on new and additional actions that could be implemented within the frame of pilot projects

Renewables 2012 Global Status Report

Renewable energy markets and policy frameworks have evolved rapidly in recent years. This report provides a comprehensive and timely overview of renewable energy market, industry, investment, and policy developments worldwide. It relies on the most recent data available, provided by a network of more than 400 contributors and researchers from around the world, all of which is brought together by a multi-disciplinary authoring team. The report covers recent developments, current status, and key trends; by design, it does not provide analysis or forecast the future. As such, this report and subsequent editions will serve as a benchmark for measuring global progress in the deployment of renewable energy, which is of particular interest in this International Year of Sustainable Energy for All. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has marked the occasion with a new global initiative, Sustainable Energy for All, which seeks to mobilise global action on three interlinked objectives to be achieved by 2030: universal access to modern energy services, improved rates of energy efficiency, and expanded use of renewable energy sources

Public protests against deployment of electricity transmission infrastructure in Europe: what are successful actions to deal with issues of public acceptance? Evaluation of best practices application, with revisions protocol and action plans

The goal of this work is to identify how successful actions implemented of transmission systems operators in cooperation with non-governmental organizations and academia to address public concerns about the deployment of electricity transmission infrastructure in four pilot projects. This publication includes three sets of results: 1) evaluation of stakeholder concerns according to guiding principles and the group of stakeholders, 2) evaluation of separate actions, 3) to address these concerns and evaluation of BESTGRID as an entire process to address stakeholders concerns

Impacts of Energy Transition in Iran on Vulnerability of Infrastructure to Natural Hazards

Energy, as a fundamental component of modern society and life, has a direct impact on each human activity and plays a critical role in socio-economic development. Indeed, energy is deeply embedded in each component of mankind development: economic, social and environmental ones. Energy is a crucial element for functioning of modern society and any break down in the energy sector, which affects energy supply, has negative impacts on all other economic sectors and spheres of human activity. Iran is an energy superpower, which has the fourth largest oil reserves and the second largest natural gas reserves in the world. Energy consumption in Iran is significantly higher than international standards and continues to grow. Iran has the third highest level of consumption of natural gas in the world and its domestic consumption is projected to grow by making Iran the largest natural gas consumer in the world. Despite abundance of fossil fuels, Iran is considering deployment of renewable energies sources and these plans are driving energy transition in the country

De-risking investment into concentrated solar power in North Africa: Impacts on the costs of electricity generation

A low-carbon energy transition on the basis of renewable energy sources (RES) is of crucial importance to solve the interlinked global challenges of climate change and energy security. However, large-scale deployment of RES requires substantial investments, including the participation of private capital. Scientific evidence shows that the economic feasibility of a RES project hinges on the availability of affordable project financing, which itself depends on risk perceptions by private investors. Since financing costs tend to be particularly high for capital-intensive RES projects and in developing countries, we investigate the impacts of addressing these perceived risks on electricity prices from semi-dispatchable concentrated solar power (CSP) in four North African countries. By employing a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) model we find that comprehensively de-risking CSP investments leads to a 39% reduction in the mean LCOE from CSP. However, this reduction is still not sufficient to achieve economic competitiveness of CSP with highly subsidized conventional electricity from fossil fuels in North Africa. Hence, our results suggest that de-risking reflects an important strategy to foster the deployment of CSP in North Africa but additional measures to support RES, such as reconsidering fossil fuel subsidies, will be needed

Impacts of Risk Perceptions on Foreign Direct Investment in Energy Generation and Transmission Projects in Russia

This paper deals with an issue relevant for Russia’s energy policy, namely, the need to attract private investment, including foreign direct investment, in renovation and upgrading of energy infrastructure. Based on the survey that involved private investors from several countries, the paper addresses the question of how investors perceive private investment risks existing in Russia. Further, the conclusions are made about how these perceptions might affect private investment in energy systems projects in Russia. The results demonstrate that improvements in policy and institutional frameworks are needed in order to attract private investment, especially, in such projects with medium and long-term planning horizon and return of investment as deployment and upgrading of energy generation and transmission infrastructure in Russia