By HDK / Published on Wed, 2010-02-03 19:01
Over the next few weeks, we will conclude the prediction group on low carbon electricity systems. There are 25 questions on the group which await your input.
As an appreciation of your effort, we'll award the top 3 participants a 100$ Amazon gift card (view the current list of top traders).
You can participate in 2 easy steps:
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Tue, 2010-02-02 13:49
In order to combat global warming,a detailed knowledge of the greenhouse gas(GHG)emissions associated with different energy conversion technologies is important. For nuclear energy, GHG emissions result from different process stages of the whole fuel cycle. A life-cycle assessment offers the possibility to properly calculate these emissions. In the past, both indirect energy use and GHG emissions were studied by many researchers. Most of the studies result in low indirect emissions comparable to windturbines.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Sat, 2010-01-16 22:25
Over-sizing the cross section of a cable beyond the result of voltage and current theoretical calculations is, in most of cases, a worthwhile investment that is easily amortised by the electricity bill savings (reduction of Joule losses). In the case of a photovoltaic (PV) installation, the allocated price for energy (feed-in tariff) is much higher than the market price, getting amortised much faster.
Together with an improved profitability of the project, there are additional advantages when using bigger cable sections:
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Tue, 2010-01-12 15:46
The European power system has changed considerably in the last 15 years. The liberalisation and unbundling of the electricity market has led to increased international power flows and reduced influence of the system operators. Meanwhile, renewable and other small-scale uncontrolled and variable energy sources are being installed in the system.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Tue, 2010-01-12 15:01
The European power system has changed considerably in the last 15 years. The liberalisation and unbundling of the electricity market has led to increased international power flows and reduced influence of the system operators. Meanwhile, renewable and other small-scale uncontrolled and variable energy sources are being installed in the system.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Wed, 2009-12-23 11:46
A PSERC Public Webinar
The inherent variability of generation from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power, may
1) increase the operating costs associated with additional ramping requirements, and
2) increase the amount of installed conventional generating capacity needed to maintain the operating reliability of a network.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Fri, 2009-11-27 15:06
This webinar will provide a general view of drivers and barriers for CSP development, with a particular focus on the structure of the CSP Value Chain. From a technical point of view, the main key performances will be reviewed for the different technologies.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Fri, 2009-10-02 09:49
Session 3: Price Regulation
This session explains different forms of price control, including the classical rate of return organisation and more advanced forms of incentive regulation. It will also explain the design criteria for different price control models.
• Major price control models: Rate of return / Cap regulation / Yardstick competition / Sliding scale regulation
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Fri, 2009-10-02 09:42
SESSION 2: Market Design
This section explains the main properties of different types of electricity markets exhibiting different level of competition and different forms of organisation.
• General market models : vertically integrated companies / single buyer / wholesale competition / retail competition
• Power pools : Price based / Cost based
• Markets with bilateral trade
• Balancing markets
• Power exchanges
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-09-15 14:35
By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2009-07-29 15:01
One quarter of the world's population (1.6 billion people) do not have access to electricity in their homes. Over 80% of these people live in rural areas of the developing world, especially in peripheral urban and isolated rural areas. In Sub Saharan Africa, only 8% of the rural population has access to electricity. The lack of electricity deprives people of basic necessities such as lighting and communication, but also hampers productivity and economic development in these areas. Activities are limited to daylight hours.
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By HDK / Published on Mon, 2009-07-27 11:25
[In partnership with VEI]
Various energy sources generate electrical energy in a form that cannot simply be injected into the electricity network, including photovoltaic panels, microturbines, batteries and fuel cells. These sources generate either DC voltage or AC voltage with variable frequency and/or an amplitude or voltage not compliant with the electricity network. To connect such sources to the electricity network nevertheless, a power electronic inverter or transformer must be used.
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By Roman Targosz / Published on Mon, 2009-07-13 19:43
Commercial, or in other words non-technical losses account for more than 1% of electricity use around the world. The dominant component of these losses is electricity theft. In the largest extent, electricity theft is a problem related to residential customers. In some countries, electricity theft is in the range of, or far exceeding, technical losses in the transmission and distribution sector.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2009-06-03 15:12
With "island grids" we refer to isolated electricity networks with a relatively small demand. This may be networks on actual islands but also distant isolated network on the continent. Most of the island grids make use of diesel units for their generation. Larger systems may also use combined cycle gas turbine units or oil fired steam turbine units. The generating cost of such systems are relatively high compared to large systems due to the economy of scale and the use of expensive fuels.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-05-27 07:52
Recently, electricity consumers have shown increasing concern for power quality. Indeed, power quality standards have become higher than before for certain customers due to sensitivity of automation devices. In addition, power quality is affected by the deregulation of power markets in Turkey.
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By HDK / Published on Mon, 2009-05-25 15:54
The delivery of electricity to consumers is influenced by demand and supply factors. Using DSR influences the customer’s behavior by offering the customer the choice to buy electricity now, to refrain from buying, buy less/more, or to buy at some other time. This may result in the same supply capacity and overall reliability for less capital and a reduction of the greenhouse gasses, due to efficient use of the production capacity.
How much do you expect DSR would reduce electricity bills?
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Wed, 2009-05-13 05:30
Trade-off between environment and health
When discussing sustainable building services (HVAC, electricity, and water), the main factors that are usually considered are environmental impact, financial cost, comfort, and sometimes safety. Although carbon emission reduction is rightfully dominating the debate nowadays, we must not forget that health can be an important fifth factor when designing sustainable building services. This is made abundantly clear in the PhD thesis 'Healthy Building Services for the 21st Century' of Francesco Franchimon at the Technical University of Eindhoven.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Fri, 2009-05-08 05:30
A YouTube video of the National Fire Protection Association
In the past on this blog, we have shown many pictures of unsafe electrical wiring in the slums of developing countries like Senegal or emerging economies like Brazil. This does not mean however that electrical safety ceased to be an issue in OECD countries. In the USA, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently launched a campaign to show the risk of an inappropriate electrical installation and to promote correct electrical wiring. The campaign includes a Home Wiring guide and a ten minute YouTube video. The video explains how electrical faults can lead to fatal fires and enumerates attention points to make a residential electrical installation safe:
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Tue, 2009-04-21 15:10
Grid parity - the point where the cost of generating electricity by solar systems equalises the average (wholesale) price of generating electricity by means of conventional methods - is the Holy Grail for the photovoltaics industry. For concentrating photovoltaics in the sunniest locations in the world, this point is not far off. The most optimistic estimates put it at 2011, whereas pessimists expect we'll have to wait as long as 2020. Therefore, a prediction market at Leonardo Visions to build a consensus view among Leonardo ENERGY users on this important issue.
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