Global trends in the development and use of electricity utilities and assets are practically irreversible. In industrialized nations, capacity factors have grown so large that users may expect freely available electrical potential energy at all times and in almost all locations. Economically capitalizing on this trend means maximizing energy provision and use to boost gross domestic product growth rates. Electricity is now a basic indicator of social development; it is to the cultural-technological dimension what breathing air is to the physiological-biological dimension, the implication being that sustainable development of provision systems has become a matter of international concern. This article presents a decision basis for the design of sustainable national electrical energy supply systems, incorporating country-specific boundary conditions in the form of user requirements to be specified by users. The basis is a solution space of technologically possible systems, obtained by combining generalized user requirements and physical limitations to generate the solution states. As all technological options for the system are brought under consideration, this approach represents a comprehensive comparative analysis. The decision process ensues by assigning to each solution state a set of (newly defined) system risk factors. Particular consideration is given to evaluating the system's ability to meet the user requirements, i.e., interruption-free provision. The central benchmark is the technological-economic availability. From this is obtained a sustainability boundary, the boundary between quantifiable and unquantifiable economic loss potentials. This article deliberately avoids referencing specific technological solutions, with the justification that the basis of the user's decision should be independent of technological considerations. The sole exception is a reference to the currently used technology, which forms the starting point.
The following article details the first step towards a future national electrical energy supply system. The focal points of the analysis and the synthesis of the new system are the end-user and their supply of sustainable electrical energy. Building upon the first step, a second step presents suitable organisational structures for the new system. Electrical energy, as a desired user product, is not a natural product; it must be anthropogenically produced. Numerous variables with technical, social, and economic origins influence electrical energy supply, generating a high level of analytical complexity. The guiding principles in this article describe neither means of saving energy nor any technological system, but rather exclusively describe the user requirements in the context of the supply of electrical energy. They are based on an equally valued trinity of energy supply, national economic integrity, and environment. Self-sustaining electrical energy cells accessing ubiquitous and cost-free primary energy form the underlying structural elements. Combined, these elements realise a comprehensive and sustainable electrical energy supply system. Instrumental for achieving system goals is a new form of regulation. The current regulation primarily covers the energy transport networks, technically designed as large-scale power grids. The new regulatory system focuses on the supply of useful electrical energy according to the needs of the user. Derived from the formulated user requirements is a transition process, whose key milestones are the integration of current energy generating facilities into regulation, realisation of national electrical autonomy, reduction of risks to the national economy, establishment of climate-neutral primary energy conversion, and user-defined design of the supply of electrical energy.
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