Power Market Formation for Clean Energy Production as the Prerequisite for the Country’s Energy Security

Abstract

The paper analyzes the main issues of power market development for clean energy production within the broader framework of ensuring the country’s energy security. In addition, special attention is paid to the technologies aimed at reducing emissions of toxic substances and greenhouse gases by the fossil-fired power plants. Even though the future electricity markets would most likely depend on the high shares of renewable energy sources (RES) in the electricity system, energy efficiency such as the one based on the near-zero emission technologies might also play a crucial role in the transition to the carbon-free energy future. In particular, there are the oxy-fuel combustion technologies that might help to reduce the proportion of unburned fuel and increase the efficiency of the power plant while reducing the emissions of flue gases. Our paper focuses on the role and the place of the near-zero emission technologies in the production of clean energy. We applied economic and mathematical models for assessing the prospects for applying oxy-fuel combustion technology in thermal power plants, taking into account the system of emission quotas and changes in the fuel cost. Our results demonstrate that at the current fuel prices, it is advisable to use economical combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT). At the same time, when quotas for greenhouse gas emissions are introduced and fuel costs increase by 1.3 times, it becomes economically feasible to use the oxy-fuel combustion technology which possesses significant economic advantages over CCGT with respect to the capture and storage of greenhouse gases.

Digitization, Digital Twins, Blockchain, and Industry 4.0 as Elements of Management Process in Enterprises in the Energy Sector

“…Technological development and, above all, significant drops in the costs of introducing the latest solutions facilitate the adoption of effective decarbonization strategies. Technologies are being implemented to reduce emissions of toxic substances and greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuel power plants [18]. Governments in many countries are trying to create investment incentives to build new or modernize existing generation units [19] as well as to motivate them to reduce the share of fossil fuels and increase the share of renewable sources in the energy mix [17], although the speed the actions undertake depends on the energy culture of a given country [20] and the size of the company.…”

Management and Economic Sustainability of the Slovak Industrial Companies with Medium Energy Intensity

“…Moreover, it provides grid integration [2]. It follows that energy efficiency improvements in the MEI represent a crucial challenge in maintenance sustainability and achieving emissions reduction objectives [3][4][5][6][7]. Therefore, the sustainability of the competitiveness of the industry and individual business entities depends on the successful implementation of modern technologies and the development of the intelligent industry.…”

Techno-Economic Analysis of the Oxy-Fuel Combustion Power Cycles with Near-Zero Emissions

“…Thermodynamically, this is the main method possible for the improvement of TPP efficiency. The initial steam temperature provides the main influence on the TPP efficiency, and a 1% increase improves the TPP mean efficiency by 0.13% [14,16,17].…”

“…The plots in Figure 3 depict the subsequent efficiency improvements in coal-firing TPPs in countries with advanced power industries [14,16]. In the countries with organic fuel deficits, the effective power production methods are being developed more quickly.…”

“…Table 2 compares the financial, technical and environmental performance of oxyfuel technology against the performance of traditional combined cycle facilities with and without carbon dioxide capture [16,47,48]. As can be seen from the table, oxy-fuel cycles, compared to combined steam-gas cycles, have significant environmental advantages (expressed in particular in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions), with comparable values in the efficiencies of their power units.…”