Mehdi Aghaei Meybodi

How Carbon Pricing Impacts the Selection and Optimization of a Gas Turbine Combined Heat and Power System: An Australian Perspective

Businesses are currently being forced to re-evaluate their energy practices with the emergence of carbon pricing in many developed nations including Australia’s relatively new carbon pricing mechanism. This paper expands on a previous investigation by these authors. A gas turbine CHP system is examined to determine the financial impact Australia’ s carbon price has on the installation incentive to help businesses become more energy efficient. Three economic cases were considered to ensure a comprehensive analysis was conducted. The system was unprofitable under all configurations indicating a gas turbine based system was not financially beneficial when applied to this case study. However, the system became slightly more economical when the carbon price was introduced indicating the installation of a CHP system may be beneficial under carbon pricing.

A methodology and assessment for the viability of trigeneration systems to reduce emissions

Trigeneration systems allow for an efficient way of consuming fossil fuels and therefore utilisation of such systems is amongst the adopted measures to address environmental issues. Carbon pricing was introduced in Australia in July 2012 and subsequently repealed by the newly elected government due to its questionable effectiveness. In this paper, a thermo-economic methodology was developed to attempt to provide an insight into the optimisation and economics of small and medium scale turbine-based trigeneration systems under three environmental policies through the application of two case studies. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis was performed. The results indicate that carbon pricing is a sound policy to make the installation of small scale trigeneration systems economically favourable. All medium scale trigeneration systems in the study were uneconomical, although the system was marginally (1%) more profitable under the new policy than under carbon pricing. It was also observed policy concerning feed-in tariffs should be revised.

Combined heat and power system optimisation under carbon pricing policy: a comparison of five carbon markets

The installation and optimisation of a gas turbine combined heat and power system was studied in an effort to reduce or eliminate financial liability under five different carbon pricing schemes around the world by becoming more energy efficient. The system was applied to a case study and configured to operate under carbon prices in Australia, the UK (EU ETS), New Zealand, California (USA) and British Columbia (Canada). As a policy designed to promote a reduction in emissions; the policy was successful in three of the five schemes namely Australia, the UK and British Columbia. These results were identified by systems that became unprofitable once financial liability was introduced for carbon emissions. The Australian carbon price was also examined in terms of effectiveness in light of its expected repeal. The Australian system ranked fourth of the five markets studied in terms of financial benefit both when financially liable and not liable for carbon pricing.

The impact of Australia's carbon price on the optimisation and selection of gas turbine CHP systems

This paper aims to indentify the impact of Australia’s carbon pricing mechanism on the optimization of a gas turbine combined heat and power (CHP) system using a thermo-economic approach. Three economic scenarios were considered: no carbon price (case one); carbon price and not liable (case two); and a carbon price and liable (case three). With the intention of demonstrating the methodology used and to identify the impact of the carbon price quantitatively, a case study was utilized. Pricing data sourced from an ongoing investigation at this institution was employed to facilitate the three economic scenarios in addition to the yearly price fluctuations. The system was permitted to operate at off-design conditions in order to determine the optimum working conditions for each month. The analysis drew on the economic indicators of net present worth and payback period. Two connection modes to the grid were considered: a single connection that allowed only for the purchasing of supplementary electricity from the grid and a dual connection which allowed both purchasing and selling of electricity.Copyright

Optimum Microturbine Sizing in Small Scale CHP Systems

Microturbines are ideally suited for distributed generation applications due to their flexibility in connection methods. They can be stacked in parallel for larger loads and provide stable and reliable power generation. One of the main applications of microturbines is operating as the prime mover in a combined heat and power (CHP) system. CHP systems are considered to be one of the best ways to produce heat and power with efficient fossil fuel consumption. Further, these systems emit less pollution compared to separate productions of the same amount of electricity and heat. In order to optimally benefit from combined heat and power systems, the proper sizing of prime movers is of paramount importance. This paper presents a technical-economic method for selecting the optimum number and nominal power as well as planning the operational strategy of microturbines as the prime movers of small scale combined heat and power systems (capacities up to 500 kW) in three modes of operation: one-way connection (OWC) mode, two-way connection (TWC) mode, and heat demand following (HDF) mode. In the proposed sizing procedure both performance characteristics of the prime mover and economic parameters (i.e. capital and maintenance costs) are taken into account. As the criterion for decision making Net Present Worth (NPW) is used. In our analysis we have also considered the impact of carbon tax on the economics of generation. The proposed approach may also be used for other types of prime movers as well as other sizes of CHP system.Copyright