Nor Erniza Mohammad Rozali

Advancing low-carbon emissions in Asia: mitigation of greenhouse gases and enhancing economic feasibility for major sectors

Asia is the factory of the world for many manufacturing activities, for which promoting sustainable growth while maintaining a low-carbon or CO2 emission profile is crucial. Decoupling emission of high greenhouse gases without compromising the economic growth is a great challenge. Advancement in clean technology and environmental policies, targeting the key emitter of GHG emissions, is crucial to drive the low CO2 emissions development. Implementation of these measures would require continuous consensus building and the concerted efforts, involving multiple stakeholders at local and international levels, to reduce the carbon footprints. The progress on low CO2 emissions development has not been fast enough due to the gaps among the stakeholders including the central and local governments, experts and business entities and the community at large. International conferences could serve as the platform to bridge these gaps. The conference series of International Conference on Low Carbon Asia 2016 (ICLCA’16), November 23–25, 2016, aimed to accelerate the transformation of Asia toward sustainable development with low CO2 emissions. The past ICLCA conference series was held in Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the year 2015 and 2016 (ICLCA’15 and ICLCA’16), followed by in Bangkok, Thailand (ICLCA’17). Two series of the Annual Meeting of Low Carbon Asia Research Network (LoCARNet) have joined the ICLCA in 2015 and 2017. The LoCARNet is a network for multilayered stakeholders to promote research cooperation related to low-carbon growth and policy making. The key members of LoCARNet are from the ASEAN + 3 countries (Japan, China and Republic of Korea) as led by the Secretariat based in the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan. ICLCA’16 has attracted 150 international researchers, local authorities and policymakers from the public and private institutions of over 15 countries (China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam). The event was graced by the Deputy Minister, Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA), Malaysia, with exhibition booths supported by the Malaysian local authorities from Kuala Lumpur City Hall, Johor Bahru Tengah and Kulai Municipal Councils. Up to 15 thematic topics had been announced for the conference, indicating its multidisciplinary and holistic approach toward finding solutions for a more sustainable future. The topics included:

Study of the effects of peak/off-peak load shifting on hybrid power system storage using power pinch analysis

The difference in electricity pricing based on the time of power use has led to load shifting from peak to off-peak hours in hybrid power systems (HPS). Apart from optimising electricity cost, shifting of load may also change the capacity of storage in the system. Power Pinch Analysis has been recently applied to guide load shifting aiming to minimise the cost of electricity, considering the peak and off-peak electricity pricing. This work extends the study by scrutinising the effects of peak/off-peak load shifting on the capacity of storage in HPS. Shifting heuristics are developed to ensure optimal storage size is achieved. Results show that the proposed load shifting strategy from peak to off-peak hours has successfully minimised the costs of both the storage system and the electricity bill.

Application of electric system cascade analysis for various system configuration

Ongoing primary reliance on conventional fossil fuel resources such as coal and natural gas (NG) for energy generation may be the most economical method but also the most damaging to the environment. Energy management of power plant via sizing is one of the energy and economical saving methods. In this paper, Electric System Cascade Analysis (ESCA), an analytical pinch method is used for optimally size the generation capacity of power plant and storage capacity of energy storage. Energy can be direct current or alternating current, which require rectifier or converter to convert the energy before transporting. Therefore, energy system configuration has various combination depending on the type of currents on each part of the system configuration. The usage of ESCA will be applied on eight types of system configuration. A hypothetical case study is used to demonstrate the application of ESCA. Results show that the least energy lost due to energy conversion is the system configuration with the same type of current input and output.

Expansion of a diesel plant into a hybrid power system using power pinch analysis

Diesel power system is one of the popular schemes for energy supply generation. It is, however, typically associated with high costs of emission control and maintenance on top of the diesel fuel cost. These limitations can be overcome by incorporating renewable energy technologies such as wind turbines and solar PV along with the existing diesel station. Hybrid systems provide cleaner and reliable power supply, and can be more cost-effective than sole diesel systems. This paper assesses the feasibility of expanding an existing diesel power plant into a hybrid power system (HPS) using Power Pinch Analysis (PoPA). An HPS configuration developed with PoPA methodology can provide optimal solar and wind electricity supplies while minimising the diesel runtime. Results show that an HPS that combines solar and wind system with diesel power generation can provide significant diesel fuel savings while satisfying the demands at a reasonable cost.