Paula Varandas Ferreira

The Integration of Social Concerns into Electricity Power Planning: A Combined Delphi and AHP Approach

The increasing acceptance of the principle of sustainable development has been a major driving force towards new approaches to energy planning. This is a complex process involving multiple and conflicting objectives, in which many agents were able to influence decisions. The integration of environmental, social and economic issues in decision making, although fundamental, is not an easy task, and tradeoffs must be made. The increasing importance of social aspects adds additional complexity to the traditional models that must now deal with variables recognizably difficult to measure in a quantitative scale. This study explores the issue of the social impact, as a fundamental aspect of the electricity planning process, aiming to give a measurable interpretation of the expected social impact of future electricity scenarios. A structured methodology, based on a combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process and Delphi process, is proposed. The methodology is applied for the social evaluation of future electricity scenarios in Portugal, resulting in the elicitation and assignment of average social impact values for these scenarios. The proposed tool offers guidance to decision makers and presents a clear path to explicitly recognise and integrate the social preferences into electricity planning models.

Least-cost 100% renewable electricity scenarios

Renewable energy sources (RES) are becoming the main players for the sustainability of the planet and achieving a 100% RES energy system has been attested as a good strategy to go forward in many countries. This target however defies the system to integrate highly variable RES in a system that does not allow for shortage on the energy supply. This work presents a possible 100% RES scenario for an electricity system close to the Portuguese estimating and analysing the economic and technical impacts. The sensitivity of the results to aspects related to RES availability, electricity demand, peak load and interconnection capacity for electricity trading were also analysed. The results highlighted the excess of electricity produced in 100% RES systems and the importance of including interconnection capacity to contribute to overcome this problem.

Credits trading mechanism for corporate social responsibility: an empirically grounded framework

This paper proposes a framework for assessing credits trading mechanisms for corporate social responsibility (CSR). The motivation to structure this framework derives from contemporary market-based mechanisms of emissions trading (or carbon/credits/offsets) and renewable energy credits (RECs). However, the framework proposed herein moves beyond existing forms of credits trading mechanisms that are primarily focused on reducing the environmental footprint of the ongoing industrial/non-industrial activities. By adopting a comprehensive perspective, the paper emphasises simultaneously social sustainability-related considerations and CSR related activities based on the sale of CSR credits or certificates which bears striking resemblance to the sale of renewable energy credits (RECs) for subsidising the production of renewable energy. This is in direct contrast to emissions trading mechanism in which carbon credits/offsets are purchased by parties who desire to release a corresponding quantity of emissions above the permitted cap. Furthermore, the paper discusses the feasibility of the proposed CSR credits trading mechanism from a broader context of the ongoing climate change crises, political economy and geopolitical circumstances which are known drivers for determining the success of CSR activities by corporation(s) in domestic or overseas locations.

Energy and environment: bringing together engineering and economics

This special issue includes extended and reviewed versions of high-quality papers submitted to the ‘‘2nd International Conference on Energy and Environment: bringing together Engineering and Economics (ICEE 2015)’’ held in Guimarães, Portugal, on June 18–19, 2015. Twenty-two papers were selected and the authors invited to submit an extended version for regular journal review, in order to be included into this special issue. After the journal’s review process, 10 papers were accepted for publication. The topics of the selected papers address multidisciplinary issues aligned with the multidisciplinary scope of the journal and cover a large spectrum of themes including sustainable development and economic growth, energy polices, clean energy and mobility technologies, waste management and social well-being. Research papers and case studies in different geographic regions are included providing a broad range of insights and opening avenues for further research. Rolewicz-Kalińska et al. (2016) focus on the location of facilities designed to treat the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) in Poland. The authors analyze case studies from several European countries considering organizational, economic, technical, spatial and social issues and conclude that the key factors for determining the choice of technology are the legal framework and the investment economics. The results show that further development of the anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities in Poland requires a coherent policy and commitment on the site of the local and central authorities. Miranda et al. (2016) present an innovative approach to characterize the metabolic pattern of informal urban settlements or slums. The case of Vidigal, a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was addressed using the system of accounting Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM). Results show relatively low exosomatic metabolic rates for both the household and paid work sector in Vidigal, as well as high levels of human activity dedicated to economic activities and put in evidence

Multicriteria scenario analysis on electricity production

Energy planning is a complex process involving multiple and conflicting objectives with many agents able to influence decisions. This complexity is frequently addressed with the use of multicriteria tools, relying on a set of criteria and different methods to aggregate all the information in a final ranking of the available alternatives. This paper describes the application of a multicriteria decision tool for the analysis of Portuguese electricity scenarios. A set of criteria is proposed aiming to include social, economic, environmental and technical aspects. Criteria weighting was directly addressed considering 5 approaches: equitable weights, financial, technological, social and environmental perspectives. Results indicate that close to 100% RES scenario is the best option under a social perspective, base scenario represents the best option on a technical approach and scenarios relying on natural gas and wind power units are the best options for the electricity system under equitable weights, economic and environmental approaches.

Research and development project assessment and social impact

Nowadays, organisations increasingly need to adapt to the fast evolution of markets and societies in our globalised world in order to be competitive. Therefore, it is essential to take the right decisions when it comes to invest in research and development (R&D) projects. However, an issue that has not been given much attention is how to measure the social impact (or return) of R&D projects. In this exploratory study, the findings of an analysis of how R&D projects are assessed and selected, including this social perspective, are presented. The methodology which has been used in this research includes both interviews and analysis of the data obtained through them. The major finding is that in the current situation the social impact is not taken into account, but is growing the awareness of this perspective among different types of organizations dealing with R&D activities.

The Portuguese Natural Gas Market in the European Context

The Portuguese natural gas market is recent and small – being an emergent market according to Directive 98/30/EC. It is still protected and monopolistic while most other European countries have already liberalized, at least partially, their natural gas markets. This paper focuses on the process of restructuring the energy market in the European Union, and the present situation in Portugal, and emphasizes the regional dimension of the Portuguese market. The natural gas price strategies followed by Portuguese companies are analysed, and a comparison with those of liberalized Europe is attempted. Special attention is given to the United Kingdom, as an example of a completely liberalized market, and also to Spain due to its close links to the Portuguese energy sector. From the results obtained, possible future scenarios for Portugal in a liberalization context are presented.

Integration of Risk and Uncertainty on Levelized Cost of Electricity Calculation

The electric sector is still largely dependent on non-renewable energy sources. The importance of using renewable energies is increasingly recognized all across the world yet they are not fully ready to compete with the mature and ancient technologies that use non-renewable energies. The economic characteristics of different energy technologies can be compared by using the method of levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). LCOE represents the total cost of a power plant including investment and operation and maintenance costs over the assumed life-cycle and discounted to account for the time-value of money. In this paper, an analysis of the levelized costs is proposed for two renewable technologies in Portugal: wind power and solar photovoltaic. Firstly, a deterministic value of LCOE was computed for both technologies. Secondly, recognizing the uncertainty associated with all the assumed parameters, a probabilistic risk analysis was conducted with Monte Carlo simulation to complement the analysis. The results show the high variability of the obtained LCOE values, largely influenced by the investment values and load factors.

The effect of sample size on European Union’s renewable energy investment drivers

ABSTRACT Macroeconomic modelling results based on relatively varying sample sizes may lead to incoherent results. Such effects have not been adequately understood in the renewable energy literature regarding the European Union (EU). This study focuses on the comparison of results obtained for renewable energy investment drivers (for solar and wind energy investments) on different samples of EU countries, including all EU-27, former EU-15 and 11 high renewable investment EU countries. The study used a random effect panel data modelling approach over the period 1995–2011 for studying the impact of the levelized cost, regulation perception, carbon emissions and climatic condition on wind and solar investments over the three samples. The results demonstrate the importance of trustable regulation schemes to ensure that regulation will not have a significant negative effect on investment, showing also the need to further extend the model to include support schemes as fundamental drivers for investment.

Social return of R&D investments in manufacturing sector : some insights from an exploratory case study

This paper aims at contributing to the literature on how to measure the social impact of Research and Development (R&D) investment projects. For that purpose, an exploratory case study was undertaken to assess the importance that companies give to the social return of R&D investments and to identify the criteria and indicators more relevant for this evaluation process. The research undertaken is based on interviews conducted as part of a case study methodology involving a maritime-sector private company and the Technological Center of the Sea in Vigo. The results indicate that the criteria chosen as being the most important for the evaluation of social return of R&D were the number of jobs created at the company, the environmental impact and the working conditions. Also, in the case of Support Programs for R&D applications funding the research results indicate that the evaluation process presently followed does not properly address the socio-economic factors.