Rabin Shrestha

Environmental and electricity planning implications of carbon tax and technological constraints in a developing country

Abstract This paper examines the interfuel/technological substitution and electricity demand effects of carbon tax on electric utility planning and CO 2 emissions from the power sector. It also compares the magnitude of these effects in cases with and without restrictions on generation technologies. A major finding of the study is that low carbon tax may not be effective to reduce CO 2 emissions through interfuel and technological substitution in power generation regardless of the technological restrictions. Furthermore, with technological and resource availability constraints, the interfuel and technological substitution possibilities would be exhausted beyond a certain tax rate and the level of CO 2 mitigation due to carbon tax would mainly depend upon the demand-side response.

Greenhouse-gas emission mitigation from the use of agricultural residues: the case of ricehusk

Greenhouse-gas emission mitigation has been estimated for the use of existing and mature biomass technologies. A general methodology has been developed to determine potential amounts of residues that can be made available for energy purposes and the resulting fossil-fuel replacement from utilization of these residues. The consequent reductions in CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions in CO2 equivalents for a time horizon of 20 years, as well as costs of abatements, were calculated. Both traditional and improved energy uses are considered.

Economics of clean development mechanism power projects under alternative approaches for setting baseline emissions

Abstract Setting the baseline emission and estimating emission reductions associated with a climate friendly project are among the key issues involved in identification of a clean development mechanism (CDM) project under the Kyoto Protocol. This paper presents a methodology for identification of a CDM project and assessment of its environmental and economic implications under alternative approaches for establishing baseline emission, that is, traditional supply based planning and integrated resource planning (IRP). The paper also examines the role of “rebound effect” in the assessment of emission reductions from the CDM project under the IRP approach. A case study of India based on the methodology is presented in the paper. The study shows that the level of emission mitigation from the power system with a particular CDM project and the associated emission abatement cost could vary significantly with the type of approach used for determining the baseline emission. It also shows that the optimal timing for implementation of the CDM project could vary with the type of the baseline approach used. Furthermore, our analysis shows that under each of the baseline approaches, the net benefit from a candidate CDM project need not increase with its size (i.e., generating capacity).

Least cost generation expansion planning for a regional electricity board in India considering green house gas mitigation

Thermal power plants dominate electric power generation in India, which are the major contributor to green house gases (GHGs). Carbon dioxide is by far the most important greenhouse gas that causes global warming. This study offers valuable insight on the cost-effective efficient technologies available for GHG mitigation that need to be adopted in the power generation expansion plan. GHG emission is used as an additional constraint in the generation expansion planning. The role of supply side options has been analyzed towards the mitigation of GHG (only CO/sub 2/) and other harmful gases (NO/sub x/ and SO/sub 2/) taking the input data for the Northern Regional Electricity Board (NREB) network in India. The study covers utility planning implications, cost and pricing implications, and environmental implications of the considered cases. The integrated resource planning and analyses (IRPA) package developed by AIT and CPLEX software has been used for getting the least cost optimal generation expansion plan.

Environmental implications of electricity purchase from independent power producers: a case study from Thailand

This paper analyses the effect on the environment of electricity purchase from independent power producers (IPPs) in the case of Thailand. The environmental implication is evaluated in terms of the net change in emission of air pollutants with electricity purchase from IPPs by a utility. The main finding of the study is that electricity purchase from a non-dispatchable IPP plant based on coal-fired generation would increase the net emissions compared with that without the purchase from IPPs. The study also shows that the lower plant factor of the IPP plant would also increase the emission of air pollutants. Furthermore, with non-dispatchable IPP plants, the total emission of air pollutants would increase, whereas with dispatchable IPP plants the total emission would decrease with the level of electricity purchases.

Environmental emission mitigation potential of efficient electrical appliances in Sri Lanka

This study assesses the techno-economic potential of selected efficient demand-side appliances to mitigate emission of air pollutants from the power sector of Sri Lanka. The study shows that through the use of the selected efficient appliances a total of about 38 646 GWh (i.e. 18·5% of total electricity generation) and about 25·6% (29 541, 000 tons), 34·2% (293,000 tons) and 34·6% (374,000 tons) of the total CO2, SO2 and NOx emission respectively could be avoided during 1997–2015 with the use of the efficient appliances from the technical and national economic perspectives. The generation savings from utility and user perspectives and emission mitigation potential are, however, significantly smaller as all the selected appliances are not found cost effective from these perspectives. This is mainly because electricity prices in the commercial and industrial sectors exceed the corresponding long-run marginal cost (LRMC) of electricity supply.