Special Issue "Environmental Efficiency Evaluation of Power Systems"

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 18 May 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Bai-Chen Xie
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Management and economics, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
Interests: energy policy; power industry; energy efficiency; DEA; game theory
Prof. Dr. Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Economics, Tokai University, Tokyo 151-8677, Japan
Interests: green finance; energy policy; banking and finance; Japanese economy; energy finance; energy economics
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Karim L. Anaya
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG), Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1AG, UK
Interests: energy policy; energy economics; energy efficiency and TFP Analysis; Energy and Ancillary Services Market Design

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sulphur dioxides, nitrogen dioxides, and carbon emissions released due to the combustion of fossil fuels have led to significant environmental issues worldwide. The transformation of the energy structure has been considered an effective means to cope with the increasing environmental pressure, mitigate climate change, and meet the climate-related Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. Reducing fossil fuel consumption and incentivizing renewable power development are frequently employed in recent years, which offer the benefit of improving the environmental efficiency of the power system without damaging the economy.

However, the rapid development of renewable power often faces grid availability issues. The diversity in fuel structure, technological level, and the competition for limited emission quota also highlight the importance of balancing the development of different generation forms. In the perspective of environmental efficiency, various models and methods may lead to totally different results; data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) are among the most frequently used techniques in benchmarking environmental efficiency. All these studies reached the same verdict that efficiency improvement is not only limited to technology but also social welfare and resource allocation, policy formulation, and economic development patterns. In academic research, environmental efficiency evaluation is heavily dependent on the study’s objective, input and output variables, and methodology selection.

Due to the importance of this topic, this Special Issue of Energies on “Environmental Efficiency Evaluation of Power Systems” aims to explore the economic feasibility of low-carbon transformation and high-quality development of power systems.

The call for papers seeks to collect several empirical, theoretical, or case studies with practical policy implications on the environmental efficiency evaluation of power systems.

The studies need to provide practical policy solutions for decision makers to effectively formulate medium- and long-term development strategies in response to climate change. These solutions should be multiobjective in nature and focus on the high-quality development and low-carbon transformation of power systems. Papers may deal with, but not be limited to, the following:

  • Nexus of economy, technology, and environmental efficiency target achievement;
  • Generation, transmission, distribution companies or power system efficiency;
  • Improving the energy and environmental efficiency of power systems;
  • Distributed generation of electricity and its environmental impacts;
  • Efficiency evaluation based on environmental heterogeneity;
  • Total factor productivity and its decompositions;
  • Ways to increase green total factor productivity;
  • Solutions regarding the green energy transition in the post-COVID-19 era;
  • Role of sustainable and green finance in power system efficiency;
  • Spatial characteristics of environmental efficiency;
  • Evaluation of economic, political, technological, or environmental policies that may affect the efficiency of the power system;
  • The impact of renewable energy development on efficiency.

Prof. Dr. Bai-Chen Xie
Prof. Dr. Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary
Dr. Karim L. Anaya
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Environmental efficiency evaluation
  • Economic feasibility
  • Low-carbon transformation
  • Power systems development
  • Power system efficiency
  • Green energy transition
  • Energy and environmental efficiency
  • Energy policy

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Energy, Exergy, Exergoeconomic, and Exergoenvironmental Assessment of Flash-Binary Geothermal Combined Cooling, Heating and Power Cycle
Energies 2021, 14(15), 4464; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14154464 - 23 Jul 2021
Viewed by 404
Abstract
This research presents the energy, exergy, economic, and environmental assessment, and multi-objective optimization of a flash-binary geothermal CCHP cycle. A sensitivity analysis of production well inlet temperature and cooling to power flow ratio on exergetic, economic, and environmental parameters was conducted. Furthermore, the [...] Read more.
This research presents the energy, exergy, economic, and environmental assessment, and multi-objective optimization of a flash-binary geothermal CCHP cycle. A sensitivity analysis of production well inlet temperature and cooling to power flow ratio on exergetic, economic, and environmental parameters was conducted. Furthermore, the effects of the inflation rate and plant working hours on economic parameters were investigated. Results showed that increasing the production well inlet temperature harms exergy efficiency and exergetic performance criteria and results in a gain in exergo-environmental impact index and heating capacity. In addition, the total plant cost increased by raising the production well temperature. Furthermore, increasing the cooling to power flow ratio caused a reduction in exergy efficiency, exergetic performance criteria, and produced net power and an enhancement in exergy destruction, cooling capacity, and total plant cost. The exergy efficiency and total cost rate in the base case were 58% and 0.1764, respectively. Optimization results showed that at the selected optimum point, exergy efficiency was 4.5% higher, and the total cost rate was 10.3% lower than the base case. Levelized cost of energy and the pay-back period at the optimum point was obtained as 6.22 c$/kWh, 3.43 years, which were 5.14% and 6.7% lower than the base case. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Efficiency Evaluation of Power Systems)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: Performance effects of network structure and ownership: The Norwegian electricity distribution sector
Authors: Wenche Tobiasson 1, Manuel Llorca 2,* and Tooraj Jamasb 3
Affiliation: 1 RISE Research Institutes of Sweden; [email protected] 2 Copenhagen School of Energy Infrastructure (CSEI), Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School; [email protected] 3 Copenhagen School of Energy Infrastructure (CSEI), Department of Economics, Copenhagen Business School; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +45 3815 2218
Abstract: Transmission and distribution networks are capital intensive segments of the electricity sector which are generally considered as natural monopolies. Due to their non-competitive nature, these are subject to independent regulation to prevent the abuse of monopolistic power and induce competitive behaviour. Effective economic regulation of the electricity networks has become a key target in most developed economies following the restructuring of the industry after the 1980s. In the case of Norway, incentive regulation and efficiency benchmarking were introduced in 1997. This country is particularly interesting due to the division of its electricity grid in three levels, namely, central network, regional network, and distribution network. In this paper, we study two overlooked aspects when analysing the performance of electricity networks: vertical integration and ownership structure. We use a stochastic frontier analysis approach to analyse the performance of Norwegian electricity distribution utilities for the period 2007-2014. We observe that vertical integration between distribution and regional transmission implies a higher cost inefficiency. This may be evidencing that the efficiency gains due to a separate management of the networks exceed the economies of coordination from vertical economies of scope. In addition, we find that council ownership entails higher efficiencies. This could be explained by the state generally having a main interest in high voltage electricity networks, rather than low voltage, and the decentralised model from which the now centralised system once was developed.

Title: Method for efficiency evaluation of the implementation of digital technologies at coal industry enterprises
Authors: Алабина Татьяна
Affiliation: Kemerovo State Universitydisabled, Kemerovo, Russian Federation
Abstract: Development of a method for efficiency evaluation of the imple-mentation of digital technologies at coal industry enterprises. Methodology. Such scientific methods as retrospective analysis, comparative analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction were used. Results. Within this study, the types and components of efficiency evaluation were identified; the algorithm for analyzing the possibility of introducing digital technologies at a coal mining enterprise was substantiated; the components of economic, environmental, fiscal, and social benefits, which are considered when assessing efficiency, were determined; calculation formulas to quantify the benefits and efficiency of the introduction of digital technologies were developed. The developed methodology for efficiency evaluation of digital technologies is built of two blocks. The first block is based on the identification of the need for and the possibility of introducing digital technologies at a coal mining enterprise, for which it is advisable to determine the benefits of digitalization. The second block is based on the evaluation of the results and efficiency of digital technologies. Scope. The results of the study can be applied by coal mining enterprises and digital technology providers to ground the decisions on the introduction of digital technologies. Conclusion. Methods for the evaluation of technological, production, economic, biological, and fiscal benefits and efficiency have been determined at the individual coal mining enterprise level. Calculations to determine the profitability and return on investment for the implementation of digital technologies at a coal mining enterprise are proposed.

Title: The role of financial efficiency in renewable energy demand: cross country evidence
Authors: Mara Madaleno1*, Pedro Macedo2 and Victor Moutinho3
Affiliation: 1 Assistant Professor, GOVCOPP - Research Unit in Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policy, and Department of Economics, Management, Industrial Engineering and Tourism (DEGEIT), University of Aveiro, Portugal; [email protected] 2 Assistant Professor, CIDMA – Center for Research and Development in Mathematics and Applications, Department of Mathematics, University of Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal; [email protected] 3 Assistant Professor, NECE-Research Center in Business Sciences and Management and Economics Department, University of Beira Interior, Portugal; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]
Abstract: This study searches the role of the financial system efficiency in renewable energy demand considering 156 countries worldwide. Numerous financial system proxies are used between 2000 and 2018 considering financial development indexes. Due to data scarcity regarding renewable energy demand, this efficiency assessment allows smaller time year observations imposing the use of mathematical methods to correct the lack of observations, not surpassed by traditional econometric methods. Results are expected to evidence disparities among countries, whereas in different situations and depending on the country overall efficiency, and that financial system proxies generally are poorly linked to the renewable energy demand in some states, with expected opposite effects in others. Despite the positive coefficient of the overall financial development over renewable energy demand, the coefficients of financial efficiency might be insignificant, and concerns should be raised at this regard. The present study is expected to find significant effects of the overall financial markets and institutions on renewable energy demand, even though nonvital links between financial system efficiency and renewable energy demand could be obtained. Policy implications regarding this major finding are to be provided and directions of future research are to be provided regarding financial and renewable energy efficiency.

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