Search Results (3)

This paper presents a framework for the use of variable pricing to control electricity imported/exported to/from both fixed and unfixed residential distributed energy resource (DER) network designs. The framework shows that networks utilizing much of their own energy, and importing little from the national grid, are barely affected by dynamic import pricing, but are encouraged to sell more by dynamic export pricing. An increase in CO₂ emissions per kWh of energy produced is observed for dynamic import and export, against a baseline configuration utilizing constant pricing. This is due to feed-in tariffs (FITs) that encourage CHP generation over lower-carbon technologies. Furthermore, batteries are shown to be expensive in systems receiving income from FITs and grid exports, but for the cases when they sell to/buy from the grid using dynamic pricing, their use in the networks becomes more economical. Full article

In South Korea, renewable energy policy is mainly focused on electricity and tends to neglect renewable heat (RH). However, for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the heating sector must sharply switch from its use of conventional fuels to renewable sources. The South Korean Government is considering an RH incentive (RHI) program with financial and policy support schemes and is thus demanding information about residential consumers’ acceptance of the RHI program to expand the use of RH. Therefore, this study looked into residential consumers’ acceptance of the introduction of the RHI program by applying contingent valuation (CV). For this purpose, a CV survey of 600 interviewees was conducted using a dichotomous choice question format that asked a respondent if she/he is willing to pay a given amount. Furthermore, among the various dichotomous choice question formats, the one-and-one-half-bounded format, which is considered desirable in terms of efficiency as well as consistency, was applied. One point to note in analyzing the CV responses was that not a few interviewees had zero willingness to pay (WTP). Thus, a spike model was employed to deal with the dichotomous choice CV data with a number of zero observations. The results revealed that the household mean WTP amounted to KRW 5753 (USD 5.35) per year. If we look at this value from a national perspective, it is worth KRW 113.63 billion (USD 105.61 million) per year. This value corresponds to the economic value or benefits that the introduction of an RHI program provides to the South Korean people each year and needs to be compared to the costs that the introduction of RHI will incur. Full article

This paper explores the effects of the feed-in tariff (FiT) and renewable heat incentive (RHI) schemes on the adoption of anaerobic digesters (AD), and the potential energy generation from farm-fed wastes in Great Britain. This paper adopts a linear programming model, developed in the International Energy Agency (IEA) TIMES platform, aiming to quantify the degree of adoption of AD and the type of energy generation technologies that can be driven by digester biogas to reduce farm energy costs. The results show that the adoption of AD is cost-beneficial for all farms, but different rates of the FiT and RHI schemes will influence the competitiveness between the implementation of combined heat and power (CHP) systems and the utilisation of biogas to only generate heat. The choice of technology is further dependent on the electricity/heat use ratio of the farms and the energy content of the feedstock. The results show that pig farms will more readily adopt CHP, because of its relatively higher electricity-to-heat use ratio, compared to other types of farms, which will favour biogas boilers. Full article