Development of Dispersive System of Energy Production by Utilizing Unused Resources

Abstract

The dispersive system of energy production comes before the footlights whenever a crisis of energy is concerned, but in fact, the concentrated system of energy production, which depends mainly on overseas resources, tends to expand its share. Most of the energy which is consumed for agricultural production in Japan depends on imported oil, so Japan is lacking in independence in terms of energy. We, therefore, have to aim at self-supply of energy for Japanese agriculture by actively utilizing unused resources which exists stably in Japan.When we consider about the problem of energy, we should not think it only in respect of physical energy efficiency, it is more desirable for us to think it also in respect of economical viewpoint. In addition, we have been thinking the problems of the dispersive system fragmentalily in isolation before, that is the reason why such problems exist still today. Therefore, we have to think of the energy problems systematically and not to repeat the same failure again.In order to realize the proposal mentioned above, we have to think of the introduction of dispersive system as a supplement system to the concentrated system, as J.W.Milon shows in his thesis.As far as the concentrated system is concerned, enormous energy is produced constantly, and when we study the process of energy production in the portion of operating time, it is devided into three units ; base unit, intermediate unit, and peak unit. Base unit such as nuclear or coal generators has high capital costs and low variable costs. On the other hand, peak unit is intensive and has low capital costs. Then it can be said that the marginal production cost is highest at the peak unit and lowest at the base unit.As mentioned above, if we take notice of that the marginal cost differs in the amount of production, the dispersive system would be able to supplement the concentrated system at the peak unit when a high marginal cost is inevitable. As a result of this, the production cost of the concentrated system will get lower as a whole, so we have to intend to magnify the dispersive system.The cost decision theory of marginal cost, which began to be popular in the 1930's has been authorized recently, and was formed in a public law in the U.S.A. in 1978. So in Japan, we have to combine many of the dispersive systems based on the theory - the marginal cost becomes energy charges - and then, we should aim at reducing the marginal cost and thinking the optimum distribution of resources over a long time. The most adequate method for it is to determine the most suitable combination of the dispersive systems under limited conditions, and to make good use of the marginal cost which is determined in the fittest combination. Then we have to look for the most suitable way leading to the best, using multi-stage linear programing.