Optimal Planning for Satisfying Future Electricity Demands Involving Simultaneously Economic, Emissions, and Water Concerns

Abstract

The main problem related to the electricity generation planning is to ensure the total satisfaction of the demanded power along a period of time considering the population growth. Since the power demand is function of the growing population, there is a fast depletion of the environment caused mainly by the harmful emissions produced and the big amounts of water consumed in large power generation plants. Therefore, when a power supply system is planning, it is important to evaluate the negative outcomes that could be generated in the environment and to balance them with the economic performance of the system. In this work is presented an optimization approach for the strategic planning of electricity generation, the model seeks the optimal selection of technologies for the new power generation capacity (clean and conventional) which will satisfy the power demand in different scenarios in a specific period of time. The proposed multi-objective model is solved using the e-constraint method for determining a trade-off between economic, harmful emissions (CO2, NOx, SO2 and particle emissions), and water consumption through a set of Pareto diagrams. The power demand and the resources available for electricity generation in Mexico are presented as a case study, where it is possible to reduce up to 38.4% of emissions and 41.58% of water consumed, by minimizing these two factors, which has a significant environmental impact.