Aspects Of Energy Security Research Articles

Prospective analysis of energy security: A practical life-cycle approach focused on renewable power generation and oriented towards policy-makers

Energy security is a wide-ranging term to encompass issues such as security of supply, reliability of infrastructures, affordability and environmental friendliness. This article develops a robust indicator – the Renewable Energy Security Index, RESI – to enrich the body of knowledge associated with the presence of renewable energy technologies within national electricity production mixes. RESI is built by combining environmental life cycle assessment and techno-economic energy systems modelling. Spain and Norway are used as illustrative case studies for the prospective analysis of power generation from an energy security standpoint. In the Spanish case, with a diversified electricity production mix and a growing presence of renewable technologies, RESI favourably “evolves” from 0.36 at present to 0.65 in 2050 in a business-as-usual scenario, reaching higher values in a highly-restricted CO2 scenario. The Norwegian case study attains RESI values similar to 1 due to the leading role of renewable electricity (mainly hydropower) regarding both satisfaction of national demand and exportation of electricity surplus. A widespread use of RESI as a quantifiable energy security index of national power generation sectors is found to be feasible and practical for both analysts and energy policy-makers, covering a significant number of energy security aspects.

STRATEGIC ENERGY SECURITY OUTLOOK FORMATION OF UKRAINE UNDER EUROPEANINTEGRATION PROCESS

Urgency of the research. Energy security affects the competitiveness of national production in the world markets and the competitiveness of the national economy under globalization.Target setting. Implementation of existing potential requires a deep reform of the regulatory and legal framework and the requirements of international agreements in full.Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. Some aspects of energy security in terms of European integration exploring Barannik V., V. Geyets, Dzyadykevych Yu, J. Mazur, V. Mikitenko, A. and dry Khalatov A. et al.Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. The issue of energy security, consistency of government policy and coordination of strategic development prospects of relations at the level of the European Union,are notworkedthrough.The research objective.The article is devoted to strategic prospects of development and energy security of Ukraine, taking into account international trends in global energy markets.The statement of basic materials. It is stated by the author thatover the past decades, Ukraine is dependent on external sources of energywhichis a critical threat to its national security.It is proved that diversification is one of the main directions of reducing energy dependence of the country and in the current conditions can increase the level of energy security by reducing energy imports.Established macroeconomic energy intensity indicator that reflects the level of fuel and energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product.Based the expediency of adaptation of national legislation in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy legislative framework to the European Union, will providethe international competitiveness of the Ukrainian economy.Conclusions. Strengthening the energy security through the implementation of the energy strategy, an understanding on strategic energy partner of the European Union, expanding the cooperation to ensure full integration of energy markets Ukraine and the European Union will allow Ukraine guaranteed protection

STRATEGIC ENERGY SECURITY OUTLOOK FORMATION OF UKRAINE UNDER EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROCESS

Urgency of the research. Energy security affects the competitiveness of national production in the world markets and the competitiveness of the national economy under globalization. Target setting. Implementation of existing potential requires a deep reform of the regulatory and legal framework and the requirements of international agreements in full. Actual scientific researches and issues analysis. Some aspects of energy security in terms of European integration exploring Barannik V., V. Geyets, Dzyadykevych Yu, J. Mazur, V. Mikitenko, A. and dry Khalatov A. et al. Uninvestigated parts of general matters defining. The issue of energy security, consistency of government policy and coordination of strategic development prospects of relations at the level of the European Union,are not worked through. The research objective. The article is devoted to strategic prospects of development and energy security of Ukraine, taking into account international trends in global energy markets. The statement of basic materials. It is stated by the author that over the past decades, Ukraine is dependent on external sources of energy which is a critical threat to its national security. It is proved that diversification is one of the main directions of reducing energy dependence of the country and in the current conditions can increase the level of energy security by reducing energy imports. Established macroeconomic energy intensity indicator that reflects the level of fuel and energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product. Based the expediency of adaptation of national legislation in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy legislative framework to the European Union, will provide the international competitiveness of the Ukrainian economy. Conclusions. Strengthening the energy security through the implementation of the energy strategy, an understanding on strategic energy partner of the European Union, expanding the cooperation to ensure full integration of energy markets Ukraine and the European Union will allow Ukraine guaranteed protection.

“Systematic inquiry for energy security and sustainability”(a case study approach for India using SAP-LAP framework)

Purpose Energy supply delivered via various energy projects is an important aspect of energy security for India. Managing supply through various capacity additions for providing continuous electricity 24×7 by 2019 is a significant challenge for the country. In this context, there is a need to assess the present situation of energy generation from the traditional energy projects that are being installed for the purpose of capacity addition. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to develop an inquiry model based on situation-actor-process (SAP), learning-action-performance (LAP) for the Indian energy and power sectors to analyze the status of the supply side of energy security. Design/methodology/approach A SAP-LAP model is used to synthesize the situations of both the energy and power sectors. For both systems, inquiry- and matrices-based SAP-LAP models have been considered for this purpose. The situation is presented for various issues related to the execution of different types of energy projects. Actors in these sectors are classified by those who are responsible and engaged in the execution of various energy projects. For demonstration purposes, only a thermal energy project is highlighted in this case study. Based on the synthesis of SAP elements, various LAP elements are analyzed which leads to lessons that may be learnt from the case. Suitable actions are identified, followed by an assessment of their impact on the performance of the energy projects. Findings By developing a framework for a SAP-LAP model for the assessment of energy security, it was found that both sectors need more investment for their sustainable growth and that the actors identified should be proactive in their decision making. Decision making should be based on the sustainable management practices of life cycle management and life cycle costing for the better utilization of energy resources to strengthen overall energy security. Research limitations/implications The SAP-LAP analysis is used to explain the supply side of energy security in a managerial context, as applied in the case of the Indian energy and power sectors. However, some other quantitative multiple-criteria decision-making techniques like the preference ranking organization method for enrichment of evaluations, the complex proportional assessment of alternatives, the analytic hierarchy process or qualitative interactions assessment techniques such as interpretive structural modeling (ISM), total interpretive structural modeling (TISM) or the interpretive ranking process can also be explored for the development of an energy security framework. Practical implications The synthesis of SAP leads to LAP, which bridges the gap by suggesting improvement actions based on learning from the present situation of power supply, from actors in the industry and from existing processes. The model presents the situation of energy security in terms of the timely execution of energy projects and their impacts on the gross domestic product of the country. Social implications The framework for learning can provide information to the various stakeholders, investors and sector organizations inquiring about various issues related to energy projects and supporting the idea for energy security and sustainability. Originality/value The SAP-LAP model is a novel approach for analyzing the present status of energy supply performance in a single model, which can act as the support for decision making in conflicting situations, specifically the conflicting nature of the Indian energy and power sectors.

Portfolio analysis of alternative fuel vehicles considering technological advancement, energy security and policy

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), such as electric vehicles (EVs), fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) and compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles, as a promising option for mitigating global warming and reducing energy consumption. Most studies in this area have been conducted on only a few types of powertrains, e.g. EVs and gasoline vehicles; to fill this gap, this study will cover FCVs, CNGs, hybrid electric vehicles, diesel hybrid electric vehicles and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vehicles. This research is novel because it includes energy security aspects, uses scenario analysis and investigates FCVs. This study aims to predict an optimal AFV portfolio based on different scenarios to sustain energy security in light of gas and petroleum restrictions until 2030. To do this, we will present four scenarios that consider improvements in technology, energy security requirements, decreasing petroleum prices and government subsidies. The Polish market is considered as a case for demonstrating the optimal model. The results indicate that it is crucial to introduce all types of powertrains to achieve both economic and energy security objectives. The projected diffusion of FCVs will be more pronounced than that in previous studies, owing to the expected rapid decline in the cost of both infrastructure and purchase price of cars. Furthermore, the projected deployment of AFVs in transportation systems in this study will mostly occur in the form of lorries (trucks) and passenger vehicles. Because CNG vehicles are expected to achieve a high degree of diffusion in the transportation system, the government should seek a reliable CNG supply. Overall, this research will help automakers and policymakers recognise investment possibilities.

Opening the black box of energy security: A study of conceptions of electricity security in the United Kingdom

Despite much literature on energy security, the term continues to resist a commonly-accepted definition. Nevertheless, policy decisions are frequently made on the basis of ‘improving energy security’, despite the lack of any clear understanding of what improving energy security actually means. Therefore this paper explores the meaning of energy security for key experts in the UK energy sector, with a particular focus on the security of electricity systems in the context of a low-carbon transition. A set of 22 energy security issues is discussed with 25 experts from across the energy sector in the UK, in order to get a grasp on which aspects of energy security are felt to be most important, and to discover the underlying concepts which are used by experts when making or justifying these choices. The results from the interviews show that there is a real need to attempt to take into account multiple competing and context-specific views on energy security, instead of trying to close the discussion down around a small number of simple quantifiable indicators or metrics. The results also show that there is no clearly discernible alignment between experts’ perspectives and the type of organisation for which they work.

Local vs. global redundancy – trade-offs between resilience against cascading failures and frequency stability

When designing or extending electricity grids, both frequency stability and resilience against cascading failures have to be considered amongst other aspects of energy security and economics such as construction costs due to total line length. Here, we compare an improved simulation model for cascading failures with state-of-the-art simulation models for short-term grid dynamics. Random ensembles of realistic power grid topologies are generated using a recent model that allows for a tuning of global vs local redundancy. The former can be measured by the algebraic connectivity of the network, whereas the latter can be measured by the networks transitivity. We show that, while frequency stability of an electricity grid benefits from a global form of redundancy, resilience against cascading failures rather requires a more local form of redundancy and further analyse the corresponding trade-off.

Concept for Energy Security Matrix

The following paper presents a discussion of short- and long-term energy security assessment methods and indicators. The aim of the current paper is to describe diversity of approaches to energy security, to structure energy security indicators used by different institutions and papers, and to discuss several indicators that also play important role in the design of energy policy of a state. Based on this analysis the paper presents a novel Energy Security Matrix that structures relevant energy security indicators from the aspects of Technical Resilience and Vulnerability, Economic Dependence and Political Affectability for electricity, heat and transport fuel sectors. Earlier publications by different authors have presented energy security assessment methodologies that use publicly available indicators from different databases. Current paper challenges viability of some of these indicators and introduces new indicators that would deliver stronger energy security policy assessments. Energy Security Matrix and its indicators are based on experiences that the authors have gathered as high-level energy policymakers in Estonia, where all different aspects of energy security can be observed.

ENERGY SECURITY, RESILIENCE AND CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION: SPANISH PUERTOLLANO REFINERY CRISIS

Critical Energy Infrastructures can suffer different impacts from accidents and natural disasters which concern the whole energy system and specific functional aspects of Energy Security as well. A negative energy event -i.e. a strategic refinery blockade due to an accidentcan provide useful experiences which demonstrate the connection among logistic efficiency, resilience and Energy Security. Spanish refinery Puertollano suffered an accident in year 2003 which stopped oil logistics in a significant part of the country. Military oil refined products logistics in Spain are managed by CLH oil products logistic company -operating in the framework of a Public-Private Partnership and civil-military cooperation modeland then this enterprise facilitated the implementation of a resilience measures aimed to guarantee the operation of oil products logistic chain in the affected area. Management of Puertollano refinery crisis in 2003 showed positive results for ensuring National Energy Security, market and business normal function, system stability and infrastructure re-adjustment. This crisis advanced criteria and lesson learned for Critical Energy Infrastructure Protection and business continuity planning.

Energy security matters in the EU Energy Roadmap

Energy security has gained increasing prominence on the EU political agenda, but is often framed narrowly, in terms of import dependency or security of supply. In this paper we screen and scope out a more comprehensive suite of energy security aspects to be considered when assessing low-carbon energy scenarios and apply it using the EU Energy Roadmap as an example. Availability and affordability issues as well as security of demand matters and geopolitical security aspects are identified and discussed. External factors, e.g., future international climate treaties and international relations, are important for some energy security outcomes. A broader framing of energy security together with structured assessments on the security implications of energy transitions would benefit future EU energy policy.

Energy and Non-Traditional Security (NTS) in Asia MELY CABALLERO-ANTHONY, YOUNGHO CHANG, and NUR AZHA PUTRA, eds. Heidelberg: Springer, 2012, ix+121p. / Human Security: Securing East Asia's Future BENNY TEH CHENG GUAN, ed. Dordrecht and New York: Springer, 2012, xiii+255p.

Energy and Non-Traditional Security (NTS) in Asia MELY CABALLERO-ANTHONY, YOUNGHO CHANG, and NUR AZHA PUTRA, eds. Heidelberg: Springer, 2012, ix+121p.Human Security: Securing East Asia's Future BENNY TEH CHENG GUAN, ed. Dordrecht and New York: Springer, 2012, xiii+255p.At present, non-traditional security issues have increasingly come to forefront of international attention, due to ongoing insecurity of populations and communities in Asian states. As a theme of global relevance, energy security in ASEAN nations has moved beyond issues of sovereignty and national security and gradually involved well-being of their populations. From nontraditional security perspectives, Energy and Non-Traditional Security (NTS) in Asia, is a timely collection of essays by well-chosen scholars who provide insightful explanations of salient aspects of energy security in ASEAN, and advance a series of policy recommendations at international, national, and individual levels, many of which should be practical in future.As Mely Caballero-Anthony and Nur Azha Putra conclude, security, stability, and sustainability are three fundamental features of non-traditional security to energy security (Anthony et al., pp. 4-5). Discussing negative impacts of energy security in ASEAN states, Maria Nimfa F. Mendoza examines current situation of energy markets, and explores socio-economic impacts on them at both microeconomic and macroeconomic levels. For instance, ASEAN states are burdened by considerable transportation costs, which lead to higher product costs than product prices. In words of Fitrian Ardiansyah, Neil Gunningham, and Peter Drahos, transaction costs are another negative impact which requires searching for, negotiating and enforcing contracts (Anthony et al., p. 109). In this respect, Indonesia sets a good example: for Indonesian government, there is a need to increase networked governance capacity on energy decisionmaking, and create a stable core of bureaucratic decision-makers (Anthony et al., p. 111). As Ardiansyah, Gunningham, and Drahos suggest in accordance with case of Indonesia, it is more practical to establish multilateral forums to coordinate central government, local government, investors, and developers.However, should ASEAN states provide subsidies for energy security? Mendoza stresses that fuel subsidies will probably distort product and even lead to biases in resource allocation that move away from labor-intensive industries (Anthony et al., p. 69). For example, governmental subsidies for bio-fuel could reduce relevant efficiency in helping poor consumers, since a substantial portion of governmental subsidies do go to richer consumers. Furthermore, subsidies for fossil fuel would distort corresponding pricing.The contributors advance a series of recommendations for enhancing energy security. In view of Youngho Chang and Swee Lean Collin Koh, market governance adds essential dimension to policy recommendations for energy security. There are four approaches to governance: market, bilateral, trilateral, and unified governance. In context of ASEAN states, market governance is most applicable approach, which is defined as an adequate and reliable supply of energy resources at reasonable prices (Anthony et al., p. 28). Because this approach does not merely balance the virtues of free market principles and government regulatory mechanisms (Anthony et al., p. 25) and encourage investment in energy sources, but also meets rising regional demand for energy. In case of Fukushima accident in Japan, Chang and Koh address adequate governance, environmental influences, and human costs in guaranteeing energy security. Moreover, based on evaluations of energy diversity in ASEAN states, Youngho Chang and Lixia Yao explain that energy diversity can constitute another approach to ensuring energy security in ASEAN states, offering not only a variety of energy infrastructures, but also a variety of energy sources. …

Measuring external oil supply risk: A modified diversification index with country risk and potential oil exports

External oil supply risk is an important aspect of energy security and oil import diversification is viewed as one of the most effective measures to reduce supply risk. By using the diversification index approach, this research attempts to assess external oil supply risks of oil importers with consideration of two key factors associated with oil suppliers, country risk and potential oil exports capacity. The former can be used to reflect the oil supply risk associated with oil suppliers' macro-economic and socio-political stability and the latter is directly related with the physical availability of oil. The empirical research on China, Japan, the US and EU demonstrates that Japan's oil importing strategy is more concerned about potential exports of oil suppliers than country risk; the EU's oil imports have a good balance between country risk and potential exports of oil suppliers; the US has successfully diversified its oil imports to maintain the security of its external oil supply. With the rapid increase in oil demand, China has changed its oil import policy by expanding oil trade partners and switching to suppliers with high potential oil exports. Some further suggestions are presented for China to ensure its oil supply security in the future.

Energy Security and Climate Change Mitigation as Combined Areas of Analysis in Contemporary Research

Climate change mitigation and energy security are partly interacting areas that both present future challenges. The extensive research underway within these areas is mainly conducted in separate research communities, although there are some integrative efforts. This paper examines the breadth and heterogeneity involved in treating energy security and climate change mitigation as a combined research area. The outcome is a comprehensive analytical framework which considers energy security aspects, climate change mitigation strategies, temporal scope and future perspective, analytical focus, approaches and methodologies, geographical scope, and scientific traditions and perspectives.

Comparative risk assessment of severe accidents in the energy sector

Comparative assessment of accident risks in the energy sector is a key aspect in a comprehensive evaluation of sustainability and energy security concerns. Safety performance of energy systems can have important implications on the environmental, economic and social dimensions of sustainability as well as availability, acceptability and accessibility aspects of energy security. Therefore, this study provides a broad comparison of energy technologies based on the objective expression of accident risks for complete energy chains. For fossil chains and hydropower the extensive historical experience available in PSI׳s Energy-related Severe Accident Database (ENSAD) is used, whereas for nuclear a simplified probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) is applied, and evaluations of new renewables are based on a combination of available data, modeling, and expert judgment. Generally, OECD and EU 27 countries perform better than non-OECD. Fatality rates are lowest for Western hydropower and nuclear as well as for new renewables. In contrast, maximum consequences can be by far highest for nuclear and hydro, intermediate for fossil, and very small for new renewables, which are less prone to severe accidents. Centralized, low-carbon technology options could generally contribute to achieve large reductions in CO2-emissions; however, the principal challenge for both fossil with Carbon Capture and Storage and nuclear is public acceptance. Although, external costs of severe accidents are significantly smaller than those caused by air pollution, accidents can have disastrous and long-term impacts. Overall, no technology performs best or worst in all respects, thus tradeoffs and priorities are needed to balance the conflicting objectives such as energy security, sustainability and risk aversion to support rationale decision making.

Energy price risk and the sustainability of demand side supply chains

Energy is a critical input for production industries. As production becomes increasingly fragmented the management of inputs along the supply chain is a significant factor to stability and the competitiveness of the individual firm and the wider chain. Sustainable supply systems will require changes in how energy is managed particularly to ensure energy security. Rising and increasingly volatile industrial prices create technical price risks to individual firms and the supply chains they are within. A comparison is made between the management of metal and energy price volatility in the intermediate metal processing industry (IMP) in the West Midlands, UK. Results indicate significant variance between the management of price risks from the inputs due to the structure of the supply market, the political-economic context of energy as a carbon source and industrial conventions within the sector. Interdependence between economic actors in the demand-side supply chain can generate risk to the competitiveness of the firm and supply chain from the ability to transfer, or share, price changes in energy inputs through the supply chain. This is an important aspect of energy security in demand-side chains that threatens the sustainability of industrial activity.

Energy Perspective of Climate Change: The Case of Bangladesh

Previous efforts on modeling energy, the environment, and climate change perspectives are critically examined, and the structure of energy and an environment system model is described. Focus is on sustainable development using Bangladesh as an illustrative example. The model projects energy supply and demand and its contribution to global warming. Simulated results show that the demand for electric energy is increasing, and there is a shortage of electric power. Electricity generation capacity can increase by either transition to nuclear or renewable energy resources or both. However, generation capacity needs to be increased for sustainable development, with gradual transition to renewable energy resources. Mini-grids are advocated for supply of energy, information and communication for rural development and economic growth in isolated areas such as islands. Bangladesh is responsible for a small fraction of the total anthropogenic contribution of CO2 but could be seriously affected by climatic change. Energy security aspects are also addressed. Regional economic cooperation and sustainable peaceful resolution of long-standing disputes may help the regional entities to enhance their individual and collective energy security.

Exploring public perceptions of energy security risks in the UK

Along with climate change and affordability, concerns about energy security are key drivers behind proposals for major energy system change in the UK and numerous other countries. Unlike climate change we know very little about how the public thinks and feels about this aspect of sustainability and energy policy. Beyond engaging critically with conceptual and theoretical discussions, empirical data from two surveys (Cardiff postal survey, N=520; online UK survey, N=499) using a ten item energy security scale are presented and discussed. Here we show that aspects of energy security are certainly of concern to the UK public, with particularly high concern around dependence on fossil fuels/imports and relatively lower expressed concern for actual disruption of energy supply. However public concerns around energy security are only emerging, and likely to change depending on the context in which it is discussed (e.g. in comparison to climate change). In addition, findings from public interviews are used to further contextualise the survey findings, showing unfamiliarity among the UK public with regards to the term “energy security”. We discuss implications, and further work that would be useful for understanding public perceptions in more depth.

Security aspects of future renewable energy systems–A short overview

Energy security is sometimes used to advocate renewable energy systems. Renewable energy systems can improve some aspects of security, but they will not automatically lead to the removal of all types of security problems and new problems will most certainly arise. This paper analyses energy security aspects of renewable energy systems on the basis of a broad typology on energy and security. Renewable energy sources do not suffer from the same long-term resource availability problems as finite fossil resources and their geographical location is less concentrated, but other issues such as dependence on variable flowing resources and competition for scarce land resources will grow in importance. Many security issues related to energy are also dependent on the energy carrier rather than the energy resource and on the existence of effectively functioning institutions and regulations. New interdependencies will appear and will have to be handled within future international and bilateral institutional frameworks.

CONTEMPORARY ENERGY SECURITY STUDIES: THEORETICAL ASPECTS

The article represents an attempt to analyze the contemporary theoretical framework of energy security research as part of international relations and foreign policy studies. Neorealism and neoliberalism are the key theoretical schools having the strongest impact on energy security research. Authors inspired by the neorealist approach, including J. Russell, D. Moran and M.Clare, insist on the role of individual state actors that seek to maximize their energy supply or their position as an energy exporter. The key areas of study of the neorealist school include military aspects of energy security and resource nationalism. The neoliberal framework, represented by such scholars as A. Goldthau and J.M.Witte, focuses on the role of institutions, international cooperation and liberal markets. Unlike neorealists, neoliberals believe that global energy markets provide the necessary conditions for the peaceful cooperation of all players. Constructivist approaches represent an interesting alternative to the “neo-neo” debate, but still remain marginal. Although proponents of neorealist and neoliberal frameworks disagree on several key points, a large number of scholars, both in Russia and abroad, prefer a combined approach based on elements on neorealist and neoliberal theories. The combined analytical framework is used by such leading Western researchers as D.Yergin, J. Stanislaw, A.Korin and G.Luft, as well as many Russian scholars, including N.Mironov, S.Zhiznin and Y.Borovsky.

Environmental Performance of East Asia Summit Countries from the Perspective of Energy Security

Energy security is an increasingly important issue for East Asia Summit (EAS) countries. The Cebu declaration on East Asia Energy Security provides a common ground towards improving energy security. However, EAS countries are in a different situation and face different challenges. This leads to varying policies in dealing with energy security. This study provides an analysis of future environmental performance of three EAS countries with distinct socioeconomic and energy conditions from an energy security standpoint. A model which captures complex interrelationships between different aspects of energy security is developed for the study. Aspects related to energy, socioeconomics, and the environment are considered in the model. Policy scenarios which reflect governments’ efforts to improve energy security are developed for simulation. Analysis is performed by comparing each country performances indicated by measures related to CO2 emissions. The results show that Japan would achieve a very small increase in CO2 emission growth. China would still produce the largest amount of CO2 emission, but its growth would decrease significantly. In the contrary, Indonesia’s emission would be the smallest, but its growth would be the fastest. The results indicate that Indonesia’s commitment to the Cebu declaration goal will not be sustained. The study suggests that the Cebu declaration should be moved forward by including legally binding commitments and clear CO2 emission reduction targets.