National Electricity Board Research Articles

Solastalgia as Disruption of Biocultural Identity. The Mount Amiata Geothermal Conflict

Some residents of Mount Amiata in Tuscany, Italy, are experiencing emotional distress and solastalgia due to changes in their beloved land. Mount Amiata is witnessing protests by citizens’ associations and activists who criticize the alleged social, economic, and environmental sustainability of geothermal energy. The analysis of the environmental conflict around geothermal energy on Mount Amiata contributes to the empirical use of the concept of "solastalgia” as affective rupture of biocultural relationships and identities. In the area surrounding Mount Amiata, the production of geothermal energy is experienced as an attack on the biodiversity of the "Mother Mountain," as a loss of the sense of home, and as part of a "predatory philosophy" employed by ENEL (Ente Nazionale per l’Energia Elettrica, National Electricity Board). This ethnographic study aims to analyze how the transformation of places influences the affective and biocultural identity of their inhabitants.

Evolution and Evaluation of Energy Policies in India Between 2000 and 2017

India, as one of the world's largest energy consumers, has implemented a wide array of energy policies to meet the needs of its substantial population of 1.4 billion. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of these policies, from the establishment of the National Electricity Board in 1950 to the introduction of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwal Yojana in 2017. Covering a broad spectrum of energy forms, including electricity and LPG, it illuminates the evolution of India's energy policies and their effectiveness. Significant strides have been made since the 1950s when the government initiated rural and urban development programs. Landmark actions such as the establishment of nuclear power plants and the initiation of renewable energy source research and development have been critical in addressing the energy requirements of India's growing population and booming industries. Public domain data evaluation reveals a mixed performance of various schemes. While some have fallen short of their targets, others like the Saubhagya scheme have made impressive progress towards achieving universal electrification, with about 90% of households in India now having electricity access. However, concerns remain regarding the quality and reliability of this electricity provision. Furthermore, significant efforts are still required to adequately address the needs of institutional clients, small enterprises, and agricultural consumers. As the population continues to grow, it is recommended that an efficient evaluative strategy be established to monitor and address any emerging gaps in energy provision.

‘THE NUCLEAR SITING CONTROVERSY’ IN 1970S ITALY: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON GEOLOGY, NUCLEAR POWER AND RADIOACTIVE WASTE

ABSTRACT For more than half a century, nuclear energy has been among the main issues of public concern, and thus of political, social as well as environmental debate. Nuclear energy has generated a long-standing controversy that began with the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which comprise one of the most crucial turning points of contemporary history, from WWII up to the present. This paper aims to deal with a shorter period within this long and still controversial history. It focuses on the 1970s, when in Italy—as well as in the United States and Western Europe—the 1973 oil crisis made clear the need to diversify energy supply sources. As a result, national and international interest in nuclear power increased. The transition to a fully-fledged nuclear industry was to be achieved by the end of the century, with the launch of the first fast breeder reactors (FBRs). In Italy, the National Committee for Nuclear Energy (Comitato Nazionale per l’Energia Nucleare - CNEN), in agreement with the National Electricity Board (Ente Nazionale per l’Energia Elettrica - ENEL) and the newly established regional political bodies (Regional Councils), were entrusted with the task of drawing up the national map of sites suitable for nuclear facilities, and especially for nuclear power plants. The paper aims to provide an overview of the main geological issues that fueled the Italian ‘nuclear siting controversy’ during the 1970s. It focuses also on some still unpublished topics, such as those about the ENEL–CNEN Joint Study Commission for the Seismic Problems Associated with the Installation of Nuclear Plants and the drafting of a first national map of areas suitable for radioactive waste repositories. The matters under discussion here are significant because of the link with some key issues still open in contemporary debates on nuclear energy, such as planning and siting of nuclear facilities. It is also worth noting that some current global emergencies (e.g., the war in Ukraine and climate change) have brought the European, and more generally international, debate back to the urgency of energy diversification, including nuclear power in the energy generation mix. Historical analysis, although focused on particular case studies from the past, can help to better understand such a complex issue.

Forecast of the electrical energy demand of N’Djamena, Chad, based on the statistical method

We study the forecast of the electrical energy demand of the N'Djamena city, Chad, by 2032 using the statistical model based on the linear regression technic. A series of data of the maximum power demand (PMA) for the past years from 2005 to 2017 are obtained from the dispatching center of the company national electricity board of N'Djamena, which allow us to make energy projection from 2018 to 2032. Then these data are analyzed by the statistical method of linear regression forecast. The results obtained by the linear regression are closed to that provided by the Excel trend curve and they have a strong linear correlation coefficient of 0.963 between the maximum powers estimated and the given years. In addition, the predicted power peak needed by electricity consumers by 2032 is 175 MW compared to 90 MW in 2017, meaning that in 15 years, the consumption of electrical energy will pass from simple to double.

Solar Power in the Island Nation, Mauritius

The challenges to integrating a greater share of renewable energy, more specifically solar energy into the power grid in tropical islands are that these islands have a complex microclimate, high humidity and high cloud coverage. Because of this, the power output from solar photovoltaic (SPV) plants is severely affected. In this manuscript, the results of a study carried out on the performance of a 15.2 MW solar photovoltaic (SPV) plant in the island nation Mauritius is presented. The net annual yield was 22 162 MWh and has avoided 22 162 metric t of CO2 emission into the atmosphere. An attempt is also made to develop a model to forecast the power that can be generated from the SPV plants at that location. The grid operator, the national Central Electricity Board (CEB) needs to know a priori, the energy mix for the subsequent few days so that the level of operation of fossil fuel fired thermal plants can be tuned accordingly to minimize the environment pollution of this pristine island.

PERUBAHAN PERSEPSI MELALUI PELIBATAN MASYARAKAT DALAM PROSES ANALISIS MENGENAI DAMPAK LINGKUNGAN (AMDAL) PLTGU PERAK

The residential area and industrial economy in Indonesia specifically East Java has grown rapidly. This is a challenge for National Electricity Board such as P.T. PLN Persero East Java to supply the energysufficiently. Therefore P.T.PLN Persero through the branch company, P.T.Indonesia Power will build four (4) new plants with huge capacity more than 1,000 MW. One of the plant will be built in the administrative area of Perak Utara Village, Pabeaan Cantikan District-Surabaya City. The plant will be generated with gas and steam (PLTGU), that is a combined cycle between the electricity plant which is powered with gas (PLTG) and the electricity which is powered with steam (PLTU). The development of PLTGU is aimed for many benefits, such as: to fulfill electricity that has continually increased; to improve domestic, business or industry activities through continually electricity supply; as the peak loader of Java-Bali electricity supply system; and it is also aimed for supporting the 35,000 MW electricity government program. Even though there are many benefits of the development, it is often facing many problems in its implementation from community affected project around study area because of their negative perceptions. So it is important to conduct a community approach through project socialization and public consultation meeting (PKM) for gaining perception change, from negative to positive perception toward development activities.

A new linguistic out-sample approach of fuzzy time series for daily forecasting of Malaysian electricity load demand

The fuzzy logical relationships and the midpoints of interval have been used to determine the numerical in-out-samples forecast in the fuzzy time series modeling. However, the absolute percentage error is still yet significantly improved. This can be done where the linguistics time series values should be forecasted in the beginning before the numerical forecasted values obtained. This paper introduces the new approach in determining the linguistic out-sample forecast by using the index numbers of linguistics approach. Moreover, the weights of fuzzy logical relationships are also suggested to compensate the presence of bias in the forecasting. The daily load data from National Electricity Board (TNB) of Malaysia is used as an empirical study and the reliability of the proposed approach is compared with the approach proposed by Yu. The result indicates that the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the proposed approach is smaller than that as proposed by Yu. By using this approach the linguistics time series forecasting and the numerical time series forecasting can be resolved.

05/01053 Power sector reform in Bangladesh: Electricity distribution system

One of the most pressing questions facing developing countries and the international agencies that finance their economic programmes is the appropriate way in which to operate and manage their power industries. This paper focuses on one aspect of economic performance, namely the efficiency with which electricity is generated. Evidence suggests that changes in the organization of electricity generation can be justified on efficiency grounds. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to compare the performance of Malaysia's National Electricity Board with those of other countries in a similar stage of development, as well as with that of the UK.

Environmental Management Of Port Oil Terminals

Bunkering is considered an environmentally high-risk process as international statistics on accidental pollution incidents indicate. The process is highly complicated, often involving several partners and many procedures and protocols. Procedures on board ship are well structured and well described in documentation provided by the manufacturers as well institutions such as IMO (MARPOL 73/78 clauses and Annexes), ISM auditors and others. It is also an area where much research has provided a good insight as to the factors involved, as well as many practical solutions to problems inherent to these processes, Another area where further research is needed, concerns oil refinery terminals, which, at least for Greece, play a major part in the transportation network of both crude as well as refined oil products. This paper presents the findings of research work, concerning the quality of oil terminal and bunkering procedures followed by refineries and oil terminals in Greece, The results are based on personal interviews with top ranking executives from the refineries, the Hellenic Coast Guard, Port and Local Authorities, Research Institutes and Health and Safety Bodies, All four major oil refineries were studied (three in the greater Attica area and one in Thessaloniki) as well as smaller oil terminals situated on many islands (mainly serving and operated by the National Electricity Board) and smaller oil terminals serving oil storage tanks mainly situated near or on the coastline. Data presented are discussed in relation to oil terminal environmental management procedures, highlighting practices and processes pertinent to the bunkering industry which is striving to establish safety and environmental protection issues as its top priorities.

Is there a link between subjective daytime somnolence and sickness absenteeism? A study in a working population.

A number of studies have highlighted the increasing incidence and financial cost of sleep-related disorders in the general population, but little research has been carried out on the impact of subjective daytime somnolence on health status. The existence of a survey of the health of employees of the French National Gas and Electricity Board has allowed us to investigate this question and measure the link between subjective daytime somnolence and sickness absenteeism, used here as a general health indicator. In order to evaluate the quality of sleep over the previous 3 months, a questionnaire was given to each participant. The association between subjective daytime somnolence and absence as a result of sickness was explored using the data of sickness absenteeism provided by the company's social security department during a 12-month follow-up period. Of our 1105 subjects, 6.7% reported severe subjective daytime somnolence of 3 days or more a week and 30% of our study population had at least one spell of sickness absence during the 12-month period of follow-up. A strong association was observed between subjective daytime somnolence and sickness absence, which remained significant even after adjustment for potential confounding variables (age, sex, employment grade, sleep symptoms and self-reported diseases). The odds-ratio for absence as a result of sickness during the follow-up period associated with subjective daytime somnolence of 3 days or more a week was 2.2 (95% CI: 1.3--3.8). Employees suffering from severe subjective daytime somnolence lose more working days for health reasons than their more alert colleagues. This may have long-term implications for employees' health.

98/00404 The efficiency of the National Electricity Board in Malaysia: an intercountry comparison using DEA

98/00404 The efficiency of the National Electricity Board in Malaysia: an intercountry comparison using DEA

97/03854 The efficiency of the National Electricity Board in Malaysia: an intercountry comparison using DEA

97/03854 The efficiency of the National Electricity Board in Malaysia: an intercountry comparison using DEA

The efficiency of the National Electricity Board in Malaysia: An intercountry comparison using DEA

One of the most pressing questions facing developing countries and the international agencies that finance their economic programmes is the appropriate way in which to operate and manage their power industries. This paper focuses on one aspect of economic performance, namely the efficiency with which electricity is generated. Evidence suggests that changes in the organization of electricity generation can be justified on efficiency grounds. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used to compare the performance of Malaysia's National Electricity Board with those of other countries in a similar stage of development, as well as with that of the UK.

96/01672 The efficiency of the National Electricity Board In Malaysia - An Intercountry comparison

One of the most pressing questions facing developing countries and the international agencies that finance their economic programmes is the appropriate way in which to operate and manage their power industries. Until recently, power industries have been regarded as public sector utilities to be operated as monopolies in order to achieve a variety of policy goals. Much international policy has been directed towards reducing the state’s role in the electricity sector, and promoting efforts to privatise its management and ownership. This paper focuses on one aspect of economic performance, namely the efficiency with which electricity is generated. Evidence suggests that changes in the organization of electricity generation can be justified on efficiency grounds. We make use of an increasingly popular non parametric technique – Data Envelopment Analysis – to analyse the case of Malaysia, a country which adopted a privatisation policy in the mid 1980s. One of the main arguments for the privatisation programme in Malaysia was that public enterprises were not efficient. We use unique data sets to compare the performance of its National Electricity Board with those of other countries in a similar stage of development, as well as with the major privatised Western electricity sector – that of the UK.

An acoustic pyrometer system for tomographic thermal imaging in power plant boilers

The paper presents an acoustic pyrometry method for the reconstruction of temperature maps inside power plant boilers. It is based on measuring times-of-flight of acoustic waves along a number of straight paths in a cross-section of the boiler; via an integral relationship, these times depend on the temperature of the gaseous medium along the paths. On this basis, 2D temperature maps can be reconstructed using suitable inversion techniques. The structure of a particular system for the measurement of the times-of-flight is described, and two classes of reconstruction algorithms are presented. The algorithms proposed have been applied to both simulated and experimental data measured in power plants of the Italian National Electricity Board (ENEL). The results obtained appear fairly satisfactory, considering the small data sets that it was possible to acquire in the tested boilers.

High‐temperature erosion tests on materials for fluidized bed combustor heat‐exchanger tubes

AbstractIn order to simulate and predict the erosion damage suffered by in‐bed tubes in fluidised bed combustors, dedicated test equipment was set up at CISE's tribology laboratory with ENEL S. p. A (Italian National Electricity Board) support. This erosion rig was used to test and characterise the behaviour of AISI 310, P9, and P22 steels, candidate materials for this type of heat‐exchanger tube. Tests were carried out at room temperature to characterise the erosion behaviour of these materials and at higher specimen (350°C and 500°C) and air (840°C) temperatures to simulate and characterise their behaviour in service. From this experimental work it turned out that, while at room temperature, the erosion behaviour of the three materials did not differ significantly, at high temperature P9 showed the best resistance in both test conditions and AISI 310 displayed an optimum behaviour at normal impact angles, but had the higher erosion rate at 30° impact angle.

Rainfall prediction with a limited-area model during an intense storm over northern italy

Numerical experiments have been performed to simulate a severe storm in the Valtellina Valley, in the central part of Northern Italy, with a version of the limited-area model UB/NMC (University of Belgrade, U.S. National Meteorological Center model). This situation is characterized by strong and persistent rainfall over confined spatial areas in the Alpine region, where observations from synoptic and ENEL (National Electricity Board of Italy) stations revealed the intensity of the phenomenon. A first set of experiments was performed with ECMWF (European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts) initialized analyses as initial and boundary conditions. These experiments were run with eta and sigma vertical-coordinate system, with different horizontal resolution and over two area domains. A second set of integrations with ECMWF operational forecasts as boundary conditions shows good agreement with observations, as is revealed by threat scores of the precipitation field. It is shown how the use of high horizontal resolution (0.25×0.25 degrees) enables the model to better resolve the spatial configuration of this situation. This work points out the capability of the ENEL version of the limited-area model UB/NMC to predict severe convective storms in mountain areas.

Power Builds the Nation: The National Electricity Board of the States of Malaya and Its Predecessors. Two Volumes. By Muzaffar Tate. Kuala Lumpur: The National Electricity Board of the States of Malaya, 1989, 1991, Pp. xviii, 292; xix, 489. Figures, Illustrations, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Power Builds the Nation: The National Electricity Board of the States of Malaya and Its Predecessors. Two Volumes. By Muzaffar Tate. Kuala Lumpur: The National Electricity Board of the States of Malaya, 1989, 1991, Pp. xviii, 292; xix, 489. Figures, Illustrations, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

A New Traveling Sand Pluviator to Reconstitute Specimens of Well-Graded Silty Sands

Abstract A new traveling sand pluviator to reconstitute small specimens for laboratory tests was developed in joint research between the Research Center of the Italian National Electricity Board (ENEL CRIS) of Milano and the Department of Structural Engineering of the Politecnico di Torino. The pluviator proved satisfactory in reconstituting small-size specimens because it provided a very high degree of spatial uniformity of density and grain-size distribution. Furthermore, it was shown that a traveling pluviator is preferable to a stationary one even in reconstituting large-size specimens to achieve a higher degree of spatial uniformity. The above advantages were mainly evident when dealing with well-graded silty sands. A noteworthy feature of the new traveling pluviator that sets it apart from existing ones is its ability to accommodate pluviation under evacuated conditions.

A comparison of parametric and non-parametric methods for runoff forecasting

Abstract The paper evaluates the performance of a non-parametric scheme, the nearest neighbour (NN) method, to predict the daily mean discharge in a mountain basin supplying a hydroelectric reservoir in northeastern Italy. The results are compared with those of an autoregressive model with exogenous input (ARX), coupled with a previously developed snow cover evolution model. Both methods give good performances, but the NN prediction requires a much simpler simulation structure. In the case investigated, for example, the snowpack accumulation-melting model can be completely eliminated. This greater simplification assumes considerable importance in the Electric Load Distribution Institutes of the Italian National Electricity Board (ENEL), where many hydroelectric basins are managed every day.