Nordic Energy Research Articles

Large‐scale wind power integration in Norway and impact on damping in the Nordic grid

AbstractThe Nordic energy market is in need of new power generation capacity. Norway is today in shortage of electrical energy, and the hydropower‐based system must rely on importing electrical power from its neighbours in a normal year of hydro inflow. One solution to this problem is to invest in new generation capacity, e.g. by integrating more wind power into the Norwegian grid. The Norwegian government has announced that 1000 MW of wind power will be installed in Norway by 2010, corresponding to an eventual energy production of approximately 3 TWh year−1. This article investigates the impact of wind power integration in Norway on the damping of interarea mode oscillations in the Nordic grid. The impact on the interarea mode oscillations is tested for various types of generators. Results from computer analyses of a simplified yet realistic equivalent of the Nordic power system are used to compute the interarea mode oscillations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Assessing the value of pulp mill biomass savings in a climate change conscious economy

Pulp mills use significant amounts of biofuels, both internal and purchased. Biofuels could contribute to reach greenhouse gas emission targets at competitive costs. Implementing process integration measures at a pulp mill in order to achieve pulp production with less use of energy (biofuels) has not only on-site consequences but also off-site consequences, such as substitution of fossil fuels elsewhere by the saved pulp mill biofuels, and less on-site electric power generation. In this paper a method, a linking model, is suggested to analyse pulp mill biofuel saving measures when carbon dioxide (CO 2) external costs are internalised. The linking model is based on equilibrium economics and links information from CO 2 constrained energy market future scenarios with process integration measures. Pulp mill economics and marginal energy market CO 2 response are identified. In an applied study, four process integration measures at a Swedish pulp mill were analysed using five energy market future scenarios emanating from a Nordic energy model. The investigated investment alternatives for biofuel savings all result in positive net annual savings, irrespectively of the scenario used. However, CO 2 emissions may increase or decrease depending on the future development of the Nordic energy market.

Benefits from increased cooperation and energy trade under CO 2 commitments—The Nordic case

In this paper, benefits from increasing cross-border cooperation under future CO 2 commitments in the Nordic countries are examined and evaluated. Four cooperative strategies are analyzed and valued separately: cross-border electricity trade, cross-border emission-permit trade, the introduction of a trans-Nordic natural gas transmission grid, and, finally, utilization of all these three strategies simultaneously. The valuation is done under varying CO 2 commitments and under three different scenarios for future energy demand and technological development. In conducting this analysis, the energy-systems model-generator MARKAL (MARKet ALlocation) was used to model the Nordic energy system. It is shown that all cooperative strategies do lower the abatement costs considerably, especially if the strategy including full cooperation is utilized. In this case, additional costs from meeting CO 2 targets may be at least halved for commitments less than 10% reduction until 2050 based on emissions in 1995. No significant difference between low and high CO 2 commitments could be observed in the size of the benefits from cooperation, expressed in billions (10 9) of Swedish crowns. Benefits from cooperation are generally larger for scenarios including relatively higher future energy demand.

Benefits from increased cooperation and energy trade under CO2 commitments—The Nordic case

In this paper, benefits from increasing cross-border cooperation under future CO2 commitments in the Nordic countries are examined and evaluated. Four cooperative strategies are analyzed and valued separately: cross-border electricity trade, cross-border emission-permit trade, the introduction of a trans-Nordic natural gas transmission grid, and, finally, utilization of all these three strategies simultaneously. The valuation is done under varying CO2 commitments and under three different scenarios for future energy demand and technological development. In conducting this analysis, the energy-systems model-generator MARKAL (MARKet ALlocation) was used to model the Nordic energy system. It is shown that all cooperative strategies do lower the abatement costs considerably, especially if the strategy including full cooperation is utilized. In this case, additional costs from meeting CO2 targets may be at least halved for commitments less than 10% reduction until 2050 based on emissions in 1995. No significant difference between low and high CO2 commitments could be observed in the size of the benefits from cooperation, expressed in billions (109) of Swedish crowns. Benefits from cooperation are generally larger for scenarios including relatively higher future energy demand.

Analysing industrial energy use: a case study of the Swedish forest industry

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate an analytical method that can be used to incorporate development in industrial sub-sectors in national energy systems modelling analysis. The method is illustrated by a case study of the Swedish forest industry. The case study consists partly of a detailed industrial sub-sector scenario analysis of the Swedish forest industry and partly of an analysis of the usefulness of incorporating such a detailed treatment of the industry in energy system modelling analyses. The sub-sector analysis results in calculated energy and material flows for each scenario. The energy systems analysis results in a comparison of modelling results for the Nordic energy system, with and without the more detailed sub-sector analysis of the Swedish forest industry. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A comparison of Nordic energy and CO 2 intensity dynamics in the years 1960–1997

This study is a comparative analysis of energy consumption and CO 2 emission flows in the Nordic countries of Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden from the years 1960–1997. The comparative analyses are based on complete decomposition methodology, from which the authors provide an analysis of the dynamic changes of energy consumption and CO 2 emission flows in those Nordic economies. The comparative analysis reveals that: 1. The economic activity effects of the different Nordic countries were quite similar. 2. The structural effects varied considerably indicating differences in the relative economic activities in the analysed countries. 3. The intensity effects on energy use suggest that there were no significant changes in Finland and Sweden during that period. In Denmark and Norway, although intensity effects first increased in the 1960s, they had a downward sloping trend after 1970. The intensity effects of CO 2 emissions increased until the year 1970 and thereafter decreased until the year 1990. In the 1990s, only Norway's intensity effect continued to decrease. In contrast to the other Nordic countries, Finland's CO 2 emission intensity effect differs greatly. It continued to increase until the year 1980, then decreased sharply at the beginning of the 1980s and experienced considerable fluctuations after that.

Deregulated Energy Markets and the Environment: The Nordic Experience

This study focuses on the cognitive premises for common Nordic energy-related environmental policy as expressed by representatives of Nordic environmental and energy ministries and authorities. Methodologically, it makes use of the cognitive mapping approach. A comparison of the core elements of the conceptual maps reveals that, in spite of a clear recognition of the need for closer integration of the Nordic policies, fundamental differences in the basic conceptualisation remain. In a three-polar space with democratic planning, competitive market organisation and industrial policy/technological development orientation in each of the three corners, the Danish respondents clearly comes closest to the democratic planning pole, while the Norwegian clearly tends more towards market orientation. Swedish and Finnish government officials both tend towards an industrial policy/technology orientation, although with market-orientated undertones. Beyond their basic orientation in regulatory style, however, the Nordic countries also differ in the specific issues that are salient on the national energy and environmental agendas.

Electricity and emission-permits trade as a means of curbing CO2 emissions in the Nordic countries

The four Nordic countries Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway have fully integrated electricity grids, implying that electricity trade hitherto has accounted for a crucial part of each country’s power balance. Electricity trade also provides cost-efficient opportunities for the Nordic countries to either jointly or separately fulfil their CO2 obligations. Assuming the targets that were agreed upon in (the aftermath of) the Kyoto negotiations in 1997, and establishing scenarios where CO2-emission-permits trade among the Nordic countries is allowed, it is shown that the value of emission trading is somewhat larger than the corresponding value of electricity trade. Furthermore, if both electricity and emission permits can be traded on a common Nordic market this can lead to amplified economic benefits yielding a gain that exceeds the sum of the separate values of electricity and emission permits trade. It is also shown that the additional costs of fulfilling the Kyoto protocol are small compared to the total costs of the Nordic energy system.

The Early History of Data Networks by Gerard J. Holzman, Björn Pehrson

1004 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE dom had difficulties obtaining the necessary loans at moderate inter­ est rates. Local savings banks were generally very keen to assist town councils in financing gasworks. In the late 19th century, financial markets in other Nordic countries were less developed and Ending capital was thus more complicated there than in prosperous Den­ mark. Furthermore, Denmark was at the time the most urbanized of the Nordic countries, and the construction of gas networks was less ex­ pensive to carry out in more densely populated communities. In ad­ dition, some Danish gasworks were both technologically and organi­ zationally connected to local water supplies and sewage systems. Hence in the late 19th century gas pipes became organic elements in the process of Danish town building. During the present decade, when the Nordic energy systems are in a “liberation” process, Den lysende gas offers illuminating back­ ground to contemporary events. Ole Hyldtoft has written a wellresearched history ofa Danish peculiarity. The national idiosyncrasy of the book may, however, constitute a barrier at least to part of its potential audience. The Danishness is interwoven into the book so tightly that to comprehend it fully a knowledge of the language is not enough. The reader must be thoroughly acquainted with Danish society in order to realize what has been written between the lines. Timo Myllyntaus Dr. Myllyntaus teaches economic and social history at the University of Helsinki. He is the author of Electrifying Finland: The Transfer of a New Technology into a Late Industrialising Economy (London: Macmillan, 1991). The Early History ofData Networks. By Gerard J. Holzman and Bjorn Pehrson. Los Alamitos, Calif.: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1995. Pp. xi+ 291; illustrations, maps, figures, appendices, notes, bibli­ ography, index. $35.00 (hardcover). The tide of this book is a bit misleading, although one can see the reason for it. From the authors’ perspective on modern telecom­ munications, any system for getting information from one place to another looks like a data network, especially if its designers concern themselves with such things as codes and error messages. Nonethe­ less, it is surprising to find under a cover so titled a richly detailed account of the optical telegraph in France and Sweden, including a translation of a treatise on the subject by the designer of the Swedish system, Abraham N. Edelcrantz, published in Stockholm in 1796. Edelcrantz shares center stage with the creator of the first optical telegraph system, Claude Chappe, whose initial experiments on long-distance communication by sight and sound caught the atten­ tion of the French Convention in 1793 as war was breaking out. TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 1005 Chappe had tried several devices and codes before settling on a sem­ aphore system, at first called a tachygraphe but then renamed a télé­ graphe. This consisted of a rotating main beam (regulator) with a rotating wing (indicator) at each end. In a series of modifications of the allowable configurations of the beam and wings, Chappe moved from a code based on the ten digits to ninety-four positions ranging over the digits, the alphabet, and a set of common syllables. When combined with a 94 X 94 table of values, the system allowed for 8930 different words and phrases to be conveyed by a sequence of three settings of the semaphore. Messages went from source to destination through a string of relay stations in visual contact at dis­ tances of 10-15 kilometers. The first line from Paris to Lille in 1794 grew over the next fifty years into a network connecting the major cities of France, northern Italy, and the Netherlands. By 1852, 556 stations traversed some 4,800 kilometers. By then, however, the elec­ trical telegraph had gone into service and quickly rendered the opti­ cal system obsolete. Edelcrantz (his name after elevation to the nobility; he was born Clewberg) learned of Chappe’s semaphore in 1794 and quickly re­ produced it, thereby attracting the attention of the new Swedish king, Gustav IV. Commissioned to study a full telegraph network, Edelcrantz soon replaced the semaphore with a 3 X 3 array of shut­ ters held either open or shut. Treated as three columns of threedigit...

96/05088 Finland: Looking to a common Nordic electricity exchange

In June last year, the Nordic Energy Ministers decided that the Noway-Sweden power exchange would begin operation at the beginning of 1996 and that Finland would join at the beginning of 1997. In what could be seen as Finland's first step towards joining this Nordic power exchange system, the country is due to begin operating its own power trading system this summer.

Nordic Energy Systems: Historical Perspectives and Current Issues ed. by Arne Kaijser and Marika Hedin

648 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Nordic Energy Systems: Historical Perspectives and Current Issues. Edited by Arne Kaijser and Marika Hedin. Canton, Mass.: Science His­ tory Publications (Watson Publishing International), 1995. Pp. xi+246; illustrations, tables, notes, index. $39.95. This volume, based on a Nordic energy systems conference held in Vargon, Sweden, in 1993, will interest Technology and Cultureread­ ers in two ways. The conference explicitly attempted to demonstrate a role for history, particularly the history of technology, in public policy analysis. Additionally, for those of us interested in energy his­ tory, there is a refreshing focus on an important subject that has become dormant in the oil-rich energy economy of the 1980s and 1990s. The editors have organized eleven articles around three themes. In the first section, on the historical roots of electrical systems, Lars Thue and Arne Kaijser discuss, respectively, the comparative history ofrelatively abundant Scandinavian electricity and the development of high-tension power grids, while Evajakobsson surveys the history of Swedish hydropower. All three pieces reflect the influence of Thomas P. Hughes (a Vargon conferee who wrote the preface to the book). This is evident, for example, in Thue’s discussion of “mo­ mentum” and “technological style,” in Kaijser’s references to “planned” and “evolving” systems, and injakobsson’s analytical use of “reverse salient.” Inexpensive electricity has been of crucial industrial importance in the region, particularly for the Nordic metallurgical and forestproducts industries. Three articles that explore the relationship be­ tween energy systems and industry constitute the second section. Ole Hyldtoft provides a narrative of the manufactured-gas industry in 19th-century Scandinavia; Timo Myllyntaus examines the industrial importance of abundant and cheap electricity in Finland, Norway, and Sweden; and former Atomic Power Group official Olle Gimstedt offers an inside story of the initial development of Swedish nuclear energy. The five concluding articles address more recent institutional is­ sues that have resulted from changes in regional and world energy economies. The authors share an interest in two contemporary ques­ tions. The first deals with the recent movement away from statedirected energy boards in electricity (e.g., Vattenfall in Sweden and Statkraft in Norway) and toward deregulation in an economy of de­ clining energy demand. Norway had already enacted, and Sweden taken initial steps toward, massive deregulation at the time these papers were prepared in 1993. The second issue relates to the envi­ ronment. Chernobyl’s enormous impact on thinking in the Nordic lands has blocked the future of the nuclear option. Similarly, there have been various “green” critiques of environmental degradation associated with hydroelectric exploitation of the “industrial rivers” of Norway and Sweden. Denmark has responded to conservation TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 649 and environmental concerns with significant progress in cogenera­ tion (combined production of heat and power) and the use ofwind energy in its electrical industry. The discussion of cogeneration by Mikael Hard and Sven-Olof Olsson stands out among the four articles dealing with the econom­ ics and politics of the deregulation process. The authors provide not only a lucid comparative history of Scandinavian and other Euro­ pean cogeneration experiments in the postwar era, but a convincing recommendation for an energy policy that rests somewhere between market deregulation and privatization, on one hand, and centralized state direction, on the other. Let us not, urge the authors, throw out the baby with the bath water as we worship at the shrine of the free market. Good policy can shape positive environmental and social objectives, a lesson that all industrialized nations, including the United States, should ponder. Gunnar Agfors’s concluding piece speculates on the prospects for a successful transnational Nordic grid for the distribution of natural gas. This volume suffers from the unevenness typically found in the published proceedings ofconferences. There is some repetitiveness, and the depth ofresearch underlying the separate contributionsvar­ ies. Despite its importance to the history of the region, there is a bit too much emphasis on hydroelectricity. Given the enormous impact of North Sea oil and gas over the last quarter-century, one would have expected more than one essay on this topic. Nevertheless, the book succeeds in accomplishing two worthwhile goals. It brings to a wider audience significant...

Nordic Energy Systems: Historical Perspectives and Current Issues

Nordic Energy Systems: Historical Perspectives and Current Issues

95/06736 Nordic energy systems: Historical perspectives and current issues

95/06736 Nordic energy systems: Historical perspectives and current issues

Energy and environment: Nordic energy scenarios for 2010 and 2030

The concept of a sustainable energy sector has received wide attention since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987. This paper analyses the possibilities of establishing by 2010 and 2030 an energy system in the Nordic countries which prevents the critical loads of NO x and SO 2 respectively on the most vulnerable Nordic ecological systems being exceeded. In addition, the present concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere should not be significantly exceeded within a time horizon to around 2050. Different scenarios have been investigated in order to analyse the scope for attaining such a sustainable energy development within the limits of existing technologies and known potentials of renewable energy sources. Data on the technologies are available in a special catalogue.

Household energy behavior in Nordic countries—an unrealized energy saving potential

We conducted survey research in the Nordic countries on household energy behavior and decision making. Several authors have concluded that there is a 10–20% conservation potential in the Nordic countries from behavioral modifications alone. Nordic energy planners have not systematically incorporated research findings on behavior in their incentive strategies for encouraging energy conservation. Further research will be necessary before Nordic energy behavior and decision-making are fully understood. Ethnographic techniques should be used to generate hypotheses followed by broader surveys of specific target groups.