Rising Electricity Prices Research Articles

Основні особливості переформування берегів Канівського водосховища

Reservoirs provide an electricity generation, promote the development of water transport, municipal and industrial water supply, irrigation, fisheries, recreation and other economic and social needs. However, calls are increasingly being made to limit the creation of new artificial reservoirs and even to destroy existing ones. The reason for this is the significant and very real negative environmental consequences of their creation and functioning – flooding of large areas of valuable land in river valleys, relocation of large numbers of people to new areas, flooding of low and erosion of high banks of reservoirs, deterioration of river water quality due to stagnation and "blooming” and many others. The aim of this work is to analyze the peculiarities of reforming the shores of the Kaniv Reservoir under the impact of hydrological and morphological processes, measures for the coast protection from erosion, deepening the channel and alluvium of new lands by dredging (mainly in the upper part of the reservoir) are considered. The study of this problem in the reservoirs of the Dnieper cascade, including Kaniv, we started from 1993-1997. Therefore, research methods have changed significantly at different stages. Standard methods of soil science were used to study the impact of the reservoir on the coastal soils, primarily on flooding, waterlogging and soil erosion. Since 2010, more detailed terresrial and water expeditionary routes (land) studies have been started to study the overgrowth of the reservoir with hydrophytic and hygrophytic vegetation with the formation of hydromorphic soils on the islands of the reservoir and its coast. Remote sensing methods of the Earth for analyzing the series of space images Landsat-2, 4-5, 7 and 8 were used to study the temporal and spatial changes of landscapes, as well as geospatial positioning of observation points by GARMIN GPS receiver. The important role of the dams construction and pumping stations to protect the low shores of the reservoir from flooding was noted, which, however, created significant problems in the operation of the facility due to rising electricity prices. Attention is paid to the ecological consequences of the new alluvial lands development within the reservoir water area, in particular to “blooming” and deterioration of water quality, as well as to the limitation of the ability to pass extreme floods and the threat of adjacent territories submergence. The nature of erosion and abrasion of the high right bank was studied with the use of a quadcopter, mainly in the area from the village of Rzhishchiv to the village of Trakhtemiriv. The role of marl clays in weakening the abrasion of shores is emphasized and their vulnerability to destruction is shown. The role and development of ravines on the coast and their participation in the fragmentary formation of hydromorphic landscapes along steep cliffs are noted. On the low left bank there is a reformation of the shores in the area from the village of Kyiliv to the Rzhyshchiv military range, where large areas are set aside for fisheries, hunting and recreational activities, as a result of which the wetlands are reduced. The uncertainty of the problem of pumping the water of the Trubizh River into the reservoir to protect the floodplain lands from submergence is emphasized. It is not recommended to use “Raketa” ships for water transport in this reservoir due to their negative impact on shoreline abrasion.

Investigating the potential of solar energy for low-income communities in Australia to reduce hardship, debt and inequality

Microgeneration offers potential for low-income households to access lower-priced electricity and alleviate energy poverty. This paper explores provision of small-scale photovoltaics (sPV) in community social housing, and how self-generated electricity is integrated into routines by sole parent low-income households – a cohort most vulnerable to rising electricity prices. Using a mixed methods approach, this exploratory study investigates the implications of distributed sPV for household electricity consumption, expenditure, and provision of sufficient energy services to achieve thermal comfort, improved health and wellbeing. Results are presented from an analysis of in-depth interviews with eight households in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, and real-time monitoring of selected households’ electricity usage. Drawing on the concepts of co-production and value co-creation, user experiences are discussed along with the potential for reducing energy hardship and debt. Analysis shows provision of sPV technology may not lead to desired changes in the way electricity is used to reduce electricity bills, due to competing values in use. This exemplary study revealed several key technical, social and systemic challenges for tenants and social housing providers, including: constraints on self-managing energy production and consumption, weaknesses in industry/institutional processes, low engagement with the wider electricity market, and need for tailored approach for tenants to achieve better functional outcomes.

Climate change policy discontinuity & Australia's 2016-2021 renewable investment supercycle

The recent history of Australia's National Electricity Market (NEM) from 2012 to 2016 was characterised by coal plant closures, tightening domestic gas market and sharply rising electricity prices. The supply-side response that followed from 2016 to 2021 could only be described as an investment supercycle – 16,000 MW of plant commitments comprising $26.5 billion across 135 (mostly) Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) projects. We examine causes and the effects of the supercycle. Underlying causes included disorderly plant exit and climate change policy discontinuity in prior periods. Adverse effects in the post-entry environment included connection lags, system strength-related VRE production constraints, ex-post remediation costs, system frequency careering outside normal operating bands, and rising system operator interventions. Market institutions were caught out and subsequently focused on market re-design and resource adequacy reforms. Yet analysis contained in this article reveals the NEM's most pressing problems relate to real-time power system security, not fundamental market design or resource adequacy issues. Resolution requires the establishment of ‘missing markets’ (i.e. fast frequency, additional operating reserves, ramping, system strength and inertia), and urgently, to restore power system resilience. Key insights for other jurisdictions are climate change policy continuity and policies which serve to defuse the risk of disorderly coal plant exit.

Assessing the decarbonisation effect of household photovoltaic self-consumption

the combination of falling renewable technology costs, with high and rising electricity prices and non-obstructive national regulations are making distributed generation increasingly attractive. In the case of photovoltaic (PV) systems, even domestic consumers find it profitable to self-produce part of their electricity demand, instead of purchasing all their energy from the grid, which is changing the current way of obtaining and consuming electricity. The purpose of this work is to estimate the decarbonisation effect in the Iberian/Spanish market, produced by domestic PV self-consumption, once the new regulation, passed in 2019, has removed the previous regulatory barriers in Spain. To achieve this goal, the nationwide, distributed, domestic PV self-production was turned into a reduction of the aggregate demand in the market, and the new clearing point and the corresponding dispatched generators list was established, by emulating the performance of the market operator. Based on 2016–2019 market data, the results suggest that self-consumption could decarbonise the Iberian electricity market, with an average rate of just over 300 tCO2-eq/year for each GWh/year of household PV self-consumed energy.

The Interplay between Green Policy, Electricity Prices, Financial Constraints and Jobs: Firm-Level Evidence

Increased investment in clean electricity generation or the introduction of a carbon tax will most likely lead to higher electricity prices. We examine the effect from changing electricity prices on manufacturing employment. Analyzing firm-level data, we find that rising electricity prices lead to a negative impact on labor demand and investment in sectors most reliant on electricity as an input factor. Since these sectors are unevenly spread across countries and regions, the labor impact will also be unevenly spread with the highest impact in Southern Germany and Northern Italy. We also identify an additional channel that leads to heterogeneous responses. When electricity prices rise, financially constrained firms reduce employment more than less constrained firms. This implies a potentially mitigating role for monetary policy.

Smart Grid for Industry Using Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

The growing share of renewable power generation leads to increasingly fluctuating and generally rising electricity prices. This is a challenge for industrial companies. However, electricity expenses can be reduced by adapting the energy demand of production processes to the volatile prices on the markets. This approach depicts the new paradigm of energy flexibility to reduce electricity costs. At the same time, using electricity self-generation further offers possibilities for decreasing energy costs. In addition, energy flexibility can be gradually increased by on-site power storage, e.g., stationary batteries. As a consequence, both the electricity demand of the manufacturing system and the supply side, including battery storage, self-generation, and the energy market, need to be controlled in a holistic manner, thus resulting in a smart grid solution for industrial sites. This coordination represents a complex optimization problem, which additionally is highly stochastic due to unforeseen events like machine breakdowns, changing prices, or changing energy availability. This paper presents an approach to controlling a complex system of production resources, battery storage, electricity self-supply, and short-term market trading using multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). The results of a case study demonstrate that the developed system can outperform the rule-based reactive control strategy (RCS) frequently used. Although the metaheuristic benchmark based on simulated annealing performs better, MARL enables faster reactions because of the significantly lower computation costs for its own execution.

PENGABDIAN MASYARAKAT PENYULUHAN PERAKITAN LAMPU PENERANGAN BERTENAGA SURYA KEPADA MASYARAKAT NAMBANGAN

Kampung Nambangan Perak is located in Kelurahan Kedung Cowek, Bulak District, Surabaya, East Java. The majority of Nambangan residents work as fishermen. The Nambangan community is still unfamiliar with the use of alternative energy such as solar cells to replace fuel oil. The road access of village environment was only illuminated independently by installed map of people’s residents. The dim road conditions can cause a sense of alertness to residents and road users who spent the night. In addition, the installation of lamps with greater power can burden the economy of residents due to rising electricity prices. Based on field observations and direct interviews with local residents, there were three focuses aspects of this community service program, namely the introduction of alternative energy to residents, installation and guidance of lamp maintenance equipped with solar panels. Along with the implementation of guidance and education program for the Nambangan community, it is hoped that the residents will understand and feel familiar with the availability of alternative energy. The residents are also expected to be able to apply the use of alternative energy in their daily life. In addition, residents are expected to be able to carry out the process of assembling and maintaining alternative energy sources, especially solar panels.

Air-conditioning in low income households; a comparison of ownership, use, energy consumption and indoor comfort in Australia

Air-conditioning and energy use are important topics at present, particularly in Australia where rising electricity prices and a changing climate are placing increasing strain on one of the world's longest interconnected electricity networks. At the same time, there is a concern that some consumers are particularly vulnerable to these changes. This study analyses three data-sets consisting of energy use and survey information from several thousand households, with the aim of better understanding the ownership, use, energy consumption and comfort outcomes related to air-conditioning in low income households in Australia. The findings suggest that low income households do tend to own different types of air-conditioning appliances, are more likely to reside in different types of buildings, be located in non-metropolitan areas, and belong to an older age demographic. These differences may have a greater influence on air-conditioning use behaviours (including energy use and comfort), than simply the fact that a household has a low income. Hence it is suggested that potential vulnerability measures should not be based on income alone.

Preferences for and potential impacts of financial incentives to install residential rooftop solar photovoltaic systems in Australia

Shifting the production of energy from fossil fuels to renewable resources contributes towards the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions needed for climate change mitigation. Many countries, including Australia, have had generous financial incentives in place to support households to adopt renewable energy technologies, such as rooftop photovoltaic solar panels. Given the increasing reductions in, and eventually a shift, from subsidies to market-based mechanisms the trend of new solar panel adoption is unclear. Solar power is a particularly relevant climate change mitigation technology in Australia given the country's high insolation rates. Australia has one of the highest rates of residential solar adoption in the world with 20% of households having solar panels. This study uses Australia as a case study because of the range of incentives available and the potential impacts of changes in incentive policies which are already under way. To determine preferences for changes in incentives and to predict consumer choices for adopting solar panels under future policy changes, a choice model was applied. Results showed that about two-thirds of the respondents would be willing to install a photovoltaic system. Installation costs had the greatest influence on choice of a photovoltaic system, followed by a 10-year and a 5-year guarantee of being able to sell excess solar power to retailers, and a high feed-in-tariff. Being able to access an interest free loan did not affect respondents' choices, and up-front rebates were preferred to be at least AUD 4000. Income, education, knowledge about Australia's renewable energy polices and believing in environmental benefits of solar energy all positively influenced the willingness to install a photovoltaic system while age had a negative effect. Preferences for financial incentives varied significantly across respondents. About a third of respondents were sufficiently sensitive to costs and incentives that a substantial cut in subsidies would probably dissuade them from installing a photovoltaic system. Younger people and those knowledgeable about renewable energy policies preferred low installation costs but were not motivated by incentives. Factors likely to influence their decision-making included their level of electricity consumption, rising electricity prices and decreasing costs for storage systems, and they may conclude that solar photovoltaic systems pay off even without government subsidies, which are gradually being phased out.

Macroeconomic impact of the German energy transition and its distribution by sectors and regions

Macroeconomic impacts such as changes in economic structures and employment are very important when evaluating the energy transition in societal terms. We employ a macroeconomic model that accounts for regional, economic and sectoral features. The model results show how the overall positive net impacts of the energy transition in Germany – energy efficiency and renewable energies - on economic growth and employment up to 2030 are distributed across sectors and regions. The biggest relative increases in value added occur in construction, real estate and electricity generation; the biggest decrease is in mining of lignite. Significant effects mainly result from changes in the heat and transport sectors, while the transition in the electricity sector entails smaller impacts. The latter are, however, relevant to the regional distribution: The model results suggest that especially northern and eastern German federal states will benefit economically from the energy transition because they offer attractive locations for investments. At the same time, these states are less affected by decreasing conventional energy generation. Moreover, the impact of rising electricity prices is less negative here than in the other federal states because of their lower electricity intensity in production. In summary, the energy transition represents an opportunity for these regions to strengthen their economies.

Qualimetric approach to solving the problems of innovative development of Russian power industry

The article discusses selected issues of the development of the power industry in Russia. The relevance of the development is related to the development of the electric power industry, meets the Federal Law of the Russian Federation No. 399 “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On Energy Saving and Improving Energy Efficiency...” dated 12/28/2013. The article used statistical methods, the method of averages, the index method ; analyzed trends in the production and consumption of electricity in the Russian Federation; Cause-and-effect relationships between production, consumption, and rising electricity prices have been identified; developed criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of measures to implement the program for the development of the power industry proposed the author’s approach to calculating the degree of effectiveness of the measures taken to ensure the implementation of the program; justified the conclusion about the need to create an institutional system as a mechanism for the innovative development of the electric power industry.

Open grid model of Australia\u2019s National Electricity Market allowing backtesting against historic data

Rising electricity prices, concerns regarding system security, and emissions reduction are central to an energy policy debate under way in Australia. To better evaluate mechanisms that seek to address the nexus of engineering, economic, and environmental challenges facing the country’s electricity system, we have constructed network and generator datasets describing the operation of Australia’s largest transmission network. These data have been collated using open-source software, and are available under an open license. They include the geospatial locations of network elements, and have been designed to interface with a public database maintained by the Australian Energy Market Operator. This interface allows historic data, such as generator dispatch and regional load signals, to be integrated with market models. Interactive network maps, independent datasets, and power-flow models have been used to assess the completeness and functionality of the derived datasets. In the context of Australia, these data can be used to examine geospatial and temporal impacts of power injections from renewables. More generally, they allow market models to be benchmarked against realised outcomes.

Flexibility assessment of a combined heat-power system (CHP) with energy storage under real-time energy price market framework

The use of on-site generation can significantly enhance the primary energy savings of a building while acting as a hedge against rising electricity prices. Among other techniques, combined heat and power systems have proved to be reliable and economically suitable technologies in building applications and provision for their promotion has been set out by the European Union over the last few years. Moreover, demand side management programs can provide additional revenue streams which can further benefit the feasibility of combined heat and power technology in a commercial building while providing services to the grid network. In this context, the aim of the present paper is to investigate the techno-economic performance and energy flexibility potential for demand response programs of a gas turbine combined heat and power unit with thermal and electrical storage in commercial buildings. A short assessment overview on demand side management and demand response programs, with a special focus on combined heat and power systems, is provided to introduce the main aspects of these initiatives. Combined heat and power system, technical parameters and operating control strategies are investigated to determine their effects on system efficiencies and economics. Finally, real time pricing and energy storage are examined to establish the implications on a combined heat and power system in a demand-side management framework. Results show that savings of 7% can be obtained by the introduction of thermal energy storage systems, making them suitable for combined heat and power systems in building applications. Operating in a real-time market, the year-on-year savings associated with the combined heat and power are greater than when fixed rate tariffs are considered, especially with the electric energy storage system installed, since it allows the exploitation of price fluctuations. However, the current high investment cost of electric storage makes this solution economically unsuitable, leading to poorer combined heat and power economic performance.

Comparison of different operation strategies for PV battery home storage systems including forecast-based operation strategies

Photovoltaic battery energy storage systems can increase the self-consumption from residential PV systems and therefore contribute to a decentralized renewable electricity system. Rising electricity prices and decreasing battery prices enhance the economics of residential battery storage. Intelligent operation strategies could further improve the economics and lead to grid relief as well.This paper presents new forecast-based operation strategies for increased battery lifetime and reduced curtailment of PV power feed-into enhance system economics. In addition, these strategies are compared to different commonly used operation strategies in terms of economics and self-sufficiency of the system. Increased battery lifetime is achieved by reducing the average state of charge of the battery by limiting the stored energy according to the predicted energy demand during night. Forecast-based operation strategies are used in combination with variable power feed-in limits of the PV battery storage system to relieve the grid. Two different forecast strategies are discussed: the perfect forecast, which is used as the best case, and the persistence forecast, representing the worst case in terms of forecast accuracy.The operation strategies are evaluated by simulating a DC-coupled PV and battery system. The model is parameterized with measured data from cell testing and battery aging tests. The levelized cost of electricity is used for the economic evaluation of the operation strategies.Results show that the developed forecast-based operation strategy can drastically increase battery lifetime and thus total energy throughput and therefore reduce the levelized cost of electricity by up to 12%. This has been shown effectively for two different types of battery cell, a low-cost consumer cell and a high-quality battery cell. The combination of forecast-based operation strategies with variable feed-in limits can nearly eliminate curtailed PV energy for the simulated system. Sensitivity analyses of component sizing and load profile confirm the findings. The developed strategy can easily be implemented on real residential PV battery energy storage systems since no additional communication interface is required.

Price discrimination and the modes of failure in deregulated retail electricity markets

In Australia, as with Great Britain, governments have shown rising concern with the health of competitive residential electricity markets. A core concern is the practice of price discrimination and the rising dispersion of prices. After almost a decade of Full Retail Contestability, the State of Queensland finally removed its regulated price cap from the residential electricity market in 2016, while almost simultaneously, the two jurisdictions that pioneered this price deregulation reform, Great Britain and Victoria, were questioning their prior policy decision. Queensland makes for a fascinating case study because Southeast Queensland comprises a fully deregulated retail market while Regional Queensland is a regulated monopoly – with common input costs across both zones. Consequently, a regulated monopoly with a uniform tariff and 640,000 customers forms a very large control group, which can be directly compared to the competitive market of more than 1.3 million customers – making such analysis globally unique. Analysis of Queensland market conditions concludes the policy is welfare enhancing, and that British and Victorian concerns regarding price discrimination practices are misguided. To be clear, rising electricity prices are a problem, but price discrimination is not. The deregulated competitive market is, perhaps unsurprisingly, better at regulating the overall average tariff and consumer welfare has been enhanced by $184 million per annum – with some consumer segments very materially better off. However, certain modes of failure remain, viz. an inter-consumer misallocation problem and lack of transparency vis-à-vis the anchoring of discounts – known as the “discounts off what?” problem. The former is currently trivial, and the latter requires further research.

Multi-granular electricity consumer load profiling for smart homes using a scalable big data algorithm

With rising electricity prices, there is a need to give consumers greater control over their energy consumption. It is anticipated that such informed consumers in control of their consumption patterns will contribute to reduced energy usage and thus a sustainable environment. Smart meter technology in smart homes provides real-time information to customers through devices such as in-home displays and web portals, and provide half-hourly consumption data to electricity distributors and retailers. Such data enables the profiling of consumers making it possible to understand different life styles and electricity usage behaviours to provide customised electricity billing. To obtain the anticipated benefit from such highly granular and high frequency data, it is essential to have big data technologies which can process such volumes of data in near real time. The research described in this paper focus on addressing the key requirements of large volume data processing and making use of the highly granular nature of the data. Adapting a new scalable algorithm introduced by the authors for big data processing, this work demonstrates the practicality of processing large volumes of data at multiple levels of granularity. The faster processing capacity makes it possible to continuously analyse consumption data at frequent intervals as they are collected and at a highly granular level thus providing a practical solution as a smart home application. The advantages of the technique is demonstrated using electricity consumption data for 10,000 households for a year from an Australian electricity retailer.

Communicating energy efficiency to senior citizens: the influence of solar-PV and role of technology

There is concern that rising electricity prices in Western Australia have a particular impact on the standard of living for those with fixed incomes. One group thought to be particularly affected are senior citizens. This paper describes a trial that assessed the impact of SMS tips and voltage optimisation units (VOU) on the ability of low-income, senior citizen households to conserve energy. Baseline electricity consumption data was collected during 2014, and in 2015 electricity use interventions were conducted in 127 households. Three electricity saving approaches were trialled: 1) behaviour change tips, 2) tips with the addition of personalised feedback, and 3) VOU in addition to tips with feedback. A factorial between groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that the impact of the interventions was affected by the presence of solar photovoltaic (solar-PV). Results show that for households without solar-PV, there was no significant change in electricity use for any of the conditions. For households with solar-PV, the interventions appeared to have an accumulative effect. A survey of respondent attitudes after the trial revealed that despite the perception that seniors would not take well to technological communications, participants indicated that they preferred SMS over other forms of communication.

Energy disadvantage in Australia: policy obstacles and opportunities

This paper links energy and climate change with disadvantage in Australia and explores the dual disadvantage of steeply rising electricity prices and increasing climate change impacts. It reviews the potential of energy policy and climate policy to alleviate disadvantage, over the short and longer term, and suggests that renewable energy in particular has a role to play. However, the prospect of renewable energy policy advances in Australia is constrained, it is found, by the politicised nature of climate policy more broadly, the influence of the fossil fuel lobby, and the predisposition of current governmental policy. Drawing upon the policy streams and advocacy coalition theories of policy change, the paper assesses the political and ideological bases of this constraint, and the prospects for improved policy that could alleviate energy disadvantage. It finds that, whilst renewable energy does have an important role to play in achieving energy affordability, it needs to be supported politically, and complemented, in practical terms, by a range of policies and measures at all levels of government.

Barriers to the diffusion of renewable energy in Queensland

ABSTRACTThis research was presented at the Sustainable Economic Growth in Regional Australia Conference (SEGRA), in Albany, Western Australia, October 2016. Renewable energy (RE) is needed for the low-carbon future envisioned in the 2015 Paris climate change agreement. This article comparatively evaluates the RE performance of two states in Australia to show how government policies affect energy transitions. The “complex systems” perspective is used as a theoretical lens and it elucidates the constraints to RE transitions. Ambitious targets at state level and sustained political support are required to overcome the multi-dimensional barriers to RE transitions. However, given the complexity of the energy system, it is argued that governments should pursue collaborative efforts across states and with various stakeholders to avoid conflicts, while addressing concerns about rising electricity prices and energy security if the much needed decarbonisation of the electricity sector is to take place.

Can adoption of rooftop solar panels trigger a utility death spiral? A tale of two U.S. cities

The growing penetration of distributed energy generation (DEG) is causing major changes in the electricity market. One key concern is that existing tariffs incentivize ‘free riding’ behavior by households, leading to a cycle of rising electricity prices and DEG adoption, thereby eroding utility revenues and start a death spiral. We developed an agent based model using data from two cities in the U.S. to explore this issue. Our model shows worries about a utility ‘death spiral’ due to the adoption of rooftop solar, under current policies and prices in the U.S., are unfounded. We found, consistently for a number of scenarios, that, while the residential segment is impacted more heavily than the non-residential segment, the scale of PV penetration is minimal, in terms of overall demand reduction and subsequent tariff increases. Also, the rate of adoption would probably be smooth rather than sudden, giving the physical grid, the utility companies, and government policies enough time to adapt. Although our results suggest that fears of a utility death spiral from solar systems are premature, regulators should still monitor revenue losses and the distribution of losses from all forms of DEG. The concerns should lead to a more focus on tariff innovations.