The requirement for significantly higher electricity network investment in the UK seems certain as the capacity of distributed generation and large scale renewables increases on the system. In this paper, which forms a chapter in the forthcoming Book “Delivering a Low Carbon Electricity System: Technologies, Economics and Policy” 2 , the authors make a number of significant suggestions for impr...

 All electricity generation technologies emit greenhouse gases at some point in their life cycle and hence have a carbon footprint.  Fossil-fuelled generation has a high carbon footprint, with most emissions produced during plant operation. “Carbon capture and storage” could reduce these significantly, though this is unproven at full scale.  Nuclear and renewable generation generally have a ...

Smart grid enhances optimization in generation, distribution and consumption of the electricity by integrating information and communication technologies into the grid. Today, utilities are moving towards smart grid applications, most common one being deployment of smart meters in advanced metering infrastructure, and the first technical challenge they face is the huge volume of data generated ...

This paper analyses sustainability transitions in the electricity system, using recent theories on socio-technical pathways. The paper describes three possible transition pathways and indicates the implications for (grid) infrastructures. The ‘transformation pathway’ is characterised by a further hybridization of the infrastructure; in the ‘reconfiguration pathway’, internationalisation and sca...

The issue of finding market clearing prices in markets with non-convexities has had a renewed interest due to the deregulation of the electricity sector. In the day-ahead electricity market, equilibrium prices are calculated based on bids from generators and consumers. In most of the existing markets, several generation technologies are present, some of which have considerable non-convexities, ...

Reducing electricity consumption and integrating renewable power generation sources represent two of the main drivers of the so-called Smart Grid. Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications will play a key role on making such a Smart Grid a reality, since they will enable the required bidirectional real-time bulk information exchange. However, communications for the Smart Grid present specific req...

This paper examines the role of fossil-fired power plants equipped with carbon capture systems in a long-term scenario of the global energy system. Within this framework, the impacts of a technology policy is illustrated that requires over time an increasing fraction of fossil-fired power generation to incorporate carbon capture technologies leading in the long run to a virtually carbon-free el...

The Global MARKAL-Model (GMM), a multi-regional "bottom-up" partial equilibrium model of the global energy system with endogenous technological learning, is used to address impacts of internalisation of external costs from power production. This modelling approach imposes additional charges on electricity generation, which reflect the costs of environmental and health damages from local polluta...

Given the increasing importance of sustainability aspects in national energy plans, this article deals with the prospective analysis of life-cycle indicators of the power generation sector through the case study of Spain. A technology-rich, optimisation-based model for power generation in Spain is developed and provided with endogenous life-cycle indicators (climate change, resources, and human...

In this paper, a cost optimal 100% renewable energy based system is obtained for Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim region for the year 2030 on an hourly resolution for the whole year. For the optimization, the region was divided into 15 sub-regions and three different scenarios were set up based on the level of high voltage direct current grid connections. The results obtained for a total syst...