THE ECONOMIC AND CO2 MITIGATION POTENTIAL OF THE INNOVATION OF THE POWER NETWORK.A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF SUPER-GRIDS AND SMART-GRIDS.
Tesi di Dottorato
Data di Pubblicazione:
2012
Citazione:
THE ECONOMIC AND CO2 MITIGATION POTENTIAL OF THE INNOVATION OF THE POWER NETWORK.A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS OF SUPER-GRIDS AND SMART-GRIDS / E.c. Ricci ; supervisor: F. Bosello ; co-supervisor: D. La Torre ; coordinatore: M. Santoni. DIPARTIMENTO DI ECONOMIA, MANAGEMENT E METODI QUANTITATIVI, 2012 Feb 17. 23. ciclo, Anno Accademico 2010. [10.13130/ricci-elena-claire_phd2012-02-17].
Abstract:
Current power systems have remained qualitatively similar to how the were in the last century, especially with respect to the interaction with the end-users. Though present global challenges are putting pressure and questioning their architecture. The increasing demand for electricity - that has become an essential commodity, fundamental for all activities of today's lifestyle - coupled with the concerns about climate change and the need to improve the quality and reliability of the provision urge a modernization of the network. A modernization that needs: to be low carbon, to be reliability and security improving, and to develop new models of customer relationship.
Indeed, the thesis deals with important issues that are today in the limelight, such as: i) the importance of the electricity sector in the implementation of climate change mitigation strategies, ii) the innovation of the electricity network as a strategy for reducing emissions, iii) the design of new policies of management of renewable energies and of the new services available, iv) the need to actively involve the users of the network into new styles of consumption / production of energy. All of this is evaluated in a context of evolving energy policies, where the relative long-term importance of the different power generating technologies is changing, especially after the recent events in Japan.
The thesis aims at demonstrating the need to promote a qualitative transformation in the system architecture of the “grid” to make it suitable for managing the complexity of the economic scenarios and advanced services that characterize the emerging “knowledge society”, in compliance with the objectives of environmental sustainability and in response to concerns about global climate change. Indeed, because of these concerns and of social and political acceptability issues of nuclear power, as we know it today, the energy scenarios for the next few decades see the emergence of an increasingly important role for renewable energy sources.
The general assumption of the thesis is that such a change in the sources of production is likely to cause a major qualitative leap in the power grid. This transformation may induce the evolution of the electricity grid from a classical architecture, top-down and hierarchical, to a more innovative architecture, that will configure the grid (more and more) as a “social ecosystem”, able to include the empowerment of all its stakeholders and to enhance, in particular, the more active role of all users of the new network services.
To demonstrate and operationalize the complex nature of this change and the emerging trends, the thesis is organized into three integrated papers that develop and disentangle the system effects of the two technologies that today seem to be at the basis of the possible evolution: Super-Grids and Smart-Grids. The analysis will be conducted using a qualitative-quantitative methodological approach through simulations for both technologies and their integration.
The first paper - New electricity generation networks and climate change: the economic potential of national and trans-national super-grids powered by Concentrated Solar Power - develops the analysis of Super-Grids. More in detail, it analyses the system effects and the technological and economic opportunities of transmitting large amounts of electricity over long distances, for the stabilization of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, with particular attention to the resulting geopolitical dynamics.
The analysis is conducted using the simulation platform WITCH, an Integrated Assessment Model (IAM), able to compare this option with other mitigation opportunities, in a framework of intertemporal optimization of resources. In particular
Tipologia IRIS:
Tesi di dottorato
Keywords:
Integrated Assessment ; System Dynamics ; Climate Change ; Renewable Energy ; Power Network ; Super Grids ; Smart Grids ; Consumer Behaviour ; Climate Policy ; Demand Response ; Demand Side Management ; Economic Modelling ; Distributed Generation ; Energy Policy ; Electricity Trade ; Concentrated Solar Power ; Sustainable Development ; Green Energy ; Environmental Economics
Elenco autori:
E.C. Ricci
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