Ecologically sound integrated regional energy planning

Abstract

The central theme of the integrated energy plan would be to prepare an area-based decentralised energy plan to meet energy needs for subsistence and development of alternate energy sources at least cost to the economy and environment. Centralised energy planning exercises cannot pay attention to the variations in socioeconomic and ecological factors of a region which influence the success of any intervention. Decentralised energy planning is in the interest of efficient utilisation of resources. The regional planning mechanism takes into account various resources available and demand in a region. This implies that the assessment of the demand and supply and the intervention in the energy system which may appear desirable due to such exercises must be at a similar geographic scale. In this regard, the District is accepted as the appropriate planning level. Uttara Kannada District, Karnataka State is chosen for carrying out the present study. Planned interventions to reduce energy scarcity can take various forms such as (a) energy conservation through promotion and use of energy-efficient stoves for cooking and water heating, compact fluorescent bulbs in place of ordinary incandescent bulbs, (b) supply expansions through energy plantations and (c) alternatives-renewable sources of energy such as micro/mini/small hydro power plants, wind, solar and biomass-based systems. Ecologically sound development of the region is possible when energy needs are integrated with the environmental concerns at the local and global levels. For this purpose, an integrated planning framework is necessary. The main objective of this research is to develop an "Ecologically Sound Integrated Energy Plan" at District level to arrive at an optimal mix of energy sources that can meet the energy demand in a region by keeping in view the development priorities of the region. The energy plan consists of the following components: (i) Assessment of Supply Situation: This involves analysis of present energy supply system; assessment of woody and other bioresources; assessment of renewable sources potential such as solar, wind, hydro, woody and other bioresources; study of supply system of commercial energy. (ii) Sector-wise Energy Demand: This involves survey of the present energy consumption in different sectors for various end uses covering the type of fuel, magnitude and composition of fuel, trends, seasonal constraints and preferences in consumption and estimating energy demand based on the survey data. (iii) Development of Energy Plan: Based on the estimated supply and demand, an energy plan to meet the energy demand would be worked out in accordance with the development priorities. Techno-economic analyses of various energy technologies would be carried out to find out technical and economic viability of the system. Energy plan at District level is proposed based on the Decision Support Systems approach. (iv) Suggestions for Implementation and Management: With the knowledge of administrative structure at District level and agencies implementing energy development programmes, a suitable institutional structure would be suggested for implementing and managing the energy plan. Analyses of the importance of community participation in energy conservation, planning and identify measures to enhance the level of participation. This thesis presents a conceptual design for an energy system which could meet the demand of all sectors in the region. The proposed design would, in principle, supply enough energy for a sustainable development of a region. The energy planning endeavour involves finding a set of sources and conversion devices so as to meet the energy requirements/demand of all the tasks in an optimal manner. This optimality depends on the objective, such as to minimise the total annual cost of energy or minimisation of non-local resources or maximisation of system overall efficiency. Factors such as availability of resources in the region, task energy requirements impose constraints on the regional energy planning exercise. Thus, the regional energy planning turns out to be a constrained optimisation problem. This exercise describes an optimum energy allocation based on Integrated Energy Planning Approach for Uttara Kannada District and makes a satisfying energy allocation plan for the year 2000, 2005 and 2010. Integrated energy planning developed based on Decision Support Systems (DSS) approach is flexible, adaptable, ecologically sound and gives an optimal mix of new renewable/conventional energy sources.