Covid-19 shock: Development of strategic management framework for global energy

Public health events and economic growth in a neoclassical framework

Public health events (PHEs) have emerged as significant threats to human life, health, and economic growth. PHEs, such as COVID-19, have prompted a reevaluation for enhanced regular prevention and control (RPC). In this study, we focus on the core concept of prevention and control intensity (PCI), and establish a neoclassical economic growth model from the long-term and macro perspective to balance life protection and economic growth. The model construct the mechanism of PCI on economic growth through population dynamics and capital accumulation under the backdrop of RPC for PHEs. We find the conditions for PCI when the economy achieves steady state, and provides an algorithm establishing the optimal strategy that maximises per capita disposable income based on the optimal PCI and consumption. Simulation result quantifies an inverted U-shaped relationship between PCI and capital per capita, output per capita and consumption per capita in the steady state. The model suggests that, given the PHEs of inducing potential unemployment shock, it is worthwhile to combine the implementation of moderate PCI with coordinated policies of income distribution.

Markov chain-based impact analysis of the pandemic Covid-19 outbreak on global primary energy consumption mix

The historic evolution of global primary energy consumption (GPEC) mix, comprising of fossil (liquid petroleum, gaseous and coal fuels) and non-fossil (nuclear, hydro and other renewables) energy sources while highlighting the impact of the novel corona virus 2019 pandemic outbreak, has been examined through this study. GPEC data of 2005-2021 has been taken from the annually published reports by British Petroleum. The equilibrium state, a property of the classical predictive modeling based on Markov chain, is employed as an investigative tool. The pandemic outbreak has proved to be a blessing in disguise for global energy sector through, at least temporarily, reducing the burden on environment in terms of reducing demand for fossil energy sources. Some significant long term impacts of the pandemic occurred in second and third years (2021 and 2022) after its outbreak in 2019 rather than in first year (2020) like the penetration of other energy sources along with hydro and renewable ones in GPEC. Novelty of this research lies within the application of the equilibrium state feature of compositional Markov chain based prediction upon GPEC mix. The analysis into the past trends suggests the advancement towards a better global energy future comprising of cleaner fossil resources (mainly natural gas), along with nuclear, hydro and renewable ones in the long run.

The link between electricity consumption and stock market during the pandemic in Türkiye: a novel high-frequency approach

This article examines the relationship between electricity consumption and the stock market in the Turkish economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. A novel high-frequency model is used, incorporating the hourly energy consumption and Borsa Istanbul (BIST) National stock market index variables. To determine the effect of electricity consumption on the stock market index and vice versa, a high-frequency VAR-based spillover approach, time-varying Granger causality, and time-varying Bayesian VAR analysis are employed. The findings reveal a positive and weak relationship between electricity consumption and the stock market but it has a time-varying nature in an emerging market context in the post-COVID-19 period in the Turkish economy.

Role of environmental ownership and associated parameters to assess green patents in technologies with environmental scanning system as a controlling factor

There is a general conception that environmental firms are more adapted to green solutions, and environmental patents are just lagging. The existing literature has paid particular attention to identifying obstacles and situational factors associated with established firms going green and has concentrated on how and why established businesses are becoming more financially viable and ecologically sustainable. In changing environment, manufacturing companies are direct contributors to environmental impacts. Increased awareness of consumers about the environment puts a handful amount of pressure on manufacturing companies to care about the environment. It also asserts unseen pressure on the financial performance of the companies. Therefore, it is time to go for green patenting of such firms while satisfying the eco-innovation and environmental scanning process. Moreover, Environmental ownership and its associated parameters keenly monitor this aspect. This paper evaluates the performance of the support vector machine (SVM/SVR) approach for estimating patents in environment-related technologies (PERT) in China from 1995 to 2021. For this work, six independent variables related to environmental ownership and environment-related technologies were selected, which include medium and high-tech exports (MHTE), green patents applicants (GPA), listed domestic companies (LDC), human capital index (HCI), self-employment (SE), and manufacturing value added in GDP (MVA). Data for dependent and independent variables were gathered from the World Bank (WB) official data bank portal. To make an initial understanding of the data basic statistical summary was computed in R programming to see the mean, minimum and maximum values in the data set. A correlation matrix plot showed the association between dependent and independent variables. SVM/SVR with radial basis function (RBF) regression was applied to see the impact of contributing parameters that influence PERT. For PERT, the model generated 0.95 R² (RMSE = 92.43). The results of the SVR showed that the association among environmental parameters is strong. With a value of 4.82, the strongest coefficient in the SVR model is PAR. This work is novel and will benefit the manufacturing sector, analysts, policymakers, environmentalists as how green patenting can boost the eco innovation and environmental ownership and scanning system with advance technologies and practices.

How to improve total factor energy efficiency under climate change: does export sophistication matter?

Climate change has a profound impact on human survival and development. Climate change is an energy and economic issue, which should be driven by technology. Total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) improvement is undoubtedly a breakthrough in solving energy problems. In this paper, the fixed effect model, impulse response function, and threshold regression model are used to test the complex relationship between export sophistication and TFEE. The results reveal that export sophistication improvement leads to higher TFEE. The impulse response results verify the existence of a phased and positive correlation between export sophistication and TFEE. Finally, the relationship between export sophistication and TFEE significantly varied across different threshold levels of regional corruption score, economic development, and openness. This article led the foundation for supporting China's export sophistication promotion strategy and also provides a reference for energy efficiency improvement and energy crisis response in the post-pandemic era.

Research and Development of Trinary Power Cycles

The most effective and environmentally safe fossil fuel power production facilities are the combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) ones. Electric efficiency of advanced facilities is up to 58% in Russia and up to 64% abroad. The further improvement of thermal efficiency by increase of the gas turbine inlet temperature (TIT) is limited by performance of heat resistance alloys that are used for the hot gas path components and the cooling system efficiency. An alternative method for the CCGT efficiency improvement is utilization of low potential heat of the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) exhaust gas in an additional cycle operating on a low-boiling heat carrier. This paper describes a thermodynamic analysis of the transition from binary cycles to trinary ones by integration of the organic Rankine cycle (ORC). A mathematical model of a cooled gas turbine plant (GT) has been developed to carry out calculations of high-temperature energy complexes. Based on the results of mathematical modeling, recommendations were made for the choice of the structure and parameters of the steam turbine cycle, as well as the ORC, to ensure the achievement of the maximum thermal efficiency of trinary plants. It is shown that the transition from a single pressure CCGT to a trinary plant allows the electric power increase from 213.4 MW to 222.7 MW and the net efficiency increase of 2.14%. The trinary power facility has 0.45% higher efficiency than the dual pressure CCGT.

Social Values as One of the Crucial Determinants of Efficient Strategic Management of an Energy Sector Company

A continual increase in the influence of exogenic conditions on a company’s ability to sustain and develop and increasing complexity of the management processes correlated with the discovery of new dimensions of an enterprise, which determine its potential—these all lead to a growing interest in the search for the factors which might facilitate the elevation of the level of integrity of a business model of an enterprise/organisational and managerial system of an enterprise. Currently, it is absolutely necessary to perceive an enterprise not only in the terms of a rational economic system that, in its activity, concentrates on the generation of a positive financial result, and the creation of its value for the stockholders, but also as the system, at the same time, is meant to act responsibly in relation to its stakeholders, society and the market. The observation of successful enterprises shows clearly that the company values make up an element indispensable for the creation of effective strategies of development, and, at the same time, an element guaranteeing them an appropriate level of strategic integrity in external and internal dimensions, paired with the preservation of flexibility for necessary reconfiguration. Some special attention should be paid to the fact that, in order to build permanent competitive advantage, in the context of the strategic dimension of company management, values should play a key role also in the enterprises within heavy industry, including the energy sector. This article aims to present the significance of selected aspects of strategic dimension management in the context of company strategy in one of the largest energy sector companies in Poland. It is based on an analysis of the results of research carried out in the second part of 2021 and at the beginning of 2022. Qualitative studies based on a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews were conducted among this institution’s managers who are responsible for formulating the company strategy. The study results have shown that social and employees’ personal values, organisational culture, and management by values, have a substantial impact on the character and quality of the strategic dimension management of the analysed company. The article aims to show the role of social values in determining efficiency in the area of managing the strategic dimension of a company. In the context of this aim, the following important research questions should be asked: What is the influence of social values and values represented by the TMT (top management team) on a given company’s efficiency in the context of strategic decisions; and how do these factors influence the stability of the company development, and do they ensure the organisation’s resilience to short-term external changes?

Blockchain technology for agricultural supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic: Benefits and cleaner solutions

This study aims to investigate blockchain technology for agricultural supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic. Benefits and solutions are identified for the smooth conduction of agricultural supply chains during COVID-19 using blockchain. This study uses interviews with agricultural companies operating in Pakistan. The findings discover the seven most commonly shared benefits of applying blockchain technology, four major challenges, and promising solutions. About 100% of the respondents mentioned blockchain as a solution for tracking the shipment during COVID-19, data retrieval and data management, product and transaction frauds, and an Inflexible international supply chain. Roughly 75% of the respondents mentioned the challenge of lack of data retrieval and data management and the Inflexible international supply chain in COVID-19 besides their solutions. This study can expand existing knowledge related to agricultural supply chains. The experiences shared in this study can serve as lessons for practitioners to adopt the blockchain technology for performing agricultural supply chain during pandemic situations such as COVID-19.

A Novel Multi-Criteria Assessment Approach for Post-COVID-19 Production Strategies in Vietnam Manufacturing Industry: OPA–Fuzzy EDAS Model

The global manufacturing supply chain has been disrupted by the negative impacts of the pandemic. In Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s manufacturing industry is one of the most strongly integrated with global and regional supply chains. The production strategies in the “new normal” are the key solution to the survival and sustainable development of manufacturers. This study aims to develop a two-stage framework to investigate the impacts of COVID-19 and the post-COVID-19 production strategies for Vietnam’s manufacturing industry. As a theoretical contribution, this study proposes a novel and robust integration approach, which combines the Ordinal Priority Approach (OPA) and Fuzzy Evaluation Based on Distance from Average Solution (Fuzzy EDAS), for the first time. The negative impacts of the pandemic were identified and weighted by the OPA method. Then, production strategies were comprehensively evaluated using the Fuzzy EDAS method. Findings indicate that digitization and on-site renewable energy are the most essential recovery strategies for manufacturing in Vietnam. These findings are validated by comparisons with the results of recent multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods. Furthermore, weight sensitivity analysis reveals different suitability of strategies for short-term and long-term negative impacts. As a managerial implication, the multi-scenario ranking results help managers to make resource-allocation decisions for the implementation of post-COVID-19 production strategies.

An impact study of COVID-19 on the electricity sector: A comprehensive literature review and Ibero-American survey

To stop the spread of COVID-19, governments have implemented confinement measures unprecedented in modern society. One of the main consequences has been the paralysis of commercial and industrial sectors worldwide, primary electricity consumers. This paper examines the impact of these measures on the electricity sector through a literature review accompanied by fieldwork on the impact of COVID-19 in Ibero-America and its energy regulatory response. First, we will review the causes of the reduction in electricity demand due to the confinement measures and their technical and financial consequences in the electricity sector. Second, we will examine the impact of COVID-19 on the wind and solar PV energy sectors, mainly affected by the paralysis of production and export of materials and components. Third, we will revise the regulatory measures implemented by the countries to avoid the interruption of electricity supply to households. This paper will end by reviewing economic recovery plans and their relationship to the energy transition. Although there are no fundamental differences between developed and developing countries in their regulatory reaction to this crisis in the energy sector, there are significant differences in economic recovery planning. While developed countries aim for a green economic recovery and the creation of green jobs, developing countries are allocating least resources to social protection and general economic stimulus programs, postponing climate objectives. In Latin America, this adds to the high levels of debt faced by utilities and the possible resurgence of social crises that were stopped by the COVID-19 outbreak, making a green recovery even more difficult.

Sustainability Development: Assessment of Selected Indicators of Sustainable Energy Development in Poland and in Selected EU Member States Prior to COVID-19 and Following the Third Wave of COVID-19

An important question in the literature on climate change and sustainable development is the relationship between countries’ economic growth, household electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and related economic restrictions, sustainable economic growth remains at the forefront of the global development agenda. However, given the strong relationship between the ever increasing electricity consumption and greenhouse gas CO2 emissions, an increasing number of scientists have been questioning the feasibility of the planned emission reduction. In my research, I strove to determine whether there exists a relationship between the change in the structure of electricity consumption of households in selected EU Member States (15 countries), the impact of innovation, changes in electricity prices and economic growth, and CO2 emissions in 2007–2019, prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and following its third wave (2021). The aim of the article is to propose a synthetic index to assess the degree of sustainable energy development (SISED) in selected EU countries. Multiobjective decision analysis (MODA) was applied in order to assess the sustainable energy development of the selected European countries. Research findings may contribute to both literature and practice if they are applied by individual EU countries in the process of formulating directions aimed at achieving sustainable energy development.

Recovery of Degraded Areas through Technosols and Mineral Nanoparticles: A Review

Anthropogenic sources such as urban and agricultural runoff, fossil fuel combustion, domestic and industrial wastewater effluents, and atmospheric deposition generate large volumes of nutrient-rich organic and inorganic waste. In their original state under subsurface conditions, they can be inert and thermodynamically stable, although when some of their components are exposed to surface conditions, they undergo great physicochemical and mineralogical transformations, thereby mobilizing their constituents, which often end up contaminating the environment. These residues can be used in the production of technosols as agricultural inputs and the recovery of degraded areas. Technosol is defined as artificial soil made from organic and inorganic waste, capable of performing environmental and productive functions in a similar way to natural ones. This study presents results of international research on the use of technosol to increase soil fertility levels and recover degraded areas in some countries. The conclusions of the various studies served to expand the field of applicability of this line of research on technosols in contaminated spaces. The review indicated very promising results that support the sustainability of our ecosystem, and the improvement achieved with this procedure in soils is comparable to the hybridization and selection of plants that agriculture has performed for centuries to obtain better harvests. Thus, the use of a technosol presupposes a much faster recovery without the need for any other type of intervention.

An Equifinality Energy Management Framework in Terms of Benchmarking Practices and Expectations: The EnerMan Project Outlook

Background: The Industry 4.0 wave is leading the changes in existing manufacturing and industrial processes across the world. This is especially important in the formulation of the smart-factory concept with an outlook to energy sustainable processes. In viewing and identifying the foundational elements of such a transformation, the initial conditions and current practices in a cross-sectoral manner is considered a first, yet crucial step in the EU-funded project EnerMan. Methods: In this paper, we identify and analyse the key common features and characteristics of industrial practices set in a perspective of similar and identical functions with a focus to three key energy areas: sustainability, management, and footprint. The examination of different industrial sector cases is performed via distributed questionnaires and then viewed under the prism of the equifinality state via a text-mining analysis approach. Results: identification of common themes and benchmarking of current practices in a cross-industry manner led to the creation of a common systemic framework within energy management related aspects, which is hereby presented. Conclusions: use of an equifinality approach in energy management practices should be further pursued to open up new methods of ideation and innovation and communicate systems’ design in tandem with each industrial set goals.

Sustainable development in period of COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic has shown that sustainable development of energy, water and environment systems is essential for the basic life needs of humankind. Logistics problems, shortage of resources and goods, a crisis of traditional energy systems, all these COVID-19 caused problems show that available resources should be used with caution. This paper is an introduction article to the Virtual Special Issue that discusses some of the latest developments in three research topic areas, namely Energy, Water and Environment. These research topics emerged from the four Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conferences held in 2020. The purpose of the introduction article is to provide a brief introduction to the field and the articles included in this Journal of Cleaner Production Virtual Special Issue.

COVID-19 Pandemic Effect on Energy Consumption in State Universities: Michoacan, Mexico Case Study

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated multiple impacts. In particular, in the educational sector, the virtual class modality generated changes in the patterns of energy consumption at the institutional level; the identification of this consumption will allow us to reflect on new energy saving and efficient use strategies. In this research, we present a case study of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on electricity consumption in 13 state universities in Michoacán, Mexico. Electric energy consumption has been evaluated before and during the presence of the COVID-19 between 2019 and 2020. The comparative analysis estimated the reduction in energy consumption and its economic and environmental impact. The results show a considerable decrease in electricity consumption, generating an average saving of 76.24 MWh/month, which translates into an annual emission reduction from 2019 to 2020 of approximately 497 TnCO2e, and in economic terms of $8,882.25 USD each month. In general, it was identified that consumption patterns in the use of machinery and computer equipment for administrative activities were drastically reduced. If education continues in virtual or hybrid modes, energy consumption schemes will continue to decline and institutions could move towards resilient, affordable, and sustainable models of energy production and consumption.

Socio-economic and corporate factors and COVID-19 pandemic: a wake-up call

The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) emerges from the Chinese city Wuhan and its spread to the rest of the world, primarily affected economies and their businesses, leading to a global depression. The explanatory and cross-sectional regression approach assesses the impact of COVID-19 cases on healthcare expenditures, logistics performance index, carbon damages, and corporate social responsibility in a panel of 77 countries. The results show that COVID-19 cases substantially increase healthcare expenditures and decrease corporate social responsibility. On the other hand, an increase in the coronavirus testing capacity brings positive change in reducing healthcare expenditures, increased logistics activities, and corporate social responsibility. The cost of carbon emissions increases when corporate activities begin to resume. The economic affluence supports logistics activities and improves healthcare infrastructure. It linked to international cooperation and their assistance to supply healthcare logistics traded equipment through mutual trade agreements. The greater need to enhance global trade and healthcare logistics supply helps minimize the sensitive coronavirus cases that are likely to provide a safe and healthy environment for living.

The Inclusion of Intellectual Capital into the Green Board Committee to Enhance Firm Performance

The purpose of this study was to conceptualise a framework that reflects an intertwined relationship between the green board committee and firm performance. Agency and stakeholder theories hold a basic notion of supporting the relationship between the green board committee and firm performance. The moderating role of intellectual capital (IC) was introduced in the intertwined relationship between green board committees and firm performance based on a resource-based view theory. This study proposes a new measurement index, namely, the “green board committee index”, to measure the green practices of organisations. This index is comprised of four dimensions: strategy and policymaking, monitoring and control, sustainability, and risk management. The current study hypothesised a significant and positive relationship between the green board committee and firm performance. It was believed that the moderation effect of IC strengthens the relationship between the green board committee and firm performance. The data for this study were proposed to be measured through a content analysis of the company’s annual and embedded reports and a Thomson Reuters DataStream terminal. It adds to the body of knowledge by alluding to an integrated notion of green board committees and IC concerning firm performance. The mentioned conceptual framework sends signals to legislators, regulators, policymakers, and practitioners on the critical insights and actions of green board committees in setting strategies and objectives, addressing sustainability issues, forging a relationship with stakeholders, and increasing the firm’s value from the business operations.

Impacts of COVID-19 on energy demand and consumption: Challenges, lessons and emerging opportunities

COVID-19 has caused great challenges to the energy industry. Potential new practices and social forms being facilitated by the pandemics are having impacts on energy demand and consumption. Spatial and temporal heterogeneities of impacts appear gradually due to the dynamics of pandemics and mitigation measures. This paper overviews the impacts and challenges of COVID-19 pandemics on energy demand and consumption and highlights energy-related lessons and emerging opportunities. The discussion on energy-related issues is divided into four main sections: emergency situation and its impacts, environmental impacts and stabilising energy demand, recovering energy demand, and lessons and emerging opportunities. The changes in energy requirements are compared and analysed from multiple perspectives according to available data and information. In general, although the overall energy demand declines, the spatial and temporal variations are complicated. The energy intensity has presented apparent changes, the extra energy for COVID-19 fighting is non-negligible for stabilising energy demand, and the energy recovery in different regions presents significant differences. A crucial issue has been to allocate and find energy-related emerging opportunities for the post pandemics. This study could offer a direction in opening new avenues for increasing energy efficiency and promoting energy saving.

Is the Alternative Energy Sector COVID-19 Resistant? Comparison with the Conventional Energy Sector: Markov-Switching Model Analysis of Stock Market Indices of Energy Companies

The outbreak and rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the global financial markets, including the energy sector. Alternative energy belongs to the economy’s key sectors concerning environmental issues and seems to be a full-fledged alternative for fossil-based conventional energy. This paper aims to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the stock market indices related to the alternative and conventional energy sector. We use daily data on the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Global Alternative Energy Index, the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI) Energy Index, and self-developed Average-49 COVID-19 New Cases Index and Average-49 Stringency Index. The research covers the period January–October 2020. The average level of the MSCI Global Alternative Energy Index in COVID-19 year was more than a quarter higher than in 2019 while the MSCI ACWI Energy fell almost one-third in the same period. Based on the Markov-switching model, we show that both the MSCI Global Alternative Energy and the MSCI ACWI Energy are not significantly affected by the epidemic status. The analysed indices decline as the government anti-COVID-19 policy becomes more stringent, but the relationship is statistically significant only in the high-volatility regime. In comparison to the conventional energy index, we reveal that the alternative energy index stays most of its time in the low-volatility regime without being adversely and significantly affected by the COVID-19 related indicators. Our study shows that the alternative energy sector, represented by the MSCI Global Alternative Energy Index, seems to be more resistant to COVID-19 than the conventional energy sector. It might imply that the novel coronavirus pandemic has not depreciated but emphasised the growing concern about climate change and environmental pollution.