Real Levelized Cost of Energy with Indirect Costs and Market Value of Variable Renewables: A Study of the Korean Power Market

Evolution of Hydropower Support Schemes in Poland and Their Assessment Using the LCOE Method

Hydropower as stable power installations play an important role among renewable energy sources. Yet, their share in renewable energy is small. Currently, it is only 10% of energy from renewable energy sources (RES), compared to 27% in 2010. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to assess the RES support schemes in Poland related to hydropower, such as green certificates, auctions and FIT, with the use of the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) analysis in order to determine which support scheme is best incentivizing hydropower development. The evolution of the hydropower support scheme in Poland is presented. The total LCOE and possible revenues from support systems for various segments of hydropower installations are graphically analyzed for two analysis periods (15 and 50 years) and for two discount rates (7% and 11.4%). The analysis shows the great importance of the support schemes in the profitability of the hydropower plants investments. The LCOE graphical analysis proves to be suitable for showing sensitivity analysis of capital and operating costs of various sizes of hydropower plants. The analysis shows that the LCOE in micro-power plants is usually higher than the support and revenues available in the green certificates or auctions or FIT schemes in Poland.

A Comprehensive Review of Recent Advances in Smart Grids: A Sustainable Future with Renewable Energy Resources

The smart grid is an unprecedented opportunity to shift the current energy industry into a new era of a modernized network where the power generation, transmission, and distribution are intelligently, responsively, and cooperatively managed through a bi-directional automation system. Although the domains of smart grid applications and technologies vary in functions and forms, they generally share common potentials such as intelligent energy curtailment, efficient integration of Demand Response, Distributed Renewable Generation, and Energy Storage. This paper presents a comprehensive review categorically on the recent advances and previous research developments of the smart grid paradigm over the last two decades. The main intent of the study is to provide an application-focused survey where every category and sub-category herein are thoroughly and independently investigated. The preamble of the paper highlights the concept and the structure of the smart grids. The work presented intensively and extensively reviews the recent advances on the energy data management in smart grids, pricing modalities in a modernized power grid, and the predominant components of the smart grid. The paper thoroughly enumerates the recent advances in the area of network reliability. On the other hand, the reliance on smart cities on advanced communication infrastructure promotes more concerns regarding data integrity. Therefore, the paper dedicates a sub-section to highlight the challenges and the state-of-the-art of cybersecurity. Furthermore, highlighting the emerging developments in the pricing mechanisms concludes the review.

Stochastic Modeling of the Levelized Cost of Electricity for Solar PV

With the development of renewable energy, a key measure for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, interest in the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is increasing. Although the input variables used in the LCOE calculation, such as capacity factor, capital expenditure, annual power plant operations and maintenance cost, discount and interest rate, and economic life, vary according to region and project, most existing studies estimate the LCOE by using a deterministic methodology. In this study, the stochastic approach was used to estimate the LCOE for solar photovoltaic (PV) in South Korea. In addition, this study contributed to deriving realistic analysis results by securing the actual data generated in the solar PV project compared to the existing studies. The results indicate that the LCOE for commercial solar power ranged from KRW 115 (10 cents)/kWh to KRW 197.4 (18 cents)/kWh at a confidence level of 95%. The median was estimated at KRW 160.03 (15 cents)/kWh. The LCOE for residential solar power ranged from KRW 109.7 (10 cents)/kWh to KRW 194.1 (18 cents)/kWh at a 95% confidence level and a median value of KRW 160.03 (15 cents)/kWh. A sensitivity analysis shows that capital expenditure has the most significant impact on the LCOE for solar power, followed by the discount rate and corporate tax. This study proposes that policymakers implement energy policies to reduce solar PV hardware and soft costs.

Leveraging Blockchain Technology for Secure Energy Trading and Least-Cost Evaluation of Decentralized Contributions to Electrification in Sub-Saharan Africa

The International Energy Agency has projected that the total energy demand for electricity in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is expected to rise by an average of 4% per year up to 2040. It implies that ~620 million people are living without electricity in SSA. Going with the 2030 vision of the United Nations that electricity should be accessible to all, it is important that new technology and methods are provided. In comparison to other nations worldwide, smart grid (SG) is an emerging technology in SSA. SG is an information technology-enhanced power grid, which provides a two-way communication network between energy producers and customers. Also, it includes renewable energy, smart meters, and smart devices that help to manage energy demands and reduce energy generation costs. However, SG is facing inherent difficulties, such as energy theft, lack of trust, security, and privacy issues. Therefore, this paper proposes a blockchain-based decentralized energy system (BDES) to accelerate rural and urban electrification by improving service delivery while minimizing the cost of generation and addressing historical antipathy and cybersecurity risk within SSA. Additionally, energy insufficiency and fixed pricing schemes may raise concerns in SG, such as the imbalance of order. The paper also introduces a blockchain-based energy trading system, which includes price negotiation and incentive mechanisms to address the imbalance of order. Moreover, existing models for energy planning do not consider the effect of fill rate (FR) and service level (SL). A blockchain levelized cost of energy (BLCOE) is proposed as the least-cost solution that measures the impact of energy reliability on generation cost using FR and SL. Simulation results are presented to show the performance of the proposed model and the least-cost option varies with relative energy generation cost of centralized, decentralized and BDES infrastructure. Case studies of Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Liberia, Mali, and Senegal illustrate situations that are more suitable for BDES. For other SSA countries, BDES can cost-effectively service a large population and regions. Additionally, BLCOE reduces energy costs by approximately 95% for battery and 75% for the solar modules. The future BLCOE varies across SSA on an average of about 0.049 $/kWh as compared to 0.15 $/kWh of an existing system in the literature.