Energy: A Systems Approach PART I

The future of energy supply presents opportunities and challenges.

The energy sector has been concerned with facilitating the transition to renewable energy, to minimise GHG emissions and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. 

In the words of Armaroli and Balzani (2006):

“Our generation will ultimately be defined by how we live up to the energy challenge.”

The Great Energy Challenge (Source: National Geographic, 2014)
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/energy/great-energy-challenge/

After reading my previous posts, I hope you developed a broad overview of the global energy mix and the need to reduce cumulative emissions. 

Now, I will introduce you to the importance of systems thinking for understanding not only the scale of the current energy situation; but also the challenges faced by the energy industry in relation to achieving sustainable energy trajectories.

The role of systems thinking can be appreciated within the contexts of energy management, technological developments, economics, policy and so on. The current global energy situation can be understood within an integrated climate-energy framework of alternative energy, energy efficiency and climate change (Dorian et al, 2006).

It is therefore very difficult to treat a particular issue in isolation. The amalgamation of physical (natural), human and artificial/virtual entities has increased the extensiveness of 21^st century problems.

One of the main concerns is how to integrate new technologies into existing physical and economic infrastructures (IEA, 2011). Taking it even further, there have been suggestions that physical and economic infrastructures must be revolutionised completely (IEA, 2014). This bold claim has been one of the reasons for the scepticism over the practicalities of incorporating technologies into existing infrastructures. Change does not come that easily!!  

Another issue is SCALE. Yes – this word literally props up everywhere. The focus is ultimately geared towards how to scale-up successes of technologies from local to commercial scales. This is where policy and technology can work hand-in-hand. 

ENERGETICS???

Energy security has appeared time and time again in energy discussions. There are many definitions of energy security. For this post, I’ll focus on energy security in the energetics sense. When we talk about energy, it is useful to take a systems approach (Armaroli and Balzani, 2006) . Ultimately, supply must be adequate enough to meet demand and the system must be resilient enough to withstand failure or rapid changes in peak load. This means there is a two-way process between primary energy sources (supply) and end uses (demand) (IEA, 2011). It makes sense to have some energy management measures in place for rare, but possible events that could affect energy supply and distribution. It is also useful to anticipate rapid load demand changes (Clastres, 2011). 

According to Figure 1, losses should be clearly minimised from dissipation during the energy transfer process, linking the primary energy sources to end-uses. The reduction of energy losses associated with the conversion of one energy form to another essentially means improving the efficiency of the system.

Figure 1. Different Energy Forms http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_carrier#mediaviewer/File:Different_energy_forms_(EC).png (Source: FrancoisDM, n.d.)

A systems approach also highlights drawbacks to a new energy future. A key argument has been posed against alternative energy. Variability and inconsistencies in energy supply from alternative sources may present problems for energy management and pose risks to energy security (Lakshminarayana et al, 2014). The inherent uncertainty and variability of alternative power generation can pose challenges for grid operations (Bird et al, 2013) and the variability in generation sources will inevitably require additional actions to balance the overall system dynamics (Lakshminarayana et al, 2014). Thus, greater flexibility in the system may be needed to accommodate supply-side variability and the relationship of generation levels and loads (Bird et al, 2013). 

In trying to find solutions, many advocate for the application of energy storage solutions and the need to diversify energy sources (BBC, 2014; IEA, 2011) in order to safeguard against supply variability and inconsistencies (NEC, 2014). This makes up part of the concept of SMART GRIDS (Eurobat, 2013). The aim is to develop smarter grids (well....it's implied in the name after all). 

Why look into the grid system? 

Why focus on electricity generation specifically? 

The answer will be provided in 'Energy: A Systems Approach PART II'. WOOO!!!!!

Not an extensive reference list (some references can be found by clicking on the links provided):

Armaroli, N., & Balzani, V. (2007). The future of energy supply: challenges and opportunities. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 46(1‐2), 52-66.

Clastres, C. (2011). Smart grids: Another step towards competition, energy security and climate change objectives. Energy Policy, 39(9), 5399-5408.

Dorian, J. P., Franssen, H. T., & Simbeck, D. R. (2006). Global challenges in energy. Energy policy, 34(15), 1984-1991.

IEA (2014). Energy Technology Perspectives: Harnessing Electricity's Potential. 

IEA (2011). Technology Roadmap: Smart Grids.

Lakshminarayana, S., Quek, T. Q., & Poor, H. V. (2014, April). Combining cooperation and storage for the integration of renewable energy in smart grids. In Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), 2014 IEEE Conference on (pp. 622-627). IEEE.