Costs and potentials of energy conservation in China's coal-fired power industry: A bottom-up approach considering price uncertainties

Energy conservation technologies in the coal-fired power sector are important solutions for the environmental pollution and climate change issues. However, a unified framework for estimating their costs and potentials is still needed due to the wide technology choices, especially considering their e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy policy 2017-05, Vol.104, p.23-32
Main Authors: Chen, Hao, Kang, Jia-Ning, Liao, Hua, Tang, Bao-Jun, Wei, Yi-Ming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Break-even analysis
Climate change
Coal
Coal industry
Coal-fired power
Coal-fired power plants
Cost analysis
Costs
CSC
Effectiveness
Electric industries
Energy conservation
Energy costs
Energy policy
Feasibility
Feasibility studies
Pollution
Power
Prices
Steam
Steam electric power generation
Technology
Water circulation
Water pollution
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Summary:Energy conservation technologies in the coal-fired power sector are important solutions for the environmental pollution and climate change issues. However, a unified framework for estimating their costs and potentials is still needed due to the wide technology choices, especially considering their economic feasibility under fuel and carbon price uncertainties. Therefore, this study has employed a bottom-up approach to analyze the costs and potentials of 32 key technologies’ new promotions during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016–2020), which combines the conservation supply curve (CSC) approach and break-even analysis. Findings show that (1) these 32 technologies have a total coal conservation potential of 275.77 Mt with a cost of 238.82 billion yuan, and their break-even coal price is 866 yuan/ton. (2) steam-water circulation system has the largest energy conservation potential in the coal-fired power industry. (3) considering the co-benefits will facilitate these technologies’ promotions, because their break-even coal prices will decrease by 2.35 yuan/ton when the carbon prices increase by 1 yuan/ton. (4) discount rates have the largest impacts on the technologies’ cost-effectiveness, while the future generation level affect their energy conservation potentials most. •The 32 technologies can save 275.77 Mt coal with a cost of 238.82 billion yuan.•The steam-water circulation system has the largest energy conservation potential.•Considering the co-benefits will facilitate the technology promotions•Discount rates have the largest impacts on the technologies’ cost-effectiveness.
ISSN:0301-4215
1873-6777
DOI:10.1016/j.enpol.2017.01.022