Role of High-Level Technologies in Sustainable Energy Sector Development

Abstract

The global trend in energy sector development is mostly concentrated in its environmental sustainability because of the increasing awareness and responsibility of the countries towards addressing climate change and local adverse environmental impacts due to energy sector emissions. Though in the recent past environmental sustainability was the focus of largely the developed countries, currently it is at the forefront of the developing countries agenda too due to its local impact. The large developing countries like China and India are making great strides in this regard with a strong emphasis on clean energy development._x000D_
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Clean energy development which includes not only the use of renewable energy sources such as hydro, wind and solar power but also increased emphasis on energy efficiency and optimal use of existing energy sector assets, requires increasing use of new and high-level technologies to ensure better use of such interventions. For instance, renewable energy penetration of up to about 20-25% of the system generation capacity can be accommodated in a typical power system without a major issue of system stability. However, any level of penetration beyond these limits require use of non-conventional technologies such as new types of energy storage, variable conventional generation, energy management systems and demand response mechanisms coupled with smart metering. Also, these technology interventions require wide use of information communication technologies to ensure that these new devices can communicate with each other for optimal use of these assets and efficient operation of the overall power system. Similarly, countries with small power systems where subcritical coal power plants used to be the most attractive option for thermal power generation can now adopt liquified natural gas (LNG) fired power plants based on small-scale floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) at competitive generation costs with significantly reduced adverse environmental impacts._x000D_
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In the case of developing countries, since the power systems are fast growing, they can leapfrog in technology adoption and deployment. For instance, small developing power systems can move towards large scale penetration of renewable energy with storage and small-scale LNG based power generation along with smart metering coupled with demand response for power system control. Asian Development Bank (ADB) is playing a central role in supporting the developing countries in these efforts. Its support has been extended to increase awareness on these technologies and to pilot them to increase confidence in deployment. Also, it has been supporting capacity development to install, operate and maintain these systems with high-level technologies. These activities are funded through several trust funds established within ADB. Some of the recent ADB support included latest energy storage and energy management systems, urban and rural mico-grid pilot projects, mobile technology based business models and energy sharing in small solar home systems, floating solar power systems, smart electricity metering and renewable energy dispatch control systems. These efforts will continue with developing countries increasingly embracing high-level technologies for environmentally sustainable energy system development.