Sunday, June 1, 2014

New CO2 emission limits on existing electric generation units

Tomorrow, we will hear the news that a new target of 30% reduction in CO2 from the 2005 levels will be implemented to be in place by 2020

The electric generation CO2 emissions for 2005 were 2,373 million metric tons with the following breakdown:

-          87    petroleum
-          292 Natural Gas
-          1,982 Coal
-          12 other (geothermal – non biogenic, and muni solid waste)
-          2373 – total CO2 emissions
-          3901 billion kWh total net generation
-          Avg emission rate    0.6 ton CO2/MWh

The targeted amount for 2020 based on the 30% reduction from the 2005 level or 1,825 million metric tons.

The 2014 AEO early edition is showing that the projected 2020 emissions for the electric sector is 2,112 million metric tons with the following breakdown:

-          13 petroleum
-          478 natural gas
-          1,609 coal
-          12 other
-          2,112 million metric tons total
-          4,193 billion kWh of net generation  (7.48% more than the 2005 level for an average growth rate of 0.48% AGR [very low])
-          Avg projected emission rate of 0.50 ton CO2/MWh
The net reduction required based on the 2020 projection is a 14.6% reduction from the 2020 value. 
  
The targeted reduction of CO2 based on the 2020 projection of 2,112 million metric tons is 287 million metric tons.

It is also worth considering that the 2013 total CO2 emissions were 2,083 million tons and there is only a total of 1.4% of projected CO2 emission increase from 2013-2020.  This seems pretty low and is only 0.2% AGR from 2013-2020

If the 2020 projection is correct, the 287 million metric ton reduction could be met by a combination of energy reduction measures, moving more energy production to gas, and increasing energy from renewables. 

If half came from renewable, the amount of renewable energy would be tied to another 20,000 MW of retired coal, on top of the current projection of 50,000 MW of retired coal.  The amount of wind needed to produce 143 million MWh of power is in the range of 40,810 MW assuming a 40% capacity factor. 

If the other half came from natural gas dispatch over coal, there would be a need for nearly 41,000 MW of combined cycle to be dispatched at about 80% to provide this energy.   The existing fleet of combined cycle is dispatched at about 60%, so there is conceivably some room to increase from existing resources. 


It will be interesting to see how this plays out.  

The target year for 30% reduction is 2030. 

The base projection for 2030 is 2,227 million tons, rather than the 2,112  for 2020

The total reduction needed is 402 million tons. 

My adjusted amount of new wind for half the impact is 57,400 MW and about 26,000 MW of additional coal retirements

My adjusted amount for the amount of new combined cycle generation is 57,400 MW

The reliability impact of these resource changes is not likely to be looked at very closely initially, but will need to be looked at very carefully to make sure that the impact is known. 

Tom


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