Energetica India Magazine December 2021

RENEWABLE POWER 41 energetica INDIA- December_2021 Several solutions are available to re - duce carbon emissions. Setting aside the economics of substitution vs carbon capture for liquid fuels at the consumer, the options available to reduce industri - al GHG emissions can be broadly cat - egorized as: • Energy Efficiency » » Reduction in core energy demand from more efficient equipment and processes » » Improvements in energy re-use, par - ticularly hot and cold energy recovery » » Optimization of internal energy gen - eration and supply, which in an industrial context typically means supply of pow - er, steam, hydrogen, and refrigeration » » Loss minimization, e.g., reductions in flaring, fugitive emissions etc • Offsetting » » Taking external actions such as tree planting to offset the emissions gener - ated in industry • Electrification » » Use of renewable electricity to re - place hydrocarbon combustion • Carbon Capture » » Capture of CO 2 and geological se- questration » » Capture of CO 2 and conversion into useful products The potential for energy efficiency is sig - nificant no matter what scenario plays out because it reduces both, operation - al expenditures (OpEx) and emissions, regardless of carbon price. As it is stated in Ref. 1, energy supply optimisation has typically focussed on minimising the operating cost of ex - isting systems or investing to improve the overall thermal efficiency of energy generation cycles. This has led to in- vestments such as cogeneration, and substitution of higher carbon fuel oils for natural gas. However, the energy transition could cause the pendulum to swing much more towards import of low carbon power rather than self-genera - tion. In addition, flexible smart grids will incentivise industrial facilities to balance demand and store, soak up or release energy to help balance the grid. Decisions at the operational level, such as when to use the fossil fuel-based co-generators versus import of zero carbon energy, will not only depend on expected power and fuel prices but also on the predictions (i.e., forecasts) of re - newable energy availability. This, in turn, depends on weather conditions, such as ambient temperature, wind speed, or solar intensity. Due to uncertainty on the factors that affect the generation of renewable energy, it is necessary to include power storage facilities and explicitly consider availability and con - straints.