Volume 1: Energy Innovations: Accelerated Deployment, New Concepts, and Emerging Technologies

Multi-objective optimization for power generation mix focusing on reducing carbon emission and mitigating water scarcity Yiyi Zhang, Jiaqi Wang, Hanbo Zheng, Jiefeng Liu, Jiake Fang, Shengren Hou

Abstract

Global warming and water scarcity are two serious cases that the whole world is facing. The electric power system is a carbon-intensive and water-intensive department emitting and consuming a large amount of carbon dioxide and water respectively. Emerging renewable technology to the power generation system is a solving method and tendency for reducing carbon emissions and the water consumption but taking time to be realized. In this case, deploying an optimal power generation mix under the existing condition should be considered to mitigate those cases. In this paper, an optimal power generation redistribution model is utilized to minimize the total amount of national carbon emissions, and water consumption of arid regions. Case study for 30 provinces of China in 2015 is selected. Five power generation types, namely, thermal power, hydropower, nuclear power, wind power and solar power are discussed. The upper and lower boundary of provincial electricity generation with different energy resources are quantified to limit the adjustment range. The results show that the total carbon emissions can be reduced 1.3% after optimization; the water consumption in provinces like Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing and Shanxi facing water scarcity is decreased, which can mitigate the water scarcity to some extent. The optimization results preliminarily revealed the optimization model is effective and could provide a new perspective to optimize the power generation of regions in China.

Keywords carbon emissions, water consumption, mitigation, optimization, power generation mix