The influence of operational flexibility on the exploitation of CO2 reduction potential in industrial energy production

作者：Siitonen Sari^*; Ahtila Pekka

来源：Journal of Cleaner Production, 2010, 18(9): 867-874.

DOI：10.1016/j.jclepro.2010.01.022

• Energy efficiency
• CO2 emissions
• Economic analysis
• Flexibility

Energy conservation is a key measure for reducing CO2 emissions. However, realising the emission reduction potential of an energy conservation investment depends on many factors, such as energy prices. The EU emissions trading scheme has made the investment analysis more complicated and increased the economic value of operational flexibility under fluctuating carbon prices. The different operational options in industrial energy production complicate the estimation of CO2 reduction potential in the investment phase. Increasing operational flexibility enables optimisation in the economic dimension, which may lead to less than optimum CO2 reduction. In our case study, which analysed the effects of an energy conservation investment made in the pulp and paper industry, the deviation from the expected emission reduction was around 30% over the period from 2000 to 2007. However, it seems that with high carbon prices, increasing operational flexibility has no significant effect on the carbon emissions. In policy-making, the freedom of action that is made possible by increasing operational flexibility should be taken into account when evaluating the contribution of an individual energy efficiency investment towards meeting the national targets for energy efficiency improvement and CO2 emission reduction. 2010 Elsevier Ltd.

• 出版日期2010-6