Cost of Energy to the Business Community and to Society - Essay Example

Edelman Paper Research: Critical thinking Opinion on the value of the article with respect to the business community Hu, Putz, Sutjandra, Chan, Mount & Baker wrote a valuable and important article to the business community. The article addresses major issues such as the cost of energy both to the business community and to the society. It does so by describing a computer application that allows users to monitor the generation output of Columbia River Power System safely. The idea of using computer application software is significant to the business community because it reduces chances of incurring losses due to inefficiencies and lack of safety. The process affects some fundamental resources and operations of the business community. For example, optimization of water routing and electricity generation affects the efficiency of business processes either directly or indirectly. It determines the ability of businesses to integrate energy protocols, direct energy to the required sources, limit waste and enhance productivity. Energy and water are important resources that determine whether an organization will meet its objectives. Businesses may want to explore the reduced costs associated with renewable resource integration, reduced cost of power supply management, optimization of hydro output for vending in wholesale market. The measures above affect the sustainability level of a business. For example, it empowers stakeholders to integrate hydroelectric power with wind and solar energy. As a result, businesses can easily adapt to changing environmental conditions. It allows the business entities to measure resources with the intention of attaining efficiency. For example, the software not only enhances the safety process, but also limits waste. The optimization process of energy and water resources by the Energy Authority as a regulator influences the business sector significantly by determining the cost of resources. Businesses now understand the necessity of raising the output of electricity generation by a considerable margin. A higher output reduces the costs of energy and makes it affordable to members of the business community. The availability of hydroelectric power to businesses is dependent on regional dialogue sales agreement. Businesses need to comprehend that the agreements began in 2011 and extend to 2028. The power is available to businesses through public utilities. The utilities should address the load needs. In case they fail, businesses have to integrate non-federal energy in order to address the extra load. Businesses need to comprehend that the contemporary power sector runs on an hourly clock. During such a time, the demand, price and supply of power are determined. The information will help businesses to plan their power needs. Opinion on the values of the article with respect to this course After attending the course and gathering general and in-depth knowledge, one appreciates the relationship between investigation, statistics and critical thinking. The analysis and evaluation of the content and structure of this article are valuable to the course. Consequently, it is important to highlight aspects of the course such as forecasting, decision analysis, linear programming and project management. The application of the software at Columbia River Power System was based on crucial project management values such as speed, precision, flexibility and control. The aspects of project management learned in class include planning, scheduling and controlling. Speed and flexibility fall under the category of scheduling. A critical analysis of the precursor designs such as TEA optimizer solutions clearly highlights the project management issues. Firstly, speed is manifest in the need to manage the slice contract on a real-time basis in order to achieve the intended objectives. Secondly, flexibility is evident in administering the solution space. The intention of the process is to ensure a user accesses the generation output as required. Thirdly, control allows the entire process to be deterministic, meaning that one can initiate measures to direct the entire process. Linear programming is a major issue learned in class with an example being the transportation model that determines the interaction of variables in the sector. The variables in the sector include supply, demand and relationship between diverse resources. The article employs geographical models rather than transportation model. The model is best illustrated by the interaction between generation and tail water. The article is related to concepts learned in class as evident in graphical analysis. For example, a curve generated after quantitative analysis showed the minimum tail water present in the downstream forebay discharge. The article employs modelling applications to illustrate the energy situation, especially the production statistics. The statistics are based on the principles of decision analysis and forecasting. Decision analysis is evident in the comparison of simulation count, feasibility percentage, 10 day opt, stitching count and stitching opt. Forecasting is evident in the estimated economic benefits such as reduced cost of power supply management. Article summary The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed 31 dams of the FCRPS between 1909 and 1975. The facilities facilitate energy production support agriculture. The capacity generation of these dams is approximately 20,460 megawatts. The introduction of Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) happened in 1937 by the intervention of the federal government with the main objective being supplying power to the public at a lower cost. The establishment of The Energy Authority, which is a non-profit organisation, was done in 1997 through the involvement of three power utilities in the public. These include Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG), Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) and South Carolina Public Service Authority (Santee Cooper) (Hu et al 44). The aim of this establishment was to take advantage of the economy of scales and allow active participation in the market for deregulated energy (Hu et al 45). The Columbia River Basin plays a fundamental role because it is involved in the generation of power, irrigation, flood control, fish and wildlife habitat and recreation. The management of the lake supports recreational requirements such as beaches and swimming. The operation of FCRPS takes place in ways that supports its life cycle. The bulk of power from BPA is sold to public utilities according to the requirements of Bonneville Project Act initiated in 1937 and Power Planning and Conservation Act initiated in 1980. The public utilities use long-term agreements of power sales with BPA. The contracts in this case are currently referred to as power sale agreements based on the regional agreement. The dialogue contracts are available in two types. These are the sale agreements of full power requirement and slice block power (Hu et al 47). An examination of the Slice Water-Routing Simulator indicates that a slice utility determines the extent of energy use. In this simulator, an operation of a virtual river by each utility happens. This represents FCRPS in a reasonable manner based on constraints and condition of the river. The system in this simulator has six dams linked to the Columbia River through hydraulics. The dams account for close to 85 % of the total output generated by FCRPS (Hu et al 46). In order to determine the energy entitled, a slice utility makes submission of a request for simulation (Hu et al 48). The design objectives and considerations in TEA Optimizer Solution were associated with various objectives, which include offering assistance in addressing the hydro optimization of the dam within stated constraints. The second objective was facilitation of the system flexibility. The third objective was to allow for any form of assistance in a manner that would permit power schedulers and traders to make decisions in an optimal way. Challenges associated with hydro optimization can be addressed. Consequently, there are similarities between the optimizer model and the deterministic model. Constraints associated with slice could be applicable to more variables. Solutions in TEA optimizer involve high availability and load balanced servers that run optimizations and gather BPA constraints. Each server used for optimization contains Gurobi equipment, which offers solution to the Optimizer model. It takes close to 240 hours depending on constraint regime and the river conditions (Hu et al 47). It offers appropriate controls. It also retains the system flexibility for the electricity traders, power planers and power schedulers. Consequently, they system aids in achieving desired outcomes. The slice model consists of dams whose variables fall into three categories including electricity, water and elevation that are associated with linear and nonlinear equalities. The model contains nonlinear, complex generation, tail water and volume functions. It is worth mentioning that the nonlinearities associated with the FCRPS constraints are limited. In this model, there is both geological and chronological linking of all the dams. At some point, the state of the system is dependent on decisions made with regard to water routing in previous hours. An examination of dimension reduction indicates that complex nonlinearities create many challenges, especially when solving the slice model. The initial stage towards addressing such challenges involves a reduction of the dimensionality of the model. The Energy Authority is concerned with the optimization of hydroelectric generation and Water Routing Interfaces. In the event of a new constraint from BPA, there must be a dynamic variable translation into the water-based variables. Nonlinear constraints generate significant challenges in a technical perspective. The variables that create enormous difficulties, especially when finding solutions include generation and tail water. Tail water involves a complex function of the overall discharge from downstream level and the dam. A dynamic linearization of the constraint in terms of discharge and downstream fore bay aids in the resolution process Measuring system flexibility is a difficult task involving preservation of solution space. It also involves measuring the generation flexibility for the system. The task is difficult since all the dams are connected to each other through serial coupling. Resolving this difficulty involves the addition of maximum generation and minimum feasible variables to the model. The management of uncertainties involves using an optimizer as a deterministic tool. It is noteworthy that the uncertainties handled in this case interfere with the operation of the system. The uncertainties also address changes taking place to the system unexpectedly. The estimated economic benefits associated with TEA Optimizer solution and the BPA slice includes reduction in costs rather than additional revenue due to optimization. Other benefits are cost reductions in the integration of renewable resource, cost reduction in the management of power supply and increase in revenue through the optimization hydropower output. The reduction in costs with regard to the management of power supply infrastructure requires a full-time equivalent (FTE) staff by individual utilities. This is applicable to individual utilities where manual planning and execution of power supply portfolio takes place using a BPA slice. The process would require an increase in the number of shifts and employees per shift. The increment allows some shifts to be dedicated towards scheduling and marketing of power while others are dedicated for the manual circulation of hydro routing schedule. A utility that applies optimizers needs few members of staff. The process eventually reduces the total annual cost used in maintenance and optimizer licensing (Hu et al 55). Works Cited Hu, Zengjian. Putz, John. Sutjandra, Yohan. Chan, Abel. Mount, Edmond. & Baker, Kristen. “The Energy Authority Optimizes Water Routing and Hydroelectric Generation on the Columbia River." Interfaces 45 (2015): 43-57. Print. Read More