Waste to energy plant operation under the influence of market and legislation conditioned changes

Abstract

In this paper, gate-fee changes of the waste-to-energy plants are investigated in the conditions set by European Union legislation and by the introduction of the new heat market. Waste management and sustainable energy supply are core issues of sustainable development of regions, especially urban areas. These two energy flows logically come together in the combined heat and power facility by waste incineration. However, the implementation of new legislation influences quantity and quality of municipal waste and operation of waste-toenergy systems. Once the legislation requirements are met, waste-to-energy plants need to be adapted to market operation. This influence is tracked by the gate-fee volatility. The operation of the waste-to-energy plant on electricity markets is simulated by using EnergyPLAN and heat market is simulated in Matlab, based on hourly marginal costs. The results have shown that the fuel switch reduced gate-fee and made the facility economically viable again. In the second case, the operation of the waste-to-energy plant on day-ahead electricity and heat market is analysed. It is shown that introducing heat market increased needed gate-fee on the yearly level over the expected levels. Therefore, it can be concluded that the proposed approach can make projects of otherwise questionable feasibility more attractive.

Municipal solid waste management and waste-to-energy in the context of a circular economy and energy recycling in Europe

“…There have been some studies with a specific emphasis on WtE, for instance, under the influence of market and EU legislation [30]. The most recent broadest (in scope) study was conducted by the European Environment Agency "Assessment of waste incineration capacity and waste shipments in Europe" in 2017 [31], with the previous study on incineration overcapacity and waste shipping in Europe commissioned by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives in 2013 [32].…”

Modelling smart energy systems in tropical regions

“…Having thermal energy storage in the energy system allows for more subtle ramp ups and downs of CHP plants in the time when PVs fulfil large share of electricity demand. Moreover, a large share of waste heat from waste incineration plants, which cannot be operated in a flexible manner [45], was also successfully integrated utilizing the DC system and thermal energy storage.…”

“…Norway. The economic cost due to the health issues caused by air pollution in Norway was 700 million EUR (calculated from 2010USD) [45]. The negative externality due to air pollution in Singapore was calculated to be 682 million EUR in the BAU case and the result can be seen in Table 8.…”

Possibility of obtaining wastewater heat from a sewage treatment plant by the means of a heat pump – a case study

“…A large generation of waste energy per capita, classifies waste management (WM) as one of the core issues in sustainable development of EU regions [1]. Wastewater is an important source of energy [2].…”