Capacity Expansion of Electricity Sector Using Multiple Sustainability Indicators

The fast-paced growth in electricity demand across the globe raises the question of availability and sustainability of the electricity sector. This paper considers five different sustainability indicators: the risk to human lives, carbon footprint, water footprint, land footprint, and energy return on energy investment (EROI), for planning the capacity expansion of different power plants to fulfil the electricity demand sustainably and cost-effectively. A method is developed for the capacity expansion planning of power sector using Pinch Analysis approach. Different sustainability indicators are combined into an aggregated sustainability indicator by using different methods: p-norms (grid norm, Euclidean norm, and infinity norm) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The prioritisation for commissioning of new power plants, to assure the future electricity demand, is accomplished using the concepts of prioritised cost. It is shown in this paper that the aggregate sustainability indicator and the prioritising sequence of different power plants help in achieving sustainable electricity demand in a cost-effective (both capital cost and overall annualised cost) way. Physical insights of Pinch Analysis help in explaining the optimisation results and optimal energy mix. The proposed method, developed for capacity expansion, is demonstrated in this paper through a case study of the Indian electricity sector.