Polityka Energetyczna - Energy Policy Journal

The rapid surge of global oil prices, on account of the pent-up demand after COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine war, has significantly contributed to the cost-push inflation as well as twin deficits, predominantly in developing economies. Motivated by the intention to curb the inflation, governments of several oil-dependent economies have rolled out fiscal measures to provide immediate relief to households through subsidizing the fuel component of the consumption basket. This paper provides a case study of Pakistan, wherein the effectiveness of untargeted gasoline and diesel subsidies has been gauged against alternative direct disbursement mechanisms. The analysis reveals that under the price-control based indirect subsidy disbursement mechanism, only 11% of the total domestic subsidies were directed to the poorest 40% of the households, whereas approximately 55% of the total subsidies were allocated to the 20% of the most liquid household segment. The case study analyzes the performance of alternative direct subsidy disbursement mechanisms which transpires into the potential fiscal savings of PKR 74.63 billion, while providing coverage to 40% of the lowest household segment. The study also evaluates the implication of the pass-through of the true prices on the national consumption of gasoline and diesel in the short-term, which reveals the sharp reduction of petroleum consumption in the total bill from 37% to 23%, thereby providing substantial relief to the current account balance. The finding provides key insights for economies to institutionalize the necessary social protection system and progressively transit to the direct subsidy disbursement mechanism while striving to contain the cost-push-based inflation triggered through the rapid movement of global oil prices.

The electric power sector is analyzed from the standpoint of well-being and a number of political priorities are considered that go beyond the traditional tasks of the so-called “energy trilemma”, namely reliable, affordable and carbon-free energy. This shows the importance of solving the problem at different levels as it can help the Government of Kazakhstan more reliably achieve synergy between actions to combat climate change and other priorities and, consequently, achieve double harmonization. The purpose of the study is to consider the cost and pricing surveys in the conditions of the functioning of the electricity market of Kazakhstan. Electricity is of key importance for human well-being. Electricity is highly necessary for many basic services, infrastructure and economic activities. Despite the increase in energy efficiency, the global electricity demand increased by 115% between 1990 and 2020, which is significantly higher than the population growth rate over the same period. This trend will undoubtedly continue conditioned upon economic growth, increased access and the electrification of end users. The assessment of electricity generation technologies from the point of view of well-being requires the use of the full cost method, which includes all applicable external costs, risks and benefits to determine the low-carbon energy balance, which in the Republic of Kazakhstan, is compatible with sustainable development. This assessment clearly needs to go beyond the plant level to consider the network infrastructure and demand to get a holistic view of the social costs of electricity. The practical significance lies in the analysis of cost and pricing in the conditions of the functioning of the electricity market of Kazakhstan.

Increasing energy security in the face of rising energy demand and declining funding for fossil fuels has necessitated the diversification of energy supply and the shift to renewable energy. Sustainable management of energy supply is aimed at achieving a low-carbon intensity of production, especially in energy-intensive industries, including the mechanical-engineering industry. The article examines the possibility of shifting the current mechanical-engineering enterprise system and the technical, environmental and economic indicators of production to the new concept of the green economy, which will be an alternative to the further sustainable development of the industry. This article analyzes key approaches to energy conservation. An analytical model has been developed for calculating the energy risk of the mechanical-engineering enterprise and has built a context diagram of mechanical-engineering production, taking into account the environmental impact and the possibility of energy modernization, which allows the setting of strategic goals to ensure the sustainability of energy supply in the mechanical-engineering industry and develop the main principles of efficient enterprise activities in the context of increased risk. It has been proven that one of the criteria for increasing the profitability indicator is the adaptability of enterprises to external conditions and increasing alternative options for obtaining energy from our own autonomous sources.

This paper presents the results of modeling and analysis of hybrid generation system (HSW). The system contains municipal waste gasification installation, photovoltaic (PV) system and wind farm. The system cooperates with the power system to provide electrical energy to the communal consumer. The consumer is characterized by a maximum power demand equal to 10 MW and an annual energy demand of 42.351 GWh. Generation with renewable sources was modelled using meteorological data. Moreover, in order to cover the demand with the level of generation, gas storage was used. Next, the three-stage gasification model is presented. It was validated, using the literature data, and its efficiency and gas composition have been calculated and are presented. Furthermore, energetic and economic analysis have been conducted. Installed power usage factor and efficiency of energy sources were calculated. Gross and net energy generation of hybrid generation systems have been computed and are presented. In this analysis, energy consumption by gas compressing was included. The analyzed HSW covered 54.5% of the demand. Most of this (30.2%) was covered by the gasification system. However, the system was characterized by a low net efficiency equal to 16.7%. Diagrams of power generation in each source and storage fill chart are presented. In the economic part of the analysis, results of calculations of net present value and payback period are published in order to examine the profitability of the system.
The cost of electricity was 490–1050 PLN/MWh. The results show that municipal waste gasification can be used as a part of HSW to adjust the generation with the demand. Moreover, it can be economically advantageous. However, it is characterized by high CO ₂ emission and low efficiency of the waste processing system.

The poor energy situation in most African countries manifests itself in very low access to energy and high energy poverty. To address these problems, and drive towards achieving universal energy access, African nations have, in recent time, directed attention to governance issues in energy resource development through building relevant institutions, strengthening legal frameworks, designing policies, ensuring cooperation, and harnessing investments. The concern for a governance approach to energy development is partly due to the submission that the core reason for poor energy delivery is ineffective energy governance. This study is based on Southern Africa and intends to examine the current energy access situation and explore the existing energy governance initiatives. The study used three measures of energy access (national, rural and urban) and energy consumption in order to examine the existing energy situation. The governance actions were examined by looking at national energy policies, energy partnerships (private sector, development partners), and sub-regional power pools. The study observes that the generally poor energy situation in Africa is evident in the Southern African countries. Governance actions are found to be multisource and multilevel. While these actions confirm the seriousness of the stakeholders in addressing the poor energy situation; results have been minimal. Thus, there is a need for more vigorous efforts in implementing the energy policies, engaging the private sector and creating productive cooperation among energy delivery stakeholders.

This article presents an investigation of solar power plants’ economic efficiency in the case of energy prosumers. The economic effect of the development of solar energy, the environmental effect of the transition to green energy and the social effect due to lower electricity costs and investment growth from the use of photovoltaic installations (PVI) have been proven. The level of annual savings in PVI due to changes in production and own consumption of electricity are determined. Through use of factor analysis, the grouping method, the method of generalizing indicators, quantitative data collection for solar PV systems and the matrix method, the two main hypotheses were proven: (i) solar energy production should be stimulated by a sound state tariff policy; (ii) prosumers as players of the electricity market should be considered in the tariff policy. It is revealed that at current interest rates, PVI operational activity is subject to more complex factors, and the main one becomes economic, namely considering the economy of consumers, the level of taxation or grants of PVI activities, as well as productivity and the real state of technical condition of devices. The provided research develops the theoretical and empirical basis for the state policy of solar electricity usage with consideration to the peculiarities of its production and consumption. The process of production and consumption of electricity in PVI is not characterized by uniformity, which is derived from a number of factors, primarily from natural and climatic conditions. It also depends on the technical characteristics of the devices.

This article discusses the advantages of using renewable energy resources (RES), analyzes the resource potential of Ukraine in terms of energy production and substantiates the benefits of using RES for energy security. It explores the potential of the existing technological infrastructure for the sustainable development of the energy industry in Ukraine. It also identifies the structure of energy capacities and the technically achievable potential of energy production from RES and alternative fuels as a basis for different scenarios for the prospective development of alternative energy in Ukraine.
The development of solar, wind and bioenergy is analyzed in line with policy recommendation traced with the dynamics of the final volume of energy consumption in Ukraine.
This enables improvements to the methodology for determining the target parameters of energy security with the available resource potential, which forms the basis for the dynamics models of integral indices of components of energy security. These models demonstrate the current state of energy security of Ukraine in terms of resource potential, economic sufficiency, and institutional and organizational support for the use of energy resources.
The article suggests the key management directions of energy policy in Ukraine and the mechanism of emergency response to the shortage of energy supply. The development of alternative energy is considered as a path to the energy independence of the national economy of Ukraine and Europe.

Every developing country is beginning to rely on “green” energy in connection with environmental problems, including the global warming of our planet. It is expected that in the future, the production of electricity using the conversion of sunlight would take the dominant place in the energy infrastructure around the world. However, photovoltaic converters mainly generate intermittent energy due to natural factors (weather conditions) or the time of day in a given area. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to consider options for eliminating the interrupted nature of the operation of a solar installation through innovative additional applications. To achieve this goal, issues of the prospect of using energy storage devices and the choice of the most efficient and reliable of them are considered, as are the environmental friendliness of accumulators/batteries and the economic benefits of their use. The results of the analyses provide an understanding of the factors of using existing technologies with regard to their technical and economic aspects for use in solar energy. It was determined that the most common and predominant types of energy storage are lithium-ion and pumped storage plants. Such accumulation systems guarantee high efficiency and reliability in the operation of solar installation systems, depending on the scale of the solar station. Storage devices that are beginning to gain interest in research are also considered – storage devices made of ceramics of various kinds and thermochemical and liquid-air technologies. This study contributes to the development of an energy-storage system for renewable energy sources in the field of technical and economic optimization.

Ukraine’s commitments under the international framework agreements to reduce CO ₂ emissions and the Global Climate Change Initiative provide the basis for the implementation of bioeconomy mechanisms in the country’s Energy Development Strategy until 2035. One of the goals of this strategy is to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and switch to alternative fuels. The agriculture of Ukraine is assigned the leading role in ensuring the replacement of fossil fuels with biomass of plant origin. The bioenergy potential of the agro-industrial sector of the economy requires extensive research in order to determine and integrate it into the country’s energy sector. The essential characteristics of energy efficiency in the context of the cluster model of organizing the activities of enterprises for the production of biofuel as stable interactions of geographically concentrated economic entities are investigated in this article. Peculiarities of introduction of bioenergy clusters as stable interactions of geographically concentrated business entities (enterprises, suppliers and organizations, including scientific institutions, etc.) have been determined according to a pre-defined and agreed development strategy for all participants without exception at the stage of formation of which the competitive environment is supported taking into account the energy, ecological and socio-economic parameters of the sustainable development of territories. A model of a territorial bioenergy cluster for the production of biofuels from crops and waste was formed and the advantages of creating bioenergy clusters were analyzed. Furthermore, a matrix of a PEST analysis of the formation of bioenergy clusters in Ukraine was formed.

The paper presents the scope of the international curriculum developed under the MOOC4ALL project financed by the Erasmus Plus Strategic Partnerships Program for the MOOC platform https://platform.mooc4all.eu/. The project partners were research units and non-profit organizations from Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary. Developed under the project, the curricula covers topics in the “green area” such as renewable energy sources, waste management and sustainable development. Research conducted in the consortium countries has demonstrated the need to create online courses in these subject areas to respond to market demand and achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Green education is essential for safeguarding a sustainable world, maintaining it and preserving it for future generations. Currently, in times of climate crisis, increasing public awareness through non-formal education is of key importance. In the field of education, MOOCs have attracted a lot of attention as tools for open distance learning in the last decade. They make it possible to use the potential of new technologies in the didactic process and enable a reduction in the differences between developing and developed countries thanks to new interactive digital learning channels, which transpired to be particularly important during the Covid- 19 pandemic. The online courses developed as part of the project are available to participants free of charge in five languages – English, German, Polish, Romanian and Hungarian.