Evolving carbon dioxide emission rate intensities of coal-fired power plant on U.S. electricity operating systems

作     者：Robert Kennedy SMITH 

作者机构：U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy 

出 版 物：《Journal of Modern Power Systems and Clean Energy》 (现代电力系统与清洁能源学报（英文）)

年 卷 期：2018年第6卷第6期

页      面：1103-1112页

核心收录：

学科分类：083002[工学-环境工程] 0830[工学-环境科学与工程（可授工学、理学、农学学位）] 08[工学] 

主　　题：Coal Emission intensity Renewable generation Baseload power generation 

摘      要：For many years, coal-fired power plant generation comprised the largest share of electricity in the *** sector. While natural gas plants now constitute a greater portion of the total, coal is projected to remain a shrinking but significant component of U.S. electricity production. Natural gas-fired technologies are dispatchable and versatile generation sources, but the recent and anticipated growth of wind and solar technologies will add nondispatchable, intermittent power generation sources to *** grids. Numerous emissions-related benefits arise from the deployment of these technologies, but they must coexist with coal plants, many of which run most efficiently under baseload operating procedures. Historical monthly emissions data has been analyzed on a sample of coal plants to show how modified coal operations have affected plant emission rates, as measured by carbon dioxide emitted per unit of electricity output. Statistically significant correlations between plant capacity factors and emission rate intensity have been observed by the majority of the sample, showing a worsening under more sporadic operations. Since nearly all of the coal plants in the sample are generating less electricity, determining the emission impact of operational decisions will assist policymakers as they seek to minimize total system emissions without severe disruptions to electricity cost and service reliability.