Planning of Optimal Power Systems
Better Plans for the Changing World
Planning of Nuclear Power Systems to Save the Planet - 16.08.2011
New book: "Planning of Nuclear Power Systems to Save the Planet" has been published in August 2011. The book describes the history and future of nuclear power. It gives the forecast of nuclear power and other electricity sources until 2100. According to the book nuclear energy will be the biggest contributor of electricity during the years 2041-2100.
The experiences of the selection and building of the new nuclear plants in Finland has been reviewed. The description of the new plants and their generation costs will be given. The book will also give the conceptual design of the 300 MWe modular plant, which could be built in a shipyard.
The book will also estimate what will be the influence of electricity generation to CO2-concentration and global temperature. According to the forecasts made in the book the temperature increase could be limited to 2 degC, if the nuclear share will be raised to 34% of electricity by 2080.
The author, Asko Vuorinen, has been chief design engineer in Imatran Voima (todays Fortum) until 1992. He has been participating in planning of nuclear plants in Finland and other countries including China. Finland is the first western country, which has started building nuclear plants after Chernobyl accident. He is also the author of the best selling book, "Planning of Optimal Power Systems".
The book can be bought by internet at the page Order or from bookstore "Akateeminen kirjakauppa" in Helsinki https:
https://www.akateeminenkirjakauppa.fi/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CatalogSearchResultView?sortKey=&storeId=10052&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&contractId=&pageSize=20&beginIndex=0&searchType=quick&QS_searchTerm=asko+vuorinen&QS_AvailableItemsOnly=true&OLDQS_AvailableItemsOnly=true&submit.x=0&submit.y=0
2009 edition "Planning of Optimal Power Systems" - 19.11.2008
2009 Edition of the book "Planning of Optimal Power Systems" has been published. The book is available in the beginning of December 2008.
The new edition of the book has updated cost estimates of power plants, which will be commissioned in 2012. It has also a new chapter about optimisation of decentralised power systems, including wind power and micro CHP plants. The book shows also the reserve power needs for balancing of the wind power based on German experience.
Another new chapter tells about emissions and global warming issues. It decribes the trends in CO2-concentration and makes mathematical evaluation, what is the reduction needed to reach the IPCC targets of global warming.
The optimal power systems for the year 2050 has also been evaluated using three different scenarios. They show that it is possible to reach 50 % cut in CO2-emissions by 2050 with minimal cost impact. The low CO2-technology is available already. The optimal power system would need a lot of wind power, nuclear power and CHP-plants.
The book has been used by several universities as a text book. It is very usefull also for utility planning engineers, who want to make better plans for their companies. The author, Asko Vuorinen, has been planning power systems in an utility organisation and in an engineering company in Finland.
Presentations of world electricity in 2050 - 28.09.2007
All the presentations based on the contents of the book "Planning of Optimal Power Systems" have been stored in these pages. They can serve as a learning and teaching materials for professionals and students of power systems.
The last presentations shows the main three alternatives of power system expansion plans available. The scenario a) "Business as usual" has been made assuming that the power plant construction continues with the fossile plants investments as today. It will lead to more then doubling the emissions of carbon dioxide and cannot be accepted.
In the Scenario b) "Nuclear expansion" the building of coal and gas fired base load plants is stopped and nuclear plants will be built instead. This will lead to reduction of carbon dioxide by 60 % of the present level. It might also lead to exhausting all uranium resources.
In the scenario c) "Optimal Power System 2050" also wind energy and CHP plants for base load have been used by increasing the capacity additions annually unitil 2050. By this way an optimal system in 2050 has been achieved, in which the carbon dioxide emissions will be 30 % lower than today.
Presentations of planning of power system reserves - 05.09.2007
Three new presentations of planning of power system reliability have now been added to presentations of the book. See item "Book" and press heading presentation.
The first presentations "Planning of power system reserves" tells about fundamentals of reliability planning. How number of units and reliability of each unit affect the system reliability and reserve requirements.
The second presentation "Frequency control and regulation reserves" describes about primary, secondary and tertiary reserves needed for keeping the power system in balance.
The third presentation "Operating, reactive and black start reserves" describes other reserves needed by the system operator. The presentations can be used as learning and teaching materials. The more detaled descriptions are given in the text book "Planning of Optimal Power Systems".
Planning of municipal CHP systems - 01.08.2007
"Planning of municipal CHP systems"- presentation has now been added to presentation materials of the book. The municipal power systems can be planned using district heating networks and optimizing the sizes of combined heat and power plants.
Municipal power systems can be independent of outside electricity. In optimal system the electricity is purchased from the national grid only during the summer time. In the winter time there is excess electricity for sales to the customers all over the country.
Examples given in the presentations are based on Finnish power systems. Finland is leading in CHP capacity per capita having 4000 MWe of municipal CHP capacity with 5.2 million population (0.8 kW/capita)
Presentation materials for teaching and learning - 27.06.2007
Presentations for teaching and learning purposes are available now. The presentations can be downloaded from these pages using the Acrobate reader. The presentations are under heading "Book"/presentations.
The first presentation "Fundamentals of power plants" tells the basics of power plants described in chapter 2 of the book. It describes the thermodynamics of the engines and basic terms used in power plant engineering.
The second presentation describes how "Planning of national power systems" can be made. It gives the cost estimates of most common power plants and puts them in the merit order. Finally it gives the optimal capacity mix. The program used in the optimisation is available see item Orders
Other presentations will follow in August. The next presentation will be "Planning of Municipal CHP systems"
OptimalPowerSystems.com becomes alive - 04.05.2007
Planning of optimal power systems is a great job ahead for electricity planners of the world. The growing needs of electricity should be covered with a reduction of greenhouse gases at the same time. In these pages we will give the basic planning methods available for all planners by a book and programs.
The book: "Planning of Optimal Power Systems" gives the basic theories and praxis what the planner will need to make plans of any national system or a CHP-system in city. The book has 310 pages and it is a basic manual of any planner.
The programs which have been used in the case examples of the book are available also for online-orders trough these pages. The programs can be used for cost calculation and planning of optimal capacity mix. Additionally the profitability analysis for many types of power plants are available.