TECHNOLOGY
INGENIEUR
Promoting HELE Coal
Technologies in Electricity
Generation
By Chua Foong Lean
I
t was reported that Peninsular Malaysia’s
installed 22 GW power generation at the start
of 2015 was approximately 42.3% coal-fired
and 51.8% natural gas–fired. The country, which
says it cannot depend on renewables to provide
base load power and recognises that hydropower
capacity in Peninsular Malaysia is nearly fully
developed, is exploring nuclear power. If it does
not go the nuclear route, it will be forced to depend
heavily on fossil fuels to meet power demand,
which is expected to soar by 2.3%, on average,
per year until 2030. By 2020, forecasts foresee
coal dominating the country’s power mix (at 53%),
with gas playing a more minor role (29%), and the
remainder made up by hydro, renewables, and oil.
Given the abundance of coal in the region,
the use of this resource is likely to remain a
major source of energy for the Asia-Pacific in the
foreseeable future. However, its negative impact
on the environment is of major concern. It will pose
some challenges to the 21st Annual Conference of
the Parties (COP21) conclusion on CO2 emissions
target. There are technologies to abate these
impacts but the promotion of such technologies
has been hindered by high up-front investment
requirements. Research by the United Nations
Economic and Social Commission for Asia and
the Pacific (ESCAP) showed that ultra-supercritical
coal technologies are more cost-efficient in the
long run.
Coal-fired power plant (CFPP) efficiency
increases will play an important role in improving
local air quality as well as curbing CO2 emissions
regionally and globally due to the robust role coalfired generation plays in the electricity mix.
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The most important and cost-effective
ways to improve productivity, decrease
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Coal fired power plant
hazardous emissions and reduce resource
use is to raise efficiency – getting more
energy per unit of input.
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Clear policy structure is needed to allow the
power sector to make long-term decisions
and investments with respect to advanced
generation technologies in order to
increase efficiency and reduce emissions.
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Global average CFPP efficiency was 33%,
as of 2011, well below the 45% efficiency
achievable with commercially viable
technology for ultra-supercritical (USC)
generation.
Economic considerations, when choosing
the type of coal-fired generation, should include
lifetime costs of generation rather than simply
considering upfront capital costs. One common
metric used is levelised cost of electricity (LCOE),
which represents the per-kilowatt hour (kWh) cost
of building and operating a power plant spread
over an assumed financial life and duty cycle
(typically 40 years for CFPPs).
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In general, upfront capital costs are lower
for less efficient subcritical CFPPs than