Assessing carbon pollution standards: Electric power generation pathways and their water impacts

• Main Authors: LIM-WAVDE, Kustini, ZHAI, Haibo, KAUFFMAN, Robert John, RUBIN, Edward S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2018
• Subjects: Capacity expansion; Carbon pollution standards; Low-carbon electric power generation; Water consumption; Water withdrawal; Environmental sustainability; Policy analytics; Databases and Information Systems
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sis_research/4271; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sis_research/article/5274/viewcontent/1_s20_S0301421518303847_main.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Highlights•Without carbon regulations, CO2 emissions and water use are highly affected by fuel prices.•Carbon regulations reduce both CO2 emissions and water use.•Without incentives, carbon capture is not competitive with cheap natural gas and renewables.•A stringent constraint on water withdrawal lowers the fleet share of once-through cooling.AbstractThis study evaluates transition pathways in electricity generation and their future water impacts. Scenarios that do or do not comply with the carbon pollution standards – based on the U.S. New Source Performance Standards and Clean Power Plan – are evaluated. Using the Electric Reliability Council of Texas region as an illustration, the scenarios with carbon regulations are shown to have lower CO2 emissions and water use from the power sectorthan the continuation of the status quo with more electricity generation from coal than natural gas. The benefits are due to increases in electricity generation from renewable sources and natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plants plus retirements of existing coal-fired plants, which depend on natural gas and CO2 allowance prices. When CO2 is captured and sold for enhanced oil recovery with a price higher than $15 per short ton, water consumption is elevated because of more electricity generation from existing NGCC plants retrofitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. A stringent constraint on water withdrawalsdecreases electricity generation from existing power plants with once-through cooling, but increases overall water consumption because of an elevated share of plants with wet recirculating cooling systems in the fleet.