Quantifying social costs of coal-fired power plant generation

Coal has been dominating the electricity supply in Indonesia,especially in long-term power generation from fossil energy.This dominance is due to lower production costs in coal-fired power plant generation.However,this low price is only based on monetary costs and ignores the social costs.Therefore,this study aims to quantify the social costs of coal-fired generation.Using QUERI-AirPacts modeling,the present study quantifies the social costs resulting from the Tenayan Raya coal-fired generation in Riau,Indonesia.It includes the levelized cost of electricity and health costs into the generation costs.After that,this study calculates the net present value,internal rate return,and project payback period.The study found that as much as$50.22/MWh was the levelized cost of electricity.While$15.978/MWh or$0.015978/kWh was the social cost that was not included in the generating cost.At the electricity production level of 1,380,171.69 MWh per year,there is an expected extra cost of$22,052,383.30 uncounted when externalities are included.For instance,the net present value(NPV)is lower and even negative when external costs are included(-$24,062,274.19)compared to$176,108,091.52 when externalities are not considered.The internal rate of return(IRR)is much higher when the social costs are not considered.The payback period is also shorter when the social costs are excluded than when the externalities are included.This global number indicates that the inclusion of external costs would impact NPV,IRR,and the payback period.This result implies that the government should internalize the external cost to stimulate the electricity producers to conduct cost-benefit analyses.The cost-benefit analysis mechanism would lead the producers to be more efficient.

Optimization for performance-based design under seismic demands, including social costs

Performance-based design in earthquake engineering is a structural optimization problem that has, as the objective, the determination of design parameters for the minimization of total costs, while at the same time satisfying minimum reliability levels for the specifi ed performance criteria. Total costs include those for construction and structural damage repairs, those associated with non-structural components and the social costs of economic losses, injuries and fatalities. This paper presents a general framework to approach this problem, using a numerical optimization strategy and incorporating the use of neural networks for the evaluation of dynamic responses and the reliability levels achieved for a given set of design parameters. The strategy is applied to an example of a three-story offi ce building. The results show the importance of considering the social costs, and the optimum failure probabilities when minimum reliability constraints are not taken into account.

Structural Reform Holds the Key to Reducing Social Financing Cost

In the last couple of years, social financing costs have shot up in China despite an overall capital abundance and increasing market-based capital allocation. This paper has investigated overall financial cost and capital cost ratio as two measurements of financing cost, compared financing costs of different channels, examined the relationship of risk premium, financial repression, interest rate liberalization, and resource occupation versus financing cost, and addressed the problem of high non-manufacturing cost. On such a basis, specific countermeasures have been proposed. The main conclusion of this paper is： The current high social financing costs primarily result from economic structural imbalance. The fundamental solution lies in continuing structural reform and credibility system development to eliminate barriers in the transmission of capital circulation policies such as expanding equity financing, relaxing market access formalities for small and micro financial institutions, and improving the bankruptcy system to give full play to the ＂survival of the fittest＂ mechanism of the market.

Component Analysis and Calculation for Social Benefits of UHV Assessment

With the rapid development of the UHV power grid, evaluation of the economic and social benefits of the UHV power grid is conducive to guiding the planning and construction of UHV power grid. At present economic benefit evaluation system of the UHV power grid is driving to maturity stage on the whole at home and abroad, but it invariably tends to regard social benefits as part of economic benefits, without evaluating social benefit separately. The social benefit evaluation model of UHV power grid is built in case of sufficient investigation. The differentials between social benefit and social cost are calculated respectively by three kinds of solutions according to the constructed social cost evaluation index system and social benefits evaluation index system, conclusion that UHV power grid transmission has better social benefits can be reached by contrastively analyzing the social three kinds of solutions corresponding to benefits. At last, the evaluation model and method are verified and analyzed through the analysis of engineering projects.

Perspectives for Energetic Destination of MSW （Municipal Solid Waste）

The correct individuation of the best final destination for MSW cannot ignore the option of thermal treatment, taking into account both the possibility of energy recovery and the capacity of the thermal process to destroy an important part of the pollutants that are originally present in the waste itself. In order to realize this operation, it is possible to use conventional incineration systems, but also to consider new innovative processes and technologies; among them, production of RDF （refuse derived fuel） is quite often used in process plants, and gasification of waste seems to be a promising solution. The aim of the present paper is a critical analysis of the above-mentioned solutions, not only from the operational point of view but also on the basis of the status of the art of practical applications and in consideration of the most significant results for the Italian and European situation. For the application of these technologies a specific Italian case has been considered： it consists of the correct individuation of waste management modality for final destination of wastes produced in a city located in Piedmont （north of Italy）. The results of the analysis highlight the environmental and economic convenience, for the specific considered case, of the direct combustion in incineration plant of the all amount of the wastes produced. From the considered specific example some more general conclusions can be drawn.

Biofuel-driven trigeneration systems for non-residential building applications:A holistic assessment from the energy,environmental and economic perspectives

In the metropolises,it is unlikely to use merely solar and wind energy to pursue zero carbon building design.However,it would become possible if biofuel-driven trigeneration systems(BDTS)are adopted.It is thus essential to assess the application opportunity of BDTS in a holistic way.In this study,BDTS offered definite primary energy saving of up to 15%and carbon emissions reduction of at least 86%in different types of non-residential buildings as compared to the conventional systems.With 24/7 operation for the hotel and hospital buildings,the corresponding BDTS could even achieve zero carbon emissions.All the BDTS primed with compression-ignition internal combustion engine were not economically viable even in running cost due to the high local biodiesel price level.The BDTS primed with spark-ignition engine and fueled by biogas,however,would have economic merit when carbon price was considered for the conventional systems that fully utilize fossil fuels.Adoption of carbon tax and social cost could have the payback ceilings of 8 years and 2 years respectively for most of building types.Consequently,the results could reflect the application potential of BDTS for non-residential buildings,leading the pathway to carbon neutrality for sustainable sub-tropical cities.

Comparison of Gatekeeping and Non-gatekeeping Designs in a Service System with Delay-sensitive Customers

This paper is motivated by a concern in China's current medical practice in which patients can bypass the primary care and seek secondary care directly.We employ a queueing approach to examine two settings,i.e.the gatekeeping and non-gatekeeping settings,in a service system consisting of two types of service provider-one with basic skills(C-H),e.g.community hospital,and the other with advanced skills(AAA-H),e.g.specialist hospital.Customers are heterogeneous with respect to service requirement.The C-H can only serve customers with a complexity level of service requirement lower than the cure threshold,while the AAA-H can serve all customers.We aim to analyze the social planner's capacity decision for the C-H in both settings and assess the relative merit of each setting with respect to total social welfare,i.e.the sum of customer benefits net of customer delay costs and service providers7 operating costs.Our findings show that when the C-H's capacity is exogenous,the gatekeeper setting is preferable if the capacity of the C-H is in the intermediate range because customers'self-selection behavior gives rise to negative externality.When the C-H's capacity is optimized by the social planner,the non-gatekeeping setting is preferable if the capacity of the AAA-H is large or the cure threshold is high,because customers'self-selection behavior as well as the investment in the C-H's capacity can result in a better distribution of demand among the two service providers.The gatekeeping setting is preferable if the cure threshold is low because it is economical for the social planner to invest in a large capacity in the C-H to serve all customers.We also show numerically the conditions under which the two settings can achieve the first-best solution.

Daily CO_(2) Emission Reduction Indicates the Control of Activities to Contain COVID-19 in China

Lockdown measures are essential to containing the spread of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19),but they will slow down economic growth by reducing industrial and commercial activities.However,the benefits of activity control from containing the pandemic have not been examined and assessed.Here we use daily carbon dioxide(CO_(2))emission reduction in China estimated from statistical data for energy consumption and satellite data for nitrogen dioxide(NO_(2))measured by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument(OMI)as an indicator for reduced activities consecutive to a lockdown.We perform a correlation analysis to show that a 1%day-1 decrease in the rate of COVID-19 cases is associated with a reduction in daily CO_(2) emissions of 0.22%±0.02%using statistical data for energy consumption relative to emissions without COVID-19,or 0.20%±0.02%using satellite data for atmospheric column NO_(2).We estimate that swift action in China is effective in limiting the number of COVID-19 cases<100,000 with a reduction in CO_(2) emissions of up to 23%by the end of February 2020,whereas a 1-week delay would have required greater containment and a doubling of the emission reduction to meet the same goal.By analyzing the costs of health care and fatalities,we find that the benefits on public health due to reduced activities in China are 10-fold larger than the loss of gross domestic product.Our findings suggest an unprecedentedly high cost of maintaining activities and CO_(2) emissions during the COVID-19 pandemic and stress substantial benefits of containment in public health by taking early actions to reduce activities during the outbreak of COVID-19.

editor＇s note

This month we take a look at, among other things, venture capital and the copper industry - both of which hinge on a somewhat hackneyed theme that＇s nonetheless true： China＇s growing fast, and the private sector is ramping up to meet its demand. Rapid development often outpaces regulatory safeguards, and the cost is in some cases social but more often than not, environmental. In terms of the social cost, this is something that multinationals are increasingly attempting to offset with corporate social responsibility programs - a movement that writer Jonathan Haagen examines this month.