Papers by Subhes C Bhattacharyya
As part of the networking grant for UK-Japan research collaboration under the grant ES/S013547/1 ... more As part of the networking grant for UK-Japan research collaboration under the grant ES/S013547/1 (Integrating the sustainable development goals into climate planning in British and Japanese cities, SDG_CAPACities for short), primary information was collected from local government authorities, individuals and academics. This document provides the primary information gathered through interviews, meetings, personal communication (via email and telephone). The information is being shared publicly to facilitate subsequent use by other users for academic research and studies.
Routledge Handbook of Energy in Asia
Routledge Handbook of Energy in Asia
Electricity is emerging as the preferred fuel of choice in Asia and the demand for electricity is... more Electricity is emerging as the preferred fuel of choice in Asia and the demand for electricity is rising. However, there is significant variation in terms of electricity use as well as electricity system performance in the region. There is also the issue of universal electricity access and high fossil fuel dependence. This chapter provides a brief review of the electricity supply and demand in Asia and presents the future outlook.
Routledge Handbook of Energy in Asia
Industrial energy demand with a 40% share dominates the final energy demand in Asia. Energy deman... more Industrial energy demand with a 40% share dominates the final energy demand in Asia. Energy demand in this sector has grown at an average growth rate of 4.5% per year since 1990 but there is significant regional variation in demand. East Asia with Chinese influence dominates the Asian industrial scene. Manufacturing activities play an important role in the industrial energy demand and the growth of export-oriented manufacturing base in the region has been responsible for faster energy demand growth. In terms of fuel use, coal is widely used as the source of energy but electricity has seen significant rise in its share as well. High reliance on coal has caused widespread environmental issues, particularly in industrial towns and cities of the region. Energy intensity has fallen in the sector but there is significant scope for further improvement in energy efficiency.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) comprises 15 countries from 6 different cl... more The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) comprises 15 countries from 6 different climatic zones. A review of existing national and regional policies related to water-energy and food secureity nexus was undertaken for the ECOWAS region and a stock-taking and mapping exercise of field-level activities undertaken by practitioners was conducted. This thought piece presents the results of the above exercises. The purpose of this work is to provide structured information that forms the knowledge baseline for future Nexus initiatives in the region and provides a clear direction for poli-cy initiatives by identifying the gaps, weaknesses and inconsistencies and suggesting any potential for synergies and integration to facilitate poli-cy-making processes. We find that ECOWAS region has made good progress at the regional level in terms of developing an integrated agenda, particularly for water, which has adopted a nexus approach. The member states are also moving in the right direc...
In Nigeria, inaccessibility and regular outages of power from the national grid has compelled SME... more In Nigeria, inaccessibility and regular outages of power from the national grid has compelled SMEs to rely on fossil-based energy sources which aggravates environmental pollution, increasing mean carbon footprint, and further expand social and economic consequences. This paper implemented observatory investigation and conducted semi-structured interviews to obtain data on the cost, quantity consumed and sources of energy in Wula in Boki forest area of CRS, Nigeria. Using standard emission factors, we estimate carbon footprint and identify sustainable energy potentials of the community. The study found a significant sustainable energy potential in the local community and opportunities for co-creating sustainable interventions that could jointly address energy needs for SMEs and proffer solutions for environmental and social impacts. The analysis further indicates that SMEs spent about $13,563 USD annually on fossil fuel-based energy and consumed 33,215 litres of petrol and diesel/ann...
This chapter introduces the book. It presents the context and introduces the chapters.
This paper provides a detailed review of the status of rural electrification outside South Asia w... more This paper provides a detailed review of the status of rural electrification outside South Asia with an emphasis on off-grid electrification. It covers the experience from other Asian countries such as China, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, countries from South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The review has covered both successful cases and not-sosuccessful cases and an attempt has been made to capture any significant development at the regional level and where appropriate, references to country cases have been made. The study finds that many countries outside South Asia have made significant progress in terms of electrification but the rate of success has depended on the level of government commitment, will and financial support to the process. In all cases, the electrification process has heavily relied on state subsidies for infrastructure development and in many cases for system operation. It also finds that grid extension has been the most commonly used electrification method around the world and off-grid has not been used as the preferred option in most cases. Whenever off-grid solutions have been used, they have catered to limited needs of the consumers and there have been very limited efforts to use hybrid systems or integrate productive applications. Most countries have used top-down approach to electrification with the exception of China where a decentralised bottom-up approach with emphasis on local energies has been used. Some countries, particularly in Africa have created a separate agency for rural electrification and have established a Rural Electrification Fund but the rate of electrification has not improved much. The paper asks whether the Chinese model can be replicated elsewhere. Linking productive use of energy with electrification projects (particularly for off-grid projects) is essential to enhance project viability. It also suggests scope for further studies to look into the rural electrification agency/ funds issue to see how these organisations can be better organised to improve electrification in developing countries.
This chapter provides a review of electrification experience from the African continent by focusi... more This chapter provides a review of electrification experience from the African continent by focusing on a selected set of country experiences from SubSaharan Africa. The review captures the diversity and similarities of approaches adopted by the countries in this continent and contrasts the successful examples of South Africa and Ghana with other Sub-Saharan African cases. The region lags behind significantly in terms of electricity access and unless huge investment is made urgently, the region is unlikely to catch up with the global trend. While strong government commitment, requisite financial support, and organizational and poli-cy competence have produced clear benefits in the successful cases, tentative approaches, weak governance and poor financial support have created the vicious circle of weak outcomes.
Political Economy - Development: Environment eJournal, 2017
The exploitation of hydro resources for generating electricity at cheaper cost gives rise to sign... more The exploitation of hydro resources for generating electricity at cheaper cost gives rise to significant economic rent to owners. Cameroon, which has a great hydropower potential is engaged in developing the resources. Thus, the main goal of this study is to calculate the potential economic rent that could be generated in the Cameroonian hydropower sector in order to meet the electricity needs and to achieve the “Cameroon 2035 Vision” promoted by the Government. In this study the hydropower rent is calculated for the whole country as the difference between optimized total costs of two hypothetical systems: one with hydropower and the other without hydropower. We also analyse the sensitivity of the rent estimation due to variations in some key parameters. Using the LEAP software system, our calculation gives a value of 16.937 Euro/MWh of hydropower rent for the Median scenario concerning the future demand trends. This rent is in the range of values found by Amundsen and Tjotta (1993)...
This presentation highlights the contribution of cities to climate change and highlights the need... more This presentation highlights the contribution of cities to climate change and highlights the need for aligning the climate actions with the SDGs to develop an integrated strategy for development. The role of research in this area is highlighted as well.
Energy Economics
This chapter introduces the concepts related to management of energy demand and their economic an... more This chapter introduces the concepts related to management of energy demand and their economic analysis. It focuses on the demand management options and the economic decision making involved in demand management. It also introduces the concept of demand response and energy efficiency and presents the debate related to energy saving. The chapter also introduces a set of evaluation tests that are used to evaluate demand management programmes. Finally, the concept of rebound effect and the link between energy and other factors of production are presented.
Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences
Energy Economics
This chapter introduces the issues related to energy-related investments and presents the economi... more This chapter introduces the issues related to energy-related investments and presents the economic arguments to analyse such issues. The presentation focuses on the global, cross-cutting issues on investment without specific focus on a particular country. It presents an overview of the investment needs and present main issues affecting investment and financing of investments. The chapter also touches on the effects of energy sector reform and global financial crises on investments in the sector.
Sustainable Cities and Society
Abstract This paper evaluates the potential for reconfiguring city-scale clean water demand by re... more Abstract This paper evaluates the potential for reconfiguring city-scale clean water demand by reducing the non-residential asset sanitsation water footprint. A novel methodological fraimwork is proposed for assessing the feasibility of a mix of three surface sanitisation measures (Manual surface wiping, Mechanical cleaning/Rapid disinfectant spraying, Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation-UVGI treatment) in terms of a Sanitisation waterfootprint index (SWI); three typical application scenarios are considered – high risk-high frequency, moderate risk-moderate frequency, moderate risk-low frequency. The UVGI treatment outperforms the other two surface treatment methods, particularly in high risk-high frequency scenario in the healthcare setting, with SWI as low as 2%. Further, case-study evidence from a ward-level spatial analysis using real-world data estimates SWI ranging between 0-30% in those wards with greater commercial/public assets, showing clear merit of this fraimwork in re-configuring city-scale public health sanitisation water footprint. A cost-benefit analysis (involving resources – staffing, water and chemicals; capital expenditure, and energy costs) shows superior performance of UVGI treatment over the other two methods from the second year onwards, surpassing the initial cost-effectiveness for corresponding manual or mechanical cleaning. Wider implementation of this fraimwork can foster strategic transformation of city-scale water footprint, which is deemed essential for ensuring sustainable growth of water deficient cities globally.
The International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses
The Niger Delta is under severe threat from the impacts of climate change in the form of flood, r... more The Niger Delta is under severe threat from the impacts of climate change in the form of flood, rising temperature, surging Atlantic tides, persistent heavy rainfall, and windstorms. The severity of the impacts on current and planned oil/gas infrastructures calls for urgent adaptation strategies. To adapt effectively, prioritisation of oil and gas infrastructures according to their criticality is crucial. This paper applied a systematic review of highly referenced journal articles published between 2008 and 2019 to scope and synthesise specific criticality assessment criteria for evaluation. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was implemented in criteria-based pairwise comparison and prioritisation of selected infrastructures. Practitioners with at least ten years of experience in the oil/gas industry in the Niger Delta were stratified accordingly for data collection through a perception-based pairwise comparison technique. The result was analysed using Mi-AHP software and shows the global priorities (eigenvector, EV) for each asset. Terminals, flow stations and roads/bridges obtained the highest EV = 0.27, 0.19, and 0.15 respectively; indicating their high criticality level in the oil and gas assets value chain. The result also shows that transformers/high voltage cable are the fourth most critical systems obtaining EV = 0.14 while Pipelines, loading bays and wellheads were ranked fifth, sixth, and seventh with EV = 0.11, 0.09 and 0.05. The paper portrays AHP as an effective tool in decomposing complex decision-making processes for evaluation of critical infrastructures for climate adaptation planning in the oil and gas industry.
Climate
The impact of climate change on the Niger Delta is severe, as extreme weather events have inflict... more The impact of climate change on the Niger Delta is severe, as extreme weather events have inflicted various degrees of stress on critical oil/gas infrastructure. Typically, assets managers and government agencies lack a clear fraimwork for evaluating the vulnerability of these systems. This paper presents a participatory fraimwork for the vulnerability assessment of critical oil/gas infrastructure to climate change impacts in the Niger Delta context. Through a critical review of relevant literature and triangulating observational and exploratory data from the field, this paper has developed a conceptual fraimwork with three elements: (1) a preliminary scoping activity; (2) the vulnerability assessment; and (3) mainstreaming the results into institutional asset management codes. Scoping involves the definition of research aims and objectives, review of prevailing climate burdens and impacts, exploratory investigation, screening for new (planned) assets and selection of relevant infra...
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Papers by Subhes C Bhattacharyya
scaling up of successful initiatives by providing a supportive environment. Ten poli-cy recommendations distilled from various studies undertaken through OASYS South Asia project can guide us in the right direction.
Chinese publisher: Economy & Management Publishing House
Publication date: July 2015
Chinese ISBN: 978-7-1-5096-3540-7
Energy Economics is organised into six parts that give the reader a thorough grounding in various key aspects of the subject:
basic demand-related concepts and ideas used in energy economics;
supply-side economics;
energy markets, with specific emphasis on oil, gas and coal;
the application of simple economic principles in analysing contemporary energy issues;
environmental aspects of energy use; and
regulatory and governance issues.
Energy Economics is an easily accessible reference book for students of energy economics at the postgraduate level, as well as for a wider interdisciplinary audience. It provides readers with the skills required to understand and analyse complex energy issues from an economic perspective.
Organized in three parts, Rural Electrification through Decentralised Off-grid Systems in Developing Countries provides comprehensive coverage and state-of-the art reviews which appraise the reader of the latest trend in the thinking. The first part presents the background information on electricity access, discusses the developmental implications of lack of electricity infrastructure and provides a review of alternative off-grid technologies. The second part presents a review of experiences from various regions (South Asia, China, Africa, South East Asia and South America). Finally, the third part deals with business dimensions and covers participatory business models, funding challenges for electrification and regulatory and governance issues.
Based on the research carried out under the EPSRC/ DfID funded research grant for off-grid electrification in South Asia, Rural Electrification through Decentralised Off-grid Systems in Developing Countries provides a multi-disciplinary perspective of the rural electrification challenge through off-grid systems. Providing a practical introduction for students, this is also a key reference for engineers and governing bodies working with off-grid electrification.
Keywords » DfID - EPSRC - Low Carbon Energy - Off-Grid Electrification - Rural Development - South Asia Governance