Investigating the Impact of Wind Farms Energy Yields on Reduction of Power Plants Natural Gas Consumptions and CO2 Emissions: A Practical Case Study in Iran

The use of renewable-based resources, such as wind energy, for generating electrical energy has been growing in recent years due to several reasons including free and infinite resources as well as their considerable impact on the reduction of fossil fuels consumptions and CO₂ emissions. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate the effect of grid-connected large-scale wind farms in a region in Iran, on the reduction of natural gas consumptions in heat-cycle power plants and their related CO₂ emissions as a practical case study. The wind farms under study comprise about 51% of the total grid connected capacity of wind generation in Iran. First, the total energy yielded by the considered wind farms are extracted for a two-year period from April 2019 to March 2021 based on a detailed practical data and then, the impact of this renewable-based energy generation is studied on the reduction of natural gas consumption in a real gas-cycle power plant due to its practical fuel intake data. The financial revenue of savings in the natural gas intake is also estimated based on the two-year average international price of natural gas. Finally, the reduction of CO₂ emission is calculated as the result of reduction in the natural gas consumption of the considered gas-cycle power plant. The results of this practical case study well demonstrate the effective role of wind farms energy generation on the reduction of fossil fuels consumption in heat-cycle power plants and thus, the significant reduction of CO₂ emissions as one of the most crucial aspects of decarbonization plans.

I. Introduction

The use of renewable sources and clean energies including wind energy to generate electricity has always been of great importance due to the free and infinite resources as well as their significant impacts on reducing the consumption of fossil fuels such as natural gas, diesel, and oil and consequently, the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission and other pollutants [1]. Nowadays, in almost all regions of the world, which have the potential of employing these resources, appropriate renewable energy-based power plants have been implemented or are underway. Moreover, several countries have planned to cover 100% of their load demands by renewable energies in the near future. In Iran, the generation of electrical energy from renewable energies including wind energy, given its very good potential in various regions of country, has been one of the key priorities of the Ministry of Energy in recent years, and significant supports have been considered for the investment in this field the most significant of which is the long-term guaranteed electricity purchase agreements by the government with motivating tariffs [2]. The role of wind farms in generating electrical energy can be studied from various viewpoints including technical, economic and environmental aspects. One of the important fields of studying renewable-based power plants is to assess their impact on savings of fossil fuel consumption in heat cycle power plants and consequently, reduction of environmental pollutions especially CO₂ emissions and various researches has been done so far in this field [3], [4], [5], [6]. It is the purpose of this paper to investigate the effect of electrical energy generation of wind farms in a region in Iran, as a practical case study, on the reduction of natural gas (NG) consumption in a real gas-cycle power plant and thus, reduction of CO₂ emissions. A two-year time period from April 2019 to March 2021 is taken into account. First, the amount of electrical energy generation from the considered wind farms are extracted for the time period under study based on a detailed practical data. Then the saved amount of natural gas consumption in a gas-cycle power plant as well as its financial revenue is calculated due to the practical fuel intake in a real gas-cycle power plant. In addition, the related reduction of CO₂ emission is calculated.