The Impact of Covid-19 on the Industry of Energetics

Rashid Dallaev

, Ştefan Ţălu

, Daniel Burda

, Dinara Sobola

1,3 d

, Shikhgasan Ramazanov

Vladimír Holcman

and Anton Nazarov

Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Physics Department, Brno University of Technology,

Technická 8, 616 00 Brno, Czech Republic

The Directorate of Research, Development and Innovation Management (DMCDI), The Technical University

of Cluj-Napoca, Constantin Daicoviciu Street, no. 15, Cluj-Napoca, 400020, Cluj county, Romania

Dagestan State University, Makhachkala, St. M. Gadjieva 43-a, Dagestan Republic, 367000, Russia

Institute of Management and Information Technologies, Ural State University of Economics, Russian Federation

antonnazarov2807@mail.ru

Keywords: Energy Consumption, Material Science, Research Work.

Abstract:

The problems that have developed in the world in connection with COVID-19 have accelerated the transition

to a more flexible and sustainable energy, taking into account the digitalization and intellectualization of the

fuel and energy complex industries. The digitalization of the industry has proven the high reliability of work

in the power industry in a pandemic, successfully debugging all remote business processes and eliminating

risks of reducing efficiency, becoming a significant help for continuing to operate in a remote format.

1 INTRODUCTION

The World Energy Council (WEC), in its publication

on the impact of coronavirus infection on the energy

sector, notes: “The global energy sector is

experiencing unprecedented events, the pandemic is

having a fundamental impact on the pace and

direction of the industry. Among the most significant

changes that could occur as a result of the crisis will

be sharp cost cuts and a reallocation of capital in favor

of digital solutions and environmental sustainability.”

(http://www.acexpert.ru/articles/chto-budet-s-

energetikoy-posle-pandemii.html)

The introduction of digital technologies has made

it possible to obtain a positive economic effect for

further development in the field of remote means of

communication, operation and control (Țălu and

Nazarov, 2021). The new technological basis made it

possible to adequately respond to the challenges and

threats in its sphere in the context of the spread of the

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6823-5725

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1311-7657

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2282-138X

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0008-5265

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2190-7704

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7402-4660

pandemic (Țălu and Nazarov, 2020). The presence of

digital data transmission channels, means of their

verification, processing and analytics allows you to

see an objective picture, as in the electric power

industry, which ensures the efficiency and timeliness

of decisions (Hosseini, 2020; Kuzemko et al., 2020;

Steffen et al., 2020).

Energy decentralization receives an additional

impetus during the coronavirus crisis (Chapman and

Tsuji, 2020; Fezzi and Fanghella, 2020; Graff and

Carley, 2020; Klemeš et al., 2021; Smith, 2020;

Soava et al., 2021; Xu et al., 2021). Indeed, hundreds

of millions of people around the world have moved to

remote work, creating demand for clean and flexible

energy solutions for households (Jiang et al., 2021).

Digitalization in the new conditions is generally

becoming a factor of survival for many businesses

(http://www.ngv.ru/magazines/article/vliyanie-covid

- 9-na-energeticheskuyu-otrasl).

Dallaev, R., ¸T

alu, ¸S., Burda, D., Sobola, D., Ramazanov, S., Holcman, V. and Nazarov, A.

The Impact of Covid-19 on the Industry of Energetics.

DOI: 10.5220/0011109900003439

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference "COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals" (RTCOV 2021), pages 18-22

ISBN: 978-989-758-617-0

2 CURRENT TECHNOLOGIES

CHALLENGES

The development of energy infrastructure contributes

to the formation of a common electricity market by

considering a set of alternative measures:

- transition to renewable energy sources (use of

wind energy; energy of water and sun; energy of sea

currents, tides and waves; biomass of animal, plant

and domestic origin; geothermal energy (heat of the

Earth); temperature gradient (temperature difference

between air mass and ocean), etc.;

- network technologies in the electric power

industry (transition to remote control (operational

dispatch));

- technologies of unmanned and "connected"

transport (electric vehicles, including cars on

hydrogen fuel);

- autonomous power plants with solar panels

(energy storage).

When using an uninterrupted supply of electricity

from an autonomous power plant, its capacity and

technical and operational characteristics are taken

into account:

1. Type of construction;

2. Manufacturing material:

• Lead acid battery

• Alkaline

• Gel

• AGM

• OPzS and OPzV - the operating period can be up

to 25 years.

• Lithium - LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate)

• Sodium ion batteries

• Aluminum-based rechargeable batteries - fully

charged in 45 minutes with 1500 cycle life

• Organic fast charging batteries - withstands

higher temperatures

• Solid state batteries - liquid or gel electrolyte.

Long service life.

• Super and ultracapacitors - this is a hybrid of a

capacitor and a battery

3. The number of deep discharge cycles;

4. Maximum permissible currents during the

discharge-charge cycle (frequency of use);

5. Operating conditions;

6. Service rules;

7. Time taken for charging and full discharging;

8. Discharge rate;

9. Capacitive volume (size and weight), for mobile

applications;

Graphene and carbon nanotubes were seen as

viable replacements, but new research has highlighted

another possibility. Seamless silicon nanowire

junction that can be used for photovoltaic applications

(https://hackaday.com/2018/06/03/silicon-nanowires

-create-flexible-photodetectors/). Hydrogen - to

replace fossil fuels - store it in a liquefied form. As

such, hydrogen can be used as a fuel for internal

combustion engines or other installations at any time.

Batteries are the best friend of renewable energy

sources - compressed air systems, sodium sulfide and

lithium batteries stand out.

The greatest development is received by lithium-

ion batteries for backup and autonomous power

supply due to:

- increasing the energy density in storage;

-the ability to work at high currents;

-the ability to quickly deliver energy;

- safety and ease of production;

-increase in service life;

-availability and price factor;

-ecological.

Due to the fact that LIBs have greater fault

tolerance and better scalability, both batteries for cars

and large energy storage systems are being developed

from lithium-ion storage cells. They are already being

used simultaneously with renewable energy sources -

for uniform energy distribution, because the

generation at wind and solar stations directly depends

on weather conditions. Moreover, energy storage

technologies solve the problem of load on the system,

smoothing out surges and discharges of electricity. In

July, Elon Musk announced that he had received

approval from the Australian authorities to build the

world's largest lithium-ion battery system there. The

electricity storage station was connected to a wind

farm in Jamestown, owned by Neoen. The total

capacity of the battery system was 100 MW, and the

capacity was 129 MWh.

According to IRENA, over 80% of all new power

generation capacities put into operation in 2020 are

based on renewable energy sources. Among them are

dominated by:

- Solar (127 GW) - US engineers have created

low-cost, high-performance solar cells by combining

layers of silicon with perovskite and using a unique

combination of cells. This allowed us to raise the

efficiency up to 27% (https://hightech.plus/2020/03

/06/perovskitovii-sloi-podnyal-kpd-solnechnih-elem

entov-na-tret).

A cascade perovskite solar battery has been

created that retains 90% of its performance after 400

hours of operation at maximum parameters. The

efficiency of a device with a small area (0.049 sq.

Cm) was 24.8%, for a larger one (1.05 sq. Cm) -

22.1% (https://techxplore.com/news/2019-10-all-

perovskite-tandem-solar-cells-efficiency.html).

The Impact of Covid-19 on the Industry of Energetics

Sunpower - solar panels for home solar power

plants - will help large households not only meet their

electricity needs, but also give part of the generated

electricity to the grid (https://mytechtv.com/2019/

03/09/sunpower-launches-worlds-most-powerful-re

sidential).

Sun and nanofluids: Specialists of the National

Research Nuclear University MEPhI, together with

colleagues from the University of Bergen (Norway),

have begun an active phase of preparation for

launching at NRNU MEPhI a solar installation that

has no analogues in the world, which generates

electricity by boiling nanofluids (https://www.

facebook.com/official.MEPhI).

- Wind (111 GW) - Today the most powerful wind

turbine in the world is the Haliade X from General

Electric with a capacity of 12 MW. One of the

emerging technologies in wind energy is floating

foundations for wind power plants. They make it

possible to build wind turbines in coastal areas (at

depths of up to 800 meters), where the wind speed is

higher.

- Hydro power plants - Pumped storage plants -

energy for energy. Hydroelectric power generation

does not produce greenhouse gases, toxic waste or

particulate matter.

3 DEVELOPMENT OF ENERGY

CONSUMPTION

Today, the total capacity of various types of energy

storage systems in the world is approximately 150

GW. The overwhelming share of storage systems

(97%) falls on pumped storage power plants, and $ 7-

10 billion is annually invested in the construction of

new pumped storage power plants. The leaders in

terms of the installed capacity of pumped storage

power plants: China (31,999 MW, 34 pumped storage

power plants), Japan (28,252 MW, 43 pumped

storage power plants ) and the USA (22,561 MW, 38

PSPPs).

Around the world, pumped storage power plant

(PSPP) is the largest form of energy storage on a large

scale. The energy efficiency of PSPP varies, in

practice, from 70% to 80% (https://www.economist.

com/technology-quarterly/2012/03/03/packing-some

-power?frsc=dg%7Ca).

Forecast of the energy balance in the world up to

2100 is given in Figure 1. (The source - German

Advisory Council on Global change Report. World in

Transition: Towards Sustainable Energy Systems //

WBGU. www.wbgu.de).

Figure 1: Forecast of the energy balance in the world up to

2100 (www.wbgu.de).

In conditions of self-isolation, modern

information technologies help to interact with

consumers.

The introduction of digital remote-network

control allowed:

- to reduce the duration of non-optimal modes of

the power system

- provided stable and reliable power supply to

consumers

- to reduce the duration of operational switching

of electrical equipment

- to reduce the risks of erroneous actions of the

operating and dispatching personnel of the power

plant

-increase the stability of the functioning of the

UPS.

The use of industrial storage devices as storage

facilities for electricity is fundamentally changing the

electricity market oriented towards flexibility, not

only for low-power devices, but also for large power

plants.

The development of Internet technologies also

allows the use of remote control. Controlling the

operation of devices can be carried out using special

applications, SMS notifications about emergency

modes of operation of this or that equipment can

come. Thus, the user will be able to remotely learn

about the problems and resolve the issues that have

arisen without leaving the location of the electrical

equipment, which greatly simplifies the control

process. Remote control is also used to control the

equipment of large substations. For example,

automated program switches APP are used in the

telecontrol of equipment (https://neftegaz.ru/news

/view/174280-Tsifrovizatsiya-v-elektroenergetike).

The use of autonomous power units based on

renewable energy sources provides electricity to

RTCOV 2021 - II International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference " COVID-19: Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

(RTCOV )

those places where the installation of the network is

technically difficult or economically unprofitable.

The ability to accumulate and store energy

obtained from renewable energy sources for a long

time made it possible to organize the stable operation

of all branches of production during the peak demand

for electricity consumption. The demand for

electricity is growing rapidly due to the development

of smart home technologies.

The pandemic has stimulated an alternative to

renewable energy sources as one of the primary areas

of innovation, expanding the boundaries of research

activities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the

atmosphere, move away from cumbersome energy

systems and fossil fuels.

Renewable energy resources are important in the

policy structure for the Czech Republic. There are a

number of reasons for this:

- Firstly, it is an interest in self-sufficiency, since

the country is heavily dependent on imported energy.

- Secondly, renewable energy sources will help

reduce GHG emissions.

- Thirdly, it is important because of the country's

accession to the European Union. According to the

EU Renewable Energy Directive (Directive 2001/77

/ EC), member states are to meet the indicative target

for the share of renewable energy in electricity

generation by 2010 (www.encharter.org).

The problem of energy storage is now one of the

key issues for the entire world energy sector. Share of

electricity generation from solar and wind in the

world's leading economies in the first half of 2020 is

given in Figure 2.

Modern technologies can provide sufficient

generation, but the lack of cost-effective storage

technologies remains, and it limits the opportunities

for transformation of the sector. Scientific and

technical groundwork in such areas as pumped

storage power plants, supercapacitors, lithium-ion

batteries, flywheels, elevators for solid goods. At the

same time, it is necessary to consistently increase the

level of localization and build up engineering

competencies in other components that are presented

on the market only in foreign versions (thermal

accumulators, pneumatic systems, zinc-air

accumulators, etc.) (https://www.forbes.ru/tehnologii

/350445-vatty-i-tehnologii-2-barery-i-perspektivy-

razvitiya-vie-v-rossii).

Figure 2: Share of electricity generation from solar and

wind in the world's leading economies in the first half of

2020.

4 CONCLUSIONS

In the global energy sector, COVID-19 has caused

more significant turmoil. The provision of a sufficient

number of reserve sources of electricity supply made

it possible to timely avoid interruptions in the power

The Impact of Covid-19 on the Industry of Energetics

supply of industrial enterprises and life support

facilities.

Removing barriers in the energy storage system

and moving to more reliable, cheap storage and more

energy-intensive:

• as part of the distribution energy "Internet

energy"

• as part of a large centralized energy sector "new

general scheme"

• in the hydrogen cycle "hydrogen energy"

At the same time, the IEA report notes that

renewables "have demonstrated the greatest [market]

resilience during the COVID-19 crisis," and the

STEPS baseline scenario assumes upcoming rapid

growth in production in this energy segment: from

2020 to 2030, the total the volume should increase by

two-thirds. According to IEA analysts, renewables

will be able to meet 80% of total global electricity

demand over the next decade and by 2025 will

overtake coal as the main means of generating

electricity. And by 2030, hydropower, wind and solar

photovoltaic installations, bioenergy, geothermal

energy, etc. will be able to jointly provide nearly 40%

of the global electricity supply

(https://www.stimul.online/articles/sreda/energetika-

pandemii/).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Research described in this paper was financially

supported by the Internal Grant Agency of Brno

University of Technology, grant No. FEKT-S-20-

6352.

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(RTCOV )