Energy efficiency and Demand Side Management Program ... - Eskom
Energy efficiency and Demand Side Management Program ... - Eskom
Energy efficiency and Demand Side Management Program ... - Eskom
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6.1.2 Environmental Aspects<br />
Environmental aspects of the program can be evaluated similarly as the engineering aspects, which<br />
are set out in Table 2. Issues can be evaluated including air, water, atmosphere,<br />
biodiversity/ecosystem degradation, <strong>and</strong> l<strong>and</strong> use amongst others. Each issue will be evaluated by<br />
certain criteria from properly chosen POET related indicators. For example, the criteria to evaluate<br />
air can be the emissions of NOx <strong>and</strong> SOx, particulates, NMVOCs, heavy metals including mercury,<br />
radio nuclides, etc. Each criterion can be further broken down in terms of P, O, E, T indicators in case<br />
that the program stakeholders need these detailed evaluations. For instance, the emission of NOx<br />
<strong>and</strong> SOx can be considered from the POET perspective such as the amount of emissions (P); the<br />
interactions of the NOx <strong>and</strong> SOx emission with other system components including CO2, production,<br />
energy consumption, etc. (O); the absorption process <strong>and</strong> equipment for NOx <strong>and</strong> SOx (E); <strong>and</strong> the<br />
mechanism which cause the NOx <strong>and</strong> SOx emission <strong>and</strong> the relevant technology adopted to reduce<br />
or absorb the NOx <strong>and</strong> SOx emission (T). Similarly, for the evaluation criteria of other issues such as<br />
water <strong>and</strong> atmosphere the POET indicators can be applied again. <strong>Program</strong> evaluators need to choose<br />
evaluation criteria which meet best the purpose <strong>and</strong> content of a program. The following are<br />
examples of evaluation criteria.<br />
Evaluation criteria for water cover direct water consumption of plant, water use in fuel chain,<br />
contamination at plant <strong>and</strong> in fuel chain including acid mine drainage (AMD) to aquifers;<br />
Evaluation criteria for atmosphere can cover greenhouse gas (GHS) emissions in the entire<br />
production cycle (including fuel chain, transport of fuel or sorbent as well as uranium<br />
processing <strong>and</strong> enrichment done in South Africa);<br />
Evaluation criteria for biodiversity or ecosystem degradation will be l<strong>and</strong> degradation (l<strong>and</strong><br />
pollution via air or water is not double counted here, e.g. acid rain involves additional impact<br />
of SOx <strong>and</strong> NOx, beyond air pollution impacts on human health); <strong>and</strong> degradation of water<br />
catchments (including wetl<strong>and</strong>s; impacts on sensitive ecosystems <strong>and</strong> species);<br />
Evaluation criteria for l<strong>and</strong> use will consider footprint of plant (e.g. in the project area of in<br />
wind farms , turbines <strong>and</strong> access roads have a footprint about 5% ‐10% of the total project<br />
area <strong>and</strong> solar farms could accommodate agricultural activity); footprint of fuel supply<br />
including l<strong>and</strong> for mining (while eventual rehabilitation is a theoretical possibility, other<br />
productive utilisation is precluded for a substantial period).<br />
Note that an environmental impact assessment needs to consider cumulative impacts of the factors<br />
evaluated in the energy system, while those factors which do not have cumulative impacts can be<br />
ignored. Visual, noise <strong>and</strong> dust pollution are not included as they do not accumulate in the same way<br />
as impacts considered above, they are much more site‐specific <strong>and</strong> visual impact is highly subjective;<br />
it is considered that such impacts will be adequately covered by Environmental Impact Assessment<br />
<strong>and</strong> Environmental <strong>Management</strong> Plans, <strong>and</strong> do not serve for significant differentiation amongst<br />
technology or scenario options.<br />
Note further that some programs focus only on electrical energy savings, <strong>and</strong> usually the energy<br />
consumption will be a performance indicator to evaluate these programs. These programs also have<br />
positive impacts to the environment <strong>and</strong> the reduced CO2, SOx, <strong>and</strong> NOx can be calculated from the<br />
amount of energy saved, thus these emission indicators should not be double counted in the<br />
corresponding program evaluation. There are also programs with the only purpose of emission<br />
reduction. For these programs, the performance indicators such as the amount of CO2, SOx <strong>and</strong> NOx<br />
emitted into the air will play a key role in the evaluation <strong>and</strong> thus are highly weighted in calculating<br />
the scores, while the energy consumption indicator will play a less important role <strong>and</strong> will be<br />
weighted much less. For programs which focus on both the energy saving <strong>and</strong> emission reduction,<br />
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