System analysis for integration of landfill energy production in regional energy supply

Abstract

The waste management solutions in landfills of Latvia differ. Some of them are developed according to the concept of biogas production and use in power plants or cogeneration plants (CHP). The use of biogas in CHP depends on energy consumption and supply, and availability of energy consumers. More often are cases when there are no possibilities to connect heat energy consumers, which create problems of the low energy efficiency of power plants’ operation. A structure of energy user in Latvia is characterized by high energy consumption in households, public and service sector, compared with relatively low consumption in the rural and industrial sector. This situation obligates special tasks for power sector development, especially choosing energy resources to ensure energy production and supply. In Latvia imported fossil and renewable energy resources are used. A use of specific energy resource depends on an energy supply policy, and total consumption of energy resources depends on the development of every type of energy resources in regions. Now there is an unjustified high proportion of fossil fuel in state energy balance which it is possible to reduce by beginning the active use of local fuel in regions. RDF and landfill gas as a renewable energy source could play a role in the development of local energy resources in Latvia, which should be based on principles of cluster, integration and gradualness. In this paper the main attention is paid to waste management problems from the development of a regional power supply system point of view together with understanding, that those are not two separate systems, but two parts of one system with dynamic rather than static development.