Achieving a country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) is critical to mitigating the expected global impacts of anthropogenic climate change in the coming years, consistent with the conditionalities of the Paris Agreement. However, techno-economically informed actions needed to guide appropriate policies for Trinidad and Tobago’s (T&T) NDC attainment by 2030 in its power generation sector appear not to be based on empirical evidence and relevant projections. This study aims to fill this information gap by computing the financial requirements of hypothetical technical actions to achieve the NDC target of 28.7 million tonnes of CO2-e avoided from business-as-usual levels through the application of sectoral Carbon-Constrained Energy Planning (CCEP).

By gathering and interpreting local power plant data, a validated CCEP method, Carbon Emission Pinch Analysis (CEPA), was technically adapted to quantify low/zero-carbon energy supply modifications of plant dispatch optimisation, renewable energy (RE), carbon capture and storage (CCS), and heat recovery steam generation (HRSG). Existing energy supplies were statistically screened for CCS and HRSG retrofits to allow maximum impact in emission avoidance.

To achieve its NDC, 47% of energy in T&T would need to originate from new RE installations by 2022. The RE capacity requirements were minimised by 70% via efficient combinations of CCS and HRSG process integration technologies which reduced the carbon intensities of existing supplies and minimised energy transition requirements to RE sources. If these actions are implemented, the direct investments required to achieve this NDC are 21-100% costlier compared to currently employed strategies by T&T’s government, at around 40-66 USD/tCO2-e. These findings conclude that further financial funding is required by 2022 to facilitate actions for a direct energy supply transition for T&T to meet its commitments to the Paris Agreement and projected energy demands.

The techno-economic methodology developed provides policymakers in T&T with a flexible tool to evaluate actions for CCEP in the power sector and offers a knowledge-based mechanism for other sectors and similar countries to establish realistic future GHG avoidance and NDC targets. The method is dynamic and can be numerically modified to respond to changing global conditions, which makes it adaptable to other areas to construct pragmatic techno-economic strategies in the fight against climate change..

Wednesday 24th August, 2022 at 10:00 a.m.

Mr. DILLON RAMSOOK Ramsook is a graduate of The University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) with a Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) in Process Engineering. He is now enrolled at UTT pursuing his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), where his research focuses on clean production, sustainable development, and low/zero carbon technologies. He believes his current post-graduate research at UTT would provide T&T and other small island developing states with the technical and economic tools needed to make data-driven decisions to meet and establish their carbon reduction targets in the coming years. This work links with the Paris Agreement and national strategies for sustainability to ensure the most impactful actions are adopted.

Dillon has supported numerous national projects focused on carbon footprint reduction through carbon capture and storage (CCS). In 2022 he is expected to represent UTT among a cohort of 50 persons in the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme’s (IEAGHG) CCS Summer School held in Indonesia, which focuses on enhancing capabilities through the most recent trends and developments in CCS. He has several years of experience in academic and industrial roles at various levels within project management, production, operations, continuous improvement, and corporate strategic planning.

Currently, he functions as a Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he has the critical responsibility of advising and executing projects relating to sustainable strategies, organisational reform, and business optimisation for both public and private sector clients. He believes his high-energy, determination for success, and resilient attitude are the tools needed to navigate the complexities of his current professional role and academic research. He aspires for his research to catalyse a change in energy planning, carbon footprint reduction, and sustainable development locally and internationally.