The role of energy as one of the important factors in the correct and economic operation of a project is undeniable.
Agricultural and animal husbandry, construction and urban industrial projects will be planned and designed according to the size and volume of investment and the expectations of their exploitation to use one of the energy carriers. The correct and logical choice based on technical and economic principles will be one of the most important and sensitive decisions of the projects, which with the correct choice of equipment (from the technical and economic point of view) the satisfaction of the investor and the operator will be provided, otherwise exploitation The project is problematic, troublesome and uneconomical, and this problem will be a problem for the investor and the user of the project. Therefore, in line with this, the author tries to explain the points that are necessary in choosing energy carriers in projects.
In the first step in the selection of energy carriers, the local conditions should be examined, which types of carriers are available at the project site, and in terms of supply stability and continuity. In the second step, the issues of price and consumption costs and Its peripheral equipment should be examined. For example, if in a country there is enough electrical energy in terms of technical, technological and climatic conditions and at a reasonable price, or it is better to say that the main or national energy there is electricity, for example, the possibility of producing cheap and efficient electricity such as hydro or atomic electricity. and also have the capacity to build different power plants and in addition to these, transmission and distribution lines should be suitable in this place. Naturally, choosing electricity as the main source of energy for the project can be the first priority, because choosing any other energy carrier such as gas or other fossil fuels as the main energy will be non-technical and unprincipled, perhaps in the case of the possibility of providing them for the project. not, and vice versa, if countries that carry fossil energy such as gas and oil have reliable reserves (for example, in our country, which has the second largest gas resources in the world) and on the other hand, reliable distribution and gas supply networks in that country or the location of the active project Logically and naturally, their selection as the main factor of working energy is principled and logical. And in such places, choosing electricity as the main energy factor in the work project will be unprincipled and non-technical, especially in the current conditions of our country, where subsidies for goods and items such as electricity and gas are supposed to be removed and they will be sold at the actual price. So, the issue of selection has more expert sensitivity. And it is not logical to choose electricity as the main source of energy for the project, because the power plants must buy gas at full price and then sell it to the distribution networks with significant costs, and the distribution networks, with high costs, send the electricity to the place of consumption at a price. Therefore, the consumer of electric energy, in addition to paying the cost of gas used to produce electricity, is required to pay the investment and operation costs of the power plant, as well as the cost of transmission and distribution and ancillary costs.
Therefore, the cost of one kilowatt of electricity in Iran is always several times higher than one kilowatt of gas, and this difference will increase in the future. The high dependence of power generators and power plants on other countries, especially in the West, has made the supply of spare parts for the power generation and transmission system difficult and expensive, let alone the purchase and installation of new power plants. When the executives of the electricity industry take various measures to reduce the load on the network, such as reducing the load on the urban lighting network and roads and public places. For example, in many city streets or roads, they reduce the number of lights, or they change the lighting capacity of the lights, for example, from 400 to 250, or from 250 to 110 or even 50 watts, or in the year 8 and 1387, billions of Tomans were spent on changing lamps. It is an underused thread. Of course, from the point of view of optimizing consumption and preventing wastage, such policies are commendable, but the main problem of such policies is the reduction of peak rainfall. In other words, not that there is a lot of electricity in the network, and these measures are also corrective and saving measures. Rather, the electricity production capacity is not at the level of peak consumption. And the generation and transmission network will not be able to supply the load in peak conditions, in this case, the distribution network will be forced to shut down parts of the network.
Therefore, with the above reasons and other reasons, choosing the electric energy carrier as the main factor of the work project will be illogical and unreliable, it can be predicted that such projects will face the problem of electricity supply, while if the main energy carrier of the project is determined as gas And the energy-consuming equipment is gas-burning equipment, even if it is expensive, at least it can be provided and purchased, while the energy supply in the future, as much as the lighting of the projects, is doubtful. When it comes to energy consumption for heating and cooling and other things, there is room for more thought in this regard, because projects are not built and planned for one or two years by spending a lot of money, but must be operated for many years, for example. Construction projects are expected to last for at least 50 to 100 years.
Therefore, it seems that considering the existing potentials in Iran, it is better for the main energy consumers in projects to be focused on fossil fuels such as gas, diesel or fuel oil as much as possible. In a foundry, if equipment such as melting furnaces or heat treatment furnaces are designed with fossil energy carriers, it will definitely be more rational and economical to use them than if the equipment is electric.