Sealaska Plaza Wood Pellet Boiler Benefit-Cost and Sensitivity Analysis

Executives at Sealaska Corporation's headquarters, Sealaska Plaza, in Juneau decided to replace existing oil fired boilers with a wood pellet boiler for heating as a part of the Corporation's green initiative.1 By introducing green energy, the Corporation hopes to reduce its carbon footprint, encourage other business entities in Southeast Alaska to use green energy, help to establish a local wood pellet industry in Southeast Alaska, increase local employment, and reduce the impacts of oil price volatility. Currently there is no wood pellet industry in southeast Alaska and Sealaska Corporation is assuming the leading role to develop the demand for wood pellets by promoting this renewable technology and using the Corporation's building as a demonstration location. The wood pellet boiler that the Sealaska Plaza building is using to heat the building is a Viessmann PYROT boiler that is powered by KÖB biomass technology. The publicly visible silo in front of the Corporation’s headquarters in downtown Juneau is an indication that this is a signature project to increase the public awareness about biomass technology. This paper provides a technical summary of benefit-cost ratios and sensitivity analyses of the biomass project given different fuel price projections and estimates of the social costs of carbon. The costs driving the benefit-cost ratios of this 20-year project are calculated by using the data provided by the Sealaska Corporation. In order to conduct these analyses, some economic assumptions were made and are presented below.Emerging Energy Technology Grant. The Denali CommissionIntroduction / Economic Assumptions / Benefit-Cost Analysis and Sensitivity Analysis / Payback Period / Conclusion / Reference

UK domestic air conditioning: a study of occupant use and energy efficiency

This paper presents the results of a study of air-conditioning usage in homes in the southeast of England. First part of the study consisted surveying 13 dwellings with air-conditioning for a series of 4 week periods during the summer of 2004. The second part involved testing energy efficiency of “single-split” and “portable” air-conditioning units under “in-use” conditions. Data on usage patterns and typical temperature profiles during operation was collected and is presented here. Temperatures at which users switched their units on were, on average, 24-25oC, while typical running times for a single operation were found to be around 5 hours during daytime and 7 hours at night in bedrooms. The study also indicated high occupant satisfaction rates with split-units. An unexpectedly high overall energy efficiency ratio (EER), of 5-10, was found for the single-split unit tested during the relatively mild autumn weather. However, a very poor EER, of less than 1, was found for the portable unit tested. Further work is needed to increase the reliability and statistical significance of the results

Alaska Fuel Price Projections 2011-2035

This and previous Alaska fuel price projections were developed for the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) for the purpose of estimating the potential benefits and costs of developing renewable energy projects applied for through the Alaska Renewable Energy Fund program process. The projections are not price forecasts but a statistical estimation of potential future utility avoided fuel costs based on the relationships between historic utility fuel prices and crude oil and refinery prices reported by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). These statistically estimated relationships are used to project potential future fuel prices based on EIA’s Energy Outlook oil price forecasts. In addition to developing these low, medium and high fuel price projections, estimates of the social cost of carbon (previously included as estimates of potential carbon taxes), a premium for low sulfur fuels, and a price differential for home heating fuel are provided and are incorporated into the Renewable Energy Fund benefit-cost model for evaluating potential projects. The settings of these parameters are public policy considerations selected for project reviews by the AEA. The fuel price projections are limited in their applicability to the modeling of project benefits and costs and should not be considered fuel price forecasts.Alaska Energy Authority.Introduction / General methods and assumptions / Natural Gas / Fuel Oil / Reference

An Improved Timestamp-Based Password Authentication Scheme Using Smart Cards

With the recent proliferation of distributed systems and networking, remote authentication has become a crucial task in many networking applications. Various schemes have been proposed so far for the two-party remote authentication; however, some of them have been proved to be insecure. In this paper, we propose an efficient timestamp-based password authentication scheme using smart cards. We show various types of forgery attacks against a previously proposed timestamp-based password authentication scheme and improve that scheme to ensure robust security for the remote authentication process, keeping all the advantages that were present in that scheme. Our scheme successfully defends the attacks that could be launched against other related previous schemes. We present a detailed cryptanalysis of previously proposed Shen et. al scheme and an analysis of the improved scheme to show its improvements and efficiency.Comment: 6 page

Cordova Psychrophiles Bio-Digester Benefit-Cost and Sensitivity Analysis

Cordova is located in southcentral part of Alaska, 150 miles southeast of Anchorage, and can be accessed only by boat or plane. The average winter temperature1 varies from 17⁰ F to 28⁰ F (-8⁰ C to -2⁰ C) and the average summer temperature varies from 49⁰ F to 63⁰ F (9⁰ C to 17⁰ C).2 To support Cordova’s ongoing energy independence efforts , the Denali Commission approved a science project for the Science Club students at Cordova High School using Emerging Energy Technology Funds to develop a bio-digester that uses psychrophiles, a cold climate bacteria, that can reproduce in very cold temperatures, as low as 19⁰ F (-7.5⁰ C).3 Use of psychrophiles in a bio-digester in Cordova is a new technology that aims to produce low cost biogas for Alaskans who live in extreme cold temperatures. The production of biogas varies significantly depending on ambient temperatures. The cold climate application of this technology is in its research and development (R&D) phase, which makes in-depth economic analysis challenging as there is little cost information and many parts for the application of the technology have to be custom build. This paper describes a preliminary economic analysis of the Cordova project. In order to provide a study at this early stage in technology development, the analysis was prepared using a combined benefit-cost and sensitivity analysis to show the impacts of variations in methane output, and diesel fuel and propane prices. For this preliminary analysis we compared the bio-digester technology against diesel and propane fuel alternatives.The Denali Commission. Alaska Center for Energy and Power.Table of Contents / List of Tables / Suggested Citation / Introduction / Economic Assumptions / Benefit-Cost Analysis and Sensitivity Analysis / Factors Driving the Benefit Cost Ratio / Conclusion / References / Appendix a. Estimated Present Values for the Psychrophiles Bio-digester / Appendix B. Fuel Price Projection / Appendix C. Anchorage CPI / Appendix D. Conversion Factors / Appendix E. Goal Seek for B-C ratio of 1 with Different Capital Costs / Appendix F. Goal Seek for B-C ratio of 1 with Different Labor and O&M Costs / Appendix G. Seek for B-C ratio of 1 with Different Total Cost

Snapshot: The Home Energy Rebate Program

Alaska’s state government has spent an estimated $110 million since 2008 for better insulation, new furnaces, and other retrofits for roughly 16,500 homeowners—10% of all homeowners statewide.1 That spending was under the Home Energy Rebate Program, which rebates homeowners part of what they spend to make their houses more energy-efficient and less expensive to heat.2 The state legislature established the current program in 2008, as energy prices were spiking. The Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) administers it, and the Institute of Social and Economic Research and the Cold Climate Housing Research Center did this analysis for AHFC, assessing the broad program effects from April 2008 through September 2011. Changes in fuel use and heating costs reported here are estimates from AHFC’s energy-rating software; figures based on actual household heating bills aren’t currently available. The software uses house characteristics and location-specific information on weather and other factors to produce the estimates—but remember they are estimates.3Cold Climate Housing Research Cente

Cryptanalysis of Yang-Wang-Chang's Password Authentication Scheme with Smart Cards

In 2005, Yang, Wang, and Chang proposed an improved timestamp-based password authentication scheme in an attempt to overcome the flaws of Yang-Shieh_s legendary timestamp-based remote authentication scheme using smart cards. After analyzing the improved scheme proposed by Yang-Wang-Chang, we have found that their scheme is still insecure and vulnerable to four types of forgery attacks. Hence, in this paper, we prove that, their claim that their scheme is intractable is incorrect. Also, we show that even an attack based on Sun et al._s attack could be launched against their scheme which they claimed to resolve with their proposal.Comment: 3 Page

Developing an Efficient DMCIS with Next-Generation Wireless Networks

The impact of extreme events across the globe is extraordinary which continues to handicap the advancement of the struggling developing societies and threatens most of the industrialized countries in the globe. Various fields of Information and Communication Technology have widely been used for efficient disaster management; but only to a limited extent though, there is a tremendous potential for increasing efficiency and effectiveness in coping with disasters with the utilization of emerging wireless network technologies. Early warning, response to the particular situation and proper recovery are among the main focuses of an efficient disaster management system today. Considering these aspects, in this paper we propose a framework for developing an efficient Disaster Management Communications and Information System (DMCIS) which is basically benefited by the exploitation of the emerging wireless network technologies combined with other networking and data processing technologies.Comment: 6 page