Economy of energy system

Academic unit or major

Graduate major in Energy Science and Informatics

Instructor(s)

Koji Tokimatsu / Tatsuya Wakeyama / Junichiro Otomo / Shigeo Nishikizawa / Mika Goto / Ryo Eto

Class Format

Lecture (Livestream)

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

3-4 Tue

Class

-

Course Code

ESI.A408

Number of credits

100

Course offered

2024

Offered quarter

4Q

Syllabus updated

Mar 14, 2025

Language

English

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

The outline of the classes are as follows. It is required to assess utilization of energy technology in various socio-economic perspectives. In this course, lectures compactly provide essence of related academic fields with some examples, especially energy technology assessment. Such contents can be used as basic knowledge after graduation or carrier build to blush up specialty of students. The contents include economics (cost of electricity, cash flow analysis and cost benefit analysis), systems (lifecycle assessment, econometrics, systems engineering), and social (research and development, deployment, consensus building). The lecture is given paid attentions to the related fields and cross cutting tools.
The aim of this course is for students from various origins and carriers after their graduations to understand various concepts related to the academic fields without any basic knowledge, and to give various knowledge and toolboxes to carry out their business after their graduation with memorize. This course SOLELY provides basics of socio-economic issues in energy. It is recommended to take this course for many students because it is consisted to be useful for business situations after graduation. The lineup of the course is listed as below to help students for course selection. Note that the order of classes are changes due to faculty's availability.

1 The techno-economic analysis of energy technology (prof. Jun'ichiro OTOMO)
The techno-economic analysis of energy technology is provided. Students understand basic concepts used in techno-economic analysis.

2. cost benefit analysis (assoc. prof. Koji TOKIMATSU)
Cost benefit analysis (CBA) in projects related with energy and climate change mitigation are explained. The basic concepts CBA are understood.

3. lifecycle assessment (LCA) (Dr. Ryo Eto, The Institute of Energy Economics)
Basic tools for LCA, bottom up and input-output (I/O), are explained by using technology such as nuclear. Some basic but important concepts such as allocation or I/O are understood.

4. energy econometric analysis (prof. Mika GOTO)
Basics of energy econometric analysis are explained, such as differences of views from between science-technology and socio-economics, energy conversion table, primary and secondary energy, gross and net calorific values, and energy balance tables. They are introduction to understand energy flow in socio-economics.

5. modeling on power systems using renewable energy (assoc. prof. Tatsuya WAKEYAMA) Social demand has enormously increased in the large deployment of variable renewable energy (VRE) in power systems. Systems modeling approaches centered around power systems with VRE are understood.

6. consensus building of energy technology deployment (assoc. prof. Shigeo NISHIKISAWA)
In order to implement energy technology in real society, consensus building for decision making is required among various stakeholders. The consensus building is understood via actual example of wind power to deploy renewable energy technologies.

7. energy systems analysis (assoc. prof. Koji TOKIMATSU)
Simple outline of systems analysis, which uses engineering economics and energy economic analysis is explained by using some examples. The imprecation, usefullness, and limitations of scenario analysis of economic efficiency is understood.

Course description and aims

Following abilities are acquired through this course.
1) Understand and explain various concepts treated in energy systems and socio-economics.
2) Targets setings for various problems in energy, to which you can apply the explained concepts and tools in the class

Keywords

energy systems, engineering economics, lifecycle assessment, econometrics, deployment, diffusion, consensus building

Competencies

• Specialist skills
• Intercultural skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

At the beginning of some 10 minutes of each class, it is provided that the basics of each lecture's contents are provided, then, dig down the day’s contents. The lecture is provided via zoom (live-style).

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

unspecified

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Course materials are distributed。Related reference books are introduced in each class

Evaluation methods and criteria

summary of every lecture (10 point/times X 7 times) plus 30 point for a course assignment (choose one of seven classes)

Related courses

• GEG.E421 ： Energy&Environment-1
• GEG.S402 ： The economics and systems analysis of environment, resources and technology
• ENR.B436 ： Special lecture of economics and politics in energy

Prerequisites

nothing

Contact information (e-mail and phone) Notice : Please replace from ”[at]” to ”@”(half-width character).

tokimatsu.k.ac[at]m.titech.ac.jp、+81-45-924-5533 (transferred to business celler phone, anytime available to catch)

Office hours

unspecified. Please contact to meet anywhere at Ookayama, Suzukakedai, and Tamachi