Large Scale Power Exchange in the Greater Mekong Subregion

The Indicative Master Plan on Power Interconnection in the GMS Countries comprises, among other things, a demand forecast, sub-regional generation and interconnection expansion plans and an economic analysis. The Study was funded by the Asian Development Bank and conducted by Norconsult International AS. The Indicative Master Plan studies the implications of a Limited Power Cooperation Scenario and several Extended Power Cooperation Scenarios. In the former case, countries rely mostly on domestic power generation, and only minor new interconnections between the countries are built. With Extended Cooperation, large scale hydro generation in Lao PDR, Yunnan and possibly Myanmar substitutes gas- and coal-fired generation in Thailand and to some extent Vietnam. The latter scenarios require the establishment of a strong 500 kV grid, interconnecting Vietnam, Lao PDR and Thailand (and possibly Myanmar) together with a 500 kV HVDC link to the Yunnan province of the PRC. The economic analysis shows that the discounted costs of the most favorable Extended Cooperation Scenario are 914 million USD lower than the corresponding costs of the Limited Cooperation Scenario. Without the 3600 MW low cost but highly uncertain Tasang project in Myanmar the cost savings are 645 million USD. In addition, these two Extended Cooperation Scenarios result in accumulated savings of 395 and 250 million ton CO respectively. If a value of 5 USD/ton is assumedfor CO2 reductions, the savings increase to 1324 and 933 million USD for the alternatives with and without Tasang, respectively.