Enhancing the integration of renewables by trans-border electricity trade in ASEAN

To cover its rapidly increasing power demand is one of the biggest challenges of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region. But even though ASEAN offers abundant untapped renewable energy sources, its current power generation is strongly based on fossil fuels, mainly due to economic reasons. Trans-border electricity trade could increase economic viability of exploiting renewable energy sources as they are unevenly distributed among the ASEAN countries. In order to analyze the economic benefits of international electricity trade combined with increased renewable generation, a linear optimization model of ASEAN´s power supply is presented in this paper which minimizes total cost of generation, transmission and storage. The results show that international electricity trade can lower additional power supply cost from 20.9 % to 14.9 % when CO₂ emissions are reduced by 40 %. Herein, most of the cost saving potential can be realized by trading electricity generated by hydro within the Greater Mekong Subregion.