Effects of cross-border power trade between Laos and Thailand: Energy security and environmental implications

This paper analyzed the effects of hydropower development in Laos and power trade between Laos and Thailand on economy wide, energy resource mix, power generation capacity mix, energy system cost, environment, as well as, energy security. A MARKAL-based model for an integrated energy system of Laos and Thailand was developed to assess the effects of energy resource development and trade to meet the national energy demands of the two countries. Two national MARKAL-based energy system models of Laos and Thailand were formulated for the study. The results show that 80% exploitation of water resource in Laos would induce power trade between the countries. The integrated energy system cost is found to decrease marginally but it would mitigate the CO2 emission by 2% when compared with the base case. Thailand is expected to gain benefit from the increased level of power imported from Laos in terms of the lower energy system cost, better environmental quality and, greater diversification of energy sources. As compared to the base case, Laos would become the net energy exporter, earn significant export revenue, and improve the increase in revenue of energy export per increase in total energy system cost from the maximum exploitation of hydropower resource.Cross-border energy trade Hydropower resource development Integrated energy system model of Laos and Thailand

Regional energy resource development and energy security under CO2 emission constraint in the greater Mekong sub-region countries (GMS)

The paper evaluates effects of energy resource development within the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) on energy supply mix, energy system cost, energy security and environment during 2000-2035. A MARKAL-based integrated energy system model of the five GMS countries was developed to examine benefits of regional energy resource development for meeting the energy demand of these countries. The study found that an unrestricted energy resource development and trade within the region would reduce the total-regional energy systems cost by 18% and would abate the total CO2 emission by 5% as compared to the base case. All the five countries except Myanmar would benefit from the expansion of regional energy resource integration in terms of lower energy systems costs and better environmental qualities. An imposition of CO2 emission reduction constraint by 5% on each of the study countries from that of the corresponding emissions under the unrestricted energy resource development in the GMS is found to improve energy security, reduce energy import and fossil fuels dependences and increase volume of power trade within the region. The total energy system cost under the joint CO2 emission reduction strategy would be less costly than that under the individual emission targets set for each country.Regional level energy resource development Integrated MARKAL-based regional energy system model CO2 emission reduction target