Integrated Resource Planning for Long-term Electricity Supply in Selected GMS Countries, Part 2: Environmental and Economic Impacts

Abstract

This research article presents the potential of integrated resource planning (IRP) options for long term electricity supply in selected Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) countries, namely Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. Results from Part 1 show the achievement of the IRP context in GMS. The mitigation scenario would improve the quality of electricity supply and mitigate CO2 emissions from the power sector. At the same time, the renewable energy (RE) scenario has the highest total generation cost. However, to make the renewable energy technologies competitive with fossil fuels, incentives in terms of carbon credit are taken into account. Results of this study were analyzed by using the Long-range Energy Alternative Planning system model. Results reveal that under the IRP concept, the selected GMS countries could mitigate CO2 emissions by about 61.16 million tonnes when compared to the business as usual (BAU) scenario by 2030. In the meantime, under incentive cost in the RE scenario, the total generation would be reduced by 2.3% when compared to the BAU scenario.