ASEAN countries have committed to long-term net zero targets, but recent trends show that they are tackling decarbonization largely in an independent manner, which is costly and inefficient. South East Asia has a wide range of renewable energy resources including solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal. Cross-border interconnection has a crucial role to play during the clean energy transition, as it will enable sharing of low-cost renewable resources across different locations in the region.
DNV recently released a white paper entitled ASEAN Interconnector Study: taking a regional approach to decarbonization, where it examined the potential benefits and implications of ASEAN cross-border interconnectors during the energy transition towards a fully decarbonized power sector in South East Asia in 2050.
Quantitative modelling was developed with the aim of minimizing the overall net present cost of such a transition. The model determines the location and type of renewable generation across the region on a least-cost basis, based on localized production costs and on the available energy transport routes and transport costs between nodes.
